West Side denies McCall-Donnelly its first football state title with big defensive stop
The goal was to win, not tie, so the McCall-Donnelly football team pinned its championship hopes on a two-point conversion with 1 minute, 22 seconds left in the fourth quarter.
But the West Side defense was all over the Vandals’ reverse pass, and the Pirates recovered the onside kick to close out a 14-13 victory over McCall-Donnelly in the 2A state championship game Saturday afternoon at Eagle High’s Thunder Stadium.
It was the first loss of the season for the Vandals (11-1), who were trying for the program’s first state title in just their second state championship appearance.
“Take your hats off to them. I still think we should have won the game,” McCall-Donnelly coach Lee Leslie said. “But I went for two at the end because I wasn’t willing to tie it. We hadn’t been perfect at PATs, and we have practiced this play forever. So we felt like we had the right time for it. It just didn’t happen.”
Down 14-7 with 4:42 remaining in the game, McCall-Donnelly covered 58 yards in nine plays, ultimately scoring on a 1-yard run from running back Tuff Bentz to pull the Vandals within 14-13. It was Bentz’s second touchdown of the game, and the 6-foot-2, 195-pound senior led the Vandals on the ground with 14 carries for 87 yards.
The excitement over Bentz’s TD didn’t last long.
On the Vandals’ two-point conversion attempt, McCall-Donnelly senior receiver Noah Ormsby ended up with the football on the reverse, but he was forced to pass to an ineligible receiver as the West Side defense chased him out of bounds.
“In a game like that, you’re here in the championship game, go for it. Go for the win,” West Side coach Tyson Moser said. “It doesn’t surprise me. I’m just happy our kids were there to make the stop.”
McCall-Donnelly entered the championship game averaging 47.1 points and 468.5 yards per game, but both coaches anticipated a defensive battle, and that’s exactly what they got.
The game was tied at 7-7 until West Side (11-1) scored on a 34-yard run from Cristian Plancarte with 4:48 to play in the fourth quarter. The teams combined for five punts, one turnover on downs and two takeaways in the first half alone.
“I knew how good defensively they were. I knew that we were going to have an extremely hard time running the ball against them,” Moser said. “I know how good our defense is, and I knew that we were going to be able to contain them. My worry all week was just if we were going to be able to find a way to score enough points to win.”
West Side, which runs a run-centric Wing-T, totaled just 261 yards on 47 plays in the win and had to turn to the air to create some running room late in the fourth quarter. Three of the Pirates’ eight pass completions came on their final scoring drive, including a 23-yard toss on third-and-11 from their own 8 that kept the drive alive.
“McCall wasn’t expecting it at all, and that’s what helped us out,” said West Side senior running back Jaxon Moser, who accounted for 108 of the Pirates’ 152 rushing yards. “We just went away from what wasn’t working and tried something new and luckily it worked.”
Saturday’s championship was the sixth in program history for the Pirates but first since 2014. West Side lost in the state semifinals last season with a senior-laden roster and the elder Moser considered his team the underdog against McCall.
“I know how good that McCall team is, and I knew that we were underdogs coming into this game,” Moser said. “But our kids don’t really accept that. Our kids don’t accept being underdogs, and they feel like they’re the best team. I think they were going to prove me wrong more than anybody else.”
WEST SIDE 14, MCCALL-DONNELLY 13
West Side | 7 | 0 | 0 | 7 | — | 14 |
McCall | 0 | 7 | 0 | 6 | — | 13 |
First quarter
WS – Cage Brokens 2 run (Wes Millburn kick), 3:55
Second quarter
MD – Tuff Bentz 12 run (Carlos Miran kick), 7:15
Fourth quarter
WS – Cristian Plancarte 34 run (Millburn kick), 4:48
MD – Bentz 1 run (pass failed), 1:22
Individual leaders
RUSHING — West Side: Jaxon Moser 14-108, Plancarte 2-35, Brokens 13-15, Ryan Beckstead 3-5, Blaze Brown 1-(-11). McCall: Bentz 14-87, Peter Knudson 15-50, Noah Ormsby 2-12, Beau Carr 1-3.
PASSING — West Side: Beckstead 6-12-2 79, Brown 1-1-0 23, Taze Stegelmeier 1-1-0 7. McCall: Knudson 5-15-0 52, Ormsby 1-1-0 7.
RECEIVING — West Side: Bryler Shurtliff 4-80, Brown 2-17, Stegelmeier 1-7, Plancarte 1-5. McCall: Bentz 2-22, DJ Green 1-20, Ormsby 1-14, Nicholas Hardy 2-3.
