Wild high school football championship game features 3 TDs in final 40 seconds and a Hail Mary game-winner

WCAC Championship hail mary
WCAC Championship hail mary

1st Amendment Sports / YouTube

  • Sunday night's Washington Catholic Athletic Conference (WCAC) championship game proved to be one of the most exciting high school football games in recent history.

  • There were three touchdowns and three lead changes in the final 40 seconds of the game as Gonzaga College looked to win its first WCAC championship since 2002 by taking down powerhouse DeMatha Catholic, which had won four WCAC titles in the past five seasons.

  • Gonzaga capped off an already wild finish with a game-winning, 60-yard Hail Mary as the clock expired.


Even with 26 teams facing off in the NFL this Sunday, it was a high school football championship game that stole the show and took the sports world by storm.

The D.C. metro area's Washington Catholic Athletic Conference championship matchup between the underdog Gonzaga College Eagles and the powerhouse DeMatha Catholic Stags — who had won four WCAC titles over the past five seasons — featured one of the most incredible endings to a football game in recent history. 

DeMatha led by three with 45 seconds left on the clock, giving Gonzaga an opportunity for what looked to be one final drive. With 29 seconds remaining in the game, Eagles sophomore quarterback Caleb Williams connected with a receiver in the end zone to put his team up 40-36.

But the Stags wouldn't go down without a fight. Senior Dominic Logan-Nealy returned Gonzaga's squibbed kick 77 yards to reclaim the lead for DeMatha.

The Eagles got the ball back with just 15 seconds to go. They secured a quick first down and managed to stop the clock with enough time for one final play. With no time remaining, Williams launched a 60-yard Hail Mary pass into the end zone, where the ball landed in the outstretched hands of wide receiver John Marshall to secure Gonzaga's first WCAC title since 2002.

"At that moment, I just really trusted in our boys and how far I could throw it, really," Williams told the Washington Post's Samantha Pell.

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Check out that final play one more time:

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Gonzaga wins on a Hail Mary. pic.twitter.com/NYMBC9f8b9

Williams is no stranger to the spotlight. According to Brendan C. Hall of USA TODAY High School Sports, the 6-foot-1 17-year-old — who earned WCAC Offensive Player of the Year honors — already has scholarship offers from some of the top football programs in the country, including Alabama, Florida, Florida State, Michigan, Penn State, South Carolina, and Virginia Tech.

But for now, Williams is just relishing the moment and all that his team accomplished this season.

"It means everything for how hard we worked and the fight that we have in us," he told the Washington Post. "Now it's about going and celebrating with the boys and my family."

 

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