This South Dakota High School QB Did The Most Heads-Up Thing I've Ever Seen on a Football Field To Send His Team to The State Championship
This happened last Friday. Obviously. That's when high school football games are played. So I apologize for being late to the blog. But I just saw this play for the first time this morning, and thought it was exceptionally badass.
What a fucking sell by #1. Or would that be considered a no-sell? It doesn't matter. No exaggeration (ok, maybe a little exaggeration), I think that's the most heads-up play I've ever seen on a football field. When does a player even come up with that idea? Can that possibly be something they planned for? The idea almost had to have come to him in the moment. Those end-of-game, no-time-left-on-the-clock lateral plays are chaos. Especially in high school. It's chickens running around with their heads cut off. For him to have the wherewithal to realize that the lateral was just close enough to pass as forward... then so confidently stand there motionless, looking completely defeated for just long enough to elicit the celebration...
That's so impressive. Even the way he so calmly received the ball off the bounce was perfect. Rarely does a football player have the opportunity to fake out 11 defenders, the entire bench, the entire coaching staff, and the entire fan base all at once. And he didn't do it with play action. He didn't do it with a hidden-ball trick. He did it all in plain sight. Everybody in the stadium was staring directly at him holding the football, and he okey-doked them all with nothing but body language. That's fucking awesome.
It was the quarterback too – #1 Maddux Risse. The leader of the offense. Talk about putting the boys on your back to take them to state. And he did it after making this throw just a minute earlier.
Pretty sure he was in on the tackle on that 4th & 1 too. What a performance from the kid.
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By the way, I hate to call out high school refs, but Bennett County won anyway, so it doesn't matter. There was a wild missed hit-to-the-head in the middle of the field after the receiver threw the first lateral (0:09 mark).
I know refs are supposed to swallow their whistle as much as possible on Hail Marys, and last-second lateral plays… but my goodness. Hits to the head don't get much more blatant than that. You can't say the ref wasn't in position to see it.
It even got an "OOOO!" reaction from the crowd. Everybody saw it. Even at the end of a game, I don't think anyone could have complained if the ref threw a flag on that one.
Good on the kicker for hitting his extra point too. That's far from a gimme in high school. And it all happened at the end of a 45-44 football game. I am dying to attend a high school football game half as exciting as that one. I've been going to Pickerington North football games here in Columbus, because I have a relative in the band. They have a pretty good football team, but the games are so damn boring. It's 3 yards and a cloud of dust + good defense. Just once, I'd like to witness one of these crazy high-scoring high school football games like I always read about. Instead, I'm attending games like this.
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I guess 9A high school football in South Dakota is where the fireworks are at. Good luck in the state final, Bennett County. If they can pull off the win, it'll be one hell of a championship DVD.