Outside the Rockhurst locker room is an oversized rock with a plaque that displays a three-word quote from long-time coach Tony Severino. A three-word quote that perfectly sums up the team’s 17-14 first-round playoff win over Lee’s Summit Friday night.
Find a way.
That was exactly what the Hawklets (7-3) did in overcoming a 14-0 deficit with 17 straight fourth-quarter points.
“They’re trying to kill me,” Severino said with a smile.
In typical Rockhurst fashion, they didn’t use flash or big offensive plays for the comeback. It was defense, special teams and some old-school offense.
“That’s us. That’s how we play football,” Severino said. “It’s the way we have to play to win. We went back to running plays we ran in 1987.”
Severino paused for a second before finishing.
“That was a good year for us,” he said with a laugh.
The entire fourth quarter had a little bit of everything, but especially the final six minutes. With the game tied at 14, Rockhurst got the ball in Tiger territory and avoided one disaster when quarterback Bobby Hummel fell on a bad snap fumble. The next potential disaster was a Lee’s Summit sack that turned a potential 38-yard field goal into a 47-yarder.
Owen Lawson won the first game of the season with a 51-yarder against Rock Bridge, so it was still within his range. He calmly stepped into the kick and punched it through the uprights with plenty of room to spare for a 17-14 lead with three minutes left.
“I was standing next to coach and he asked me, ‘Can you make it?’” I patted him twice on the chest and told him I could,” Lawson said. “There were definitely some nerves, but when you have confidence you just step back and breathe.”
Rockhurst wasn’t out of the woods yet. While the defense forced a quick three-and-out, Lee’s Summit did the same and forced a Rockhurst punt that went downhill fast. The snap went over Lawson’s head. He tried to pick it up and kick it, but it was blocked. The Tigers took over at the Hawklet 34 with only 42 seconds left to play and no timeouts.
After an incompletion followed by an 8-yard pass from Darrias Pearsall to Landen Willis, Pearsall went down on the field after the throw with a leg cramp. Less than 30 seconds were on the clock and Pearsall had to come out of the game, barely able to walk. He was replaced by junior Tommy Lock.
Lock rolled to his left and with nobody open appeared to try to throw the ball away but instead it was intercepted by Henry Krebs who tiptoed the sideline to seal the win and take away any chance for a Tiger field goal attempt.
“It’s third-and-short and we can’t run the ball. It’s such a tough situation to throw him into,” Lee’s Summit head coach Eric Thomas said of Lock. “We did what it takes to get a win in a place where not many teams can say they’ve done that. We made too many mistakes down the stretch.”
The Tigers (5-5) came out of the gates hot, scoring touchdowns on two of their first three possessions. Pearsall found Micah Manning on touchdown passes of 17 and 80 yards to go up 14-0.
Despite the Lee’s Summit offense being unable to extend the lead, thanks to a strong defensive effort, that score held up until the second play of the fourth quarter when Pearsall threw a pick-six to Steven Burdge to make it 14-6 and flip the momentum to the Hawklets.
“It got us going, but it also took the air out of them,” Severino said.
After the first quarter, the Hawklets started to get in the face of Pearsall, including on the interception.
“He had what he wanted on the route outside, but he got hit right as he threw it,” Thomas said. “They turned up the pass rush. They were getting pressure on Darrias. We weren’t good enough in the run game and became too one-dimensional.”
Rockhurst tied it up on its next possession with a 28-yard pass from Hummel to Chuck Ingram. The pair hooked up again on the two-point conversion to tie the game, setting up the late-game theatrics and putting Rockhurst into the next round of the playoffs against top-seeded Liberty North.
It also extended Severino’s coaching career by at least one more game.
“I’ve grown up around him since I was a kid,” Lawson said. “I’ve always wanted to play for him. We weren’t going down without a fight. We got it done for him tonight.”
