INWOOD - Brooke's Cotey Wallace had produced more than 330 yards of offense all by himself Friday night, but it wasn't until he made one of the game's signature defensive plays with 8 seconds remaining that he finally was able to breathe freely.
Wallace picked off Musselman backup quarterback Tyler Baker's only pass attempt, sealing a wild, come-from-behind effort by the Bruins, who capped off their first perfect regular season in 15 years with a 14-13 victory against Musselman.
''Best feeling of my life,'' Wallace said of the INT.
Article Photos
Musselman’s James Kisner is taken down by a horde of Brooke defenders, led by Shane Graham (86), Joe DiNardo (10) and Mike Koscevic (32).
Photo by Jilian E. Kesner
Prior to the fourth quarter, there were a lot of empty feelings on the Brooke sideline.
Too many to count, really.
Two minutes and 26 seconds into the fourth quarter, the state's No. 1 team trailed 13-0 against an unranked foe, head coach Tom Bruney had already been tossed after being hit with back-to-back personal fouls just before halftime, part of 115 penalty yards to that point. Brooke also had a field goal blocked, turned the ball over four times twice in the red zone, and, oh yeah, the Bruins were playing without their heart and soul, Ryan Lazear, who hadn't practiced all week because of a sprained ankle.
Even with all that going on, Wallace still found a way to lead two scoring drives in the final 9 minutes - one covering 47 yards in five plays; the other 76 in nine. Neither took more than 2 minutes, with Wallace converting more than one game-saver along the way.
Ian Morris' 38-yard touchdown reception, which came on a third-and-13 play, drew Brooke to within 13-7 minutes after Musselman had scored on an 8-yard touchdown pass from Brandon Michael to Raymond Wisenburg.
During what proved to be the winning drive, Wallace and Co. had to complete a third-and-20 situation, which they did on an 18-yard receiver screen to Morris and a 14-yard run by Wallace.
''We had to get that,'' said Brooke assistant coach Rich Thomaselli, who took part in the play-calling in Bruney's stead in the second half. ''We ran that screen, then we came back with the dive. The kids know what they want, too. Sometimes they make it easy on a coach. It's not all coaching; it's about them. Sometimes, they'll come out and say, 'Coach, this will work, run it.' And they make it.''
The drive, which also included a pass interference call against the Applemen (4-6), ended after a 25-yard run by Tim Faulkner set Wallace up for a game-tying 6-yard touchdown run. Faulkner was playing in place of Lazear. Rusty Kocher's PAT proved to be the winner with 1:46 remaining.
It looked like a classic case of desperate times calling for desperate measures on those key calls, but Wallace's view was a little wider.
''The whole fourth quarter was desperate,'' said the QB, who now has 18 touchdown passes on the season and pushed his name a little higher up the Kennedy Watch List in the process. ''We did what we had to do. It wasn't pretty, but we got the win. We're ready to go into the playoffs undefeated, No. 1. We'll just go and do our job.''
Thomaselli, who is as steeped in Brooke football history as anyone as he was part of the school's first class of Hall of Fame inductees, just shook his head.
''Unbelievable resolve,'' he said. ''I don't know how many turnovers we had. We moved, we'd go 90-some yards and turn it over. They just kept coming. We just kept telling them, 'Believe. You seniors, this is it for you guys. You don't want to go down this way.' They just kept coming back. Coach (Bruney) did a great job getting them prepared. I filled in, that's nice and everything. The scheme's there, somebody's got to do it.''
In a year of big performances, Wallace may have saved his best for the regular-season finale.
He completed 14 of 22 passes for 253 yards, including a TD, and rushed for 77 and a score.
''Just picking up the team,'' he said. ''It started with the line, the receivers running their routes, I did my job, and the running backs did a good job blocking. A team effort.''
Musselman coach Denny Price said it was a tough one to lose.
''Our kids played their best football. We made mistakes, and they made mistakes,'' he said. ''I don't know if either one of us gave that football game away. There was too much competitiveness out there to say anybody gave it away. I think they earned it, and we almost earned it.''
Game Notes
''We'd been running slant, slant, slant, and that little screen, and they sucked up,'' Thomaselli said. ''We put Joey on that skinny post off that because he comes down to block, and we threw it, he's a tall kid against a little DB - it's to our advantage. He had to interfere, but that was a big play.''
Price knew what Brooke was doing there.
''Wallace makes that offense go,'' he said. ''He was able to hit the seams quick on us. We had to give something away. Good teams find a way to win. Brooke still had a lot of weapons. I know Lazear wasn't playing, but that's football. You can't worry about that. They're a good enough team that they can put somebody else in and get the job done.''
''But we're taking it one week at a time, like Coach says,'' Thomaselli said. ''I'm not going to jump to conclusions and go on and on. But it's great, 10 and 0, and we'll get ready for next week.''