Grant leads Cahokia to upset victory over Highland

Cahokia senior quarterback Wayne Grant put it simply: “The Comanches shocked the world” on Friday night.

Grant led a game-changing 70-yard touchdown drive in the final five minutes. It was culminated by his 11-yard scoring pass to Kenyon Sanders with 14.4 seconds remaining and Cahokia shocked Highland 25-24 in the nonconference season opener.

Highland, which trailed 19-12 at halftime, rallied behind junior quarterback Garrett Marti and sophomore Sam LaPorta to take a 25-19 lead with 7:33 remaining. Marti, who threw for 252 yards, scored on a 17-yard run for the go-ahead touchdown.

But Grant, who finished the night with four touchdown passes and more than 270 yards passing, wouldn’t let the Bulldogs ruin the coaching debut of Cahokia’s John Clay.

“Cahokia football is back, baby,” an excited Grant said his teammates celebrated. “I’m the leader of this football team and I couldn’t let my team down. Every time were got down, I had to bring us back. But it wasn’t just me. We all did this tonight.”

KEY SEQUENCE

LaPorta, who caught 11 passes for 134 yards, got Highland to within a point at 19-18 on a 12-yard scoring toss from Marti midway in the third quarter, caught three passes on the Bulldogs go-ahead scoring drive.

But it went for naught.

Running for his life at times as the Highland defense applied pressure, Grant made three key plays on the game-winning drive that was aided by a pass interference call on Highland with less than 40 seconds remaining. The play gave Cahokia a first-and-10 from the Bulldogs’ 11-yard line. Two plays later, Grant and Sanders made Clay and a large home crowd very happy.

“He’s a playmaker and he’s going to be even more of one once the offensive line starts to protect him a little better,” Clay said of Grant. “This was a game of lots of ups and downs. I’m just glad we had one more up than they did. Highland is a very good football team.

“I’m just so happy for these kids. They’ve worked hard and a win like this is a good start of reaching our goal which is to make the playoffs.”

KEY PERFORMER

Marti gave the Bulldogs a 12-7 lead early in the second before Grant used his quickness and speed to give the Comanches the momentum for the remainder of the first half.

The 5-8 170-pound senior, who had a 75-yard touchdown run called back by a penalty in the first quarter, had a 40-yard touchdown pass to Hinkle called back when Hinkle was ruled out of the end zone when he caught the pass.

Four plays later, Grant gave the Comanches the lead. Under a heavy pass rush, Grant scrambled for several seconds before finding Hinkle in back of the defense. Coming back for the pass, Hinkle made the catch and fell into the end zone for the score and a 13-12 lead. Less than four minutes later, Grant hooked up with George Smith on a 10-yard scoring play as the Comanches took a 19-12 lead at halftime

UP NEXT

Highland hosts Mount Zion on Sept. 2. Cahokia plays Sumner, of St. Louis, at Clyde Jordan Stadiun in East St. Louis on Sept. 3.

This story was originally published August 26, 2016 at 10:48 PM with the headline "Grant leads Cahokia to upset victory over Highland."