Football’s first week produced wild entertainment, jaw-dropping outcomes

The Nashville Hornets’ fourth-quarter comeback from a 20-point deficit to beat Carlyle on Friday was only one of several wild and crazy finishes to Week 1 football games in the metro-east.

The Central Cougars scored twice in the final 2 minutes, 37 seconds to beat Mascoutah, winning 33-27 on an 11-yard touchdown pass from Hunter Toeben to Ben Rakers with only 10 seconds remaining.

Cahokia squeaked past Highland 25-24 when quarterback Wayne Grant capped a 70-yard scoring drive with an 11-yard TD pass to Kenyon Sanders.

Waterloo scored twice in the last eight minutes to post a 28-18 road victory over the Herrin Tigers.

For sheer entertaining and jaw-dropping excitement, it would have been tough to top Nashville’s win over the Carlyle Indians — especially since the Hornets trailed 42-22 with 7:58 remaining in the game.　

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The comeback began when Cameron Parker scored on a 2-yard run and then ran for the 2-point conversion with 5:41 remaining. A pivotal play that swung momentum was Nashville’s Drew Barczeski recovering an onside kick from Hornets’ sophomore kicker Colin Laws.

Laws, who had to be talked into playing this season, was making his first start.

“That was definitely the motivation swing,” Nashville senior quarterback Andrew Kash said. ”For our new kicker who had never played football before ... for him to put it where he did was impressive. It almost looked like slow motion to me.

“All of a sudden I looked up and we had the ball back.”

“It picked up speed or changed gears or something,” Nashville coach Tim Kuhn said. “It was crazy. Drew did a tremendous job of coming in and wrestling the ball out. From there it was like ‘Here we go.’’’

After recovering the onside kick, the Hornets scored again on a 7-yard run by Kash with 5:05 remaining to cut the Carlyle lead to 42-37.

Now things were looking a little brighter for a team that a few minutes earlier had all but seemed assured of defeat in the season opener.

“It was like a movie script-type scenario,” Kuhn said. “It was almost surreal, but the kids never stopped believing. There were doubters, people were leaving the stadium. At one point I was like ‘how am I going to get these guys up for next week.’’’

At it turns out, the Hornets took care of that themselves. They forced another Carlyle punt, then Kash engineered another drive that saw him score on a 1-yard run with 27.5 seconds remaining. Kash’s 2-point conversion pass to Ethan Reid was good and the Hornets led 45-42.

“In my opinion there’s always a chance to win a game,” Kash said. “It doesn’t matter how much you’re down. Our theme this year is ‘Unity’ and at the end of the game we really showed that unity. We played for one another in that fourth quarter.

“It was maybe not the ideal way to do it, but as long as we get the ‘W’ that’s all that matters.”

Carlyle’s Donte Nettles, who racked up 203 yards rushing and two TDs, took the final kickoff but the Hornets were able to corral him and held on for one of the most improbable wins over Kuhn’s career.

The Hornets also overcame a 221-yard three TD passing effort by Carlyle quarterback Alex Huels in a game that Kuhn’ said “took five years off my life, at least.”

Kash was 16-of-31 for 256 yards and one TD passing, also running for two more touchdowns. Nashville running back Arturo Garcia had 130 yards and one TD on seven carries while Parker had six catches for 102 yards.

Sending a messaage

Playing tradition-laden Providence Catholic on its own field Saturday night was tough enough, but the East Louis Flyers also entered their season opener needing to find a way to stop talented Celtics running back Richie Warfield.

As a sophomore, Warfield ran for 123 yards and four TDs in the Class 7A state championship game, a 31-28 victory over Cary-Grove. He missed most of last season because of an injury, but was expected to be one of the top running back prospects.

In a dominant 34-3 victory, the East St. Louis defense held Warfield to 15 yards on 13 carries. The Flyers, ranked second in Class 7A, won their second straight game at Providence to follow up a 27-26 victory over the Celtics in the 2013 Class 6A playoff quarterfinals.

The East St. Louis defense also contributed five sacks, including two by LaMontre’ Harvey. Harvey and Terrez Legrone also had six tackles apiece.

The Celtics also had no answer for the electric speed of senior All-American receiver Jeff Thomas, who hauled in five passes for 171 yards and two TDs. Missouri quarterback recruit Reyondous Estes threw for 263 yards, hitting Thomas for TD passes of 45 and 48 yards.

Take the Long way home

It was a busy night in the Peoria area Friday for Columbia Eagles senior quarterback Greg Long.

On offense, Long completed 19-of-24 passes for 219 yards and two touchdowns, ran for two TDs and kicked a 37-yard field goal. On defense, he had an interception, a sack and six tackles as Columbia knocked off Morton 37-21.

“He was all over the field,” Columbia coach Scott Horner said. “For everything he did it was pretty special — and certainly he did a whole lot. He used his legs to make plays and he’s very capable of that.”

Border War tickets on sale

Tickets for the “Border War,” Saturday’s Gateway Scholars Classic at East St. Louis’ Clyde C. Jordan Stadium, are on sale at participating schools this week and also will be available at the gate.

The event has a definite Illinois vs. Missouri feel and begins with a 1 p.m. game between Cahokia and Sumner. Althoff takes on Jefferson City (Mo.) Helias at 4 p.m., followed by the finale between East St. Louis and CBC of St. Louis.

Craig Hentrich being honored

Former NFL and Notre Dame punter and kicker Craig Hentrich will have his Marquette Explorer jersey retired during a special ceremony Saturday night when Marquette plays host to Mater Dei in a 7 p.m. game at Public School Stadium in Alton.

Hentrich, one of the top kickers and punters in metro-east football history, played 16 seasons in the NFL, primarily as a punter. Now 45, he was with the Green Bay Packers from 1994 to 1997 before closing out his career with the Tennessee Titans from 1998 to 2009.

He averaged just under 43 yards per punt during his NFL career, leading the league with a 47.2-yard average with the Titans in 1998. Hentrich also was successful on 8-of-15 field goal tries in the NFL.

Hentrich’s 55-yard field goal for Marquette in 1988 was the longest in metro-east history until O’Fallon’s Tucker McCann booted a state record 60-yarder vs. Belleville East in 2014. McCann is now a freshman at Missouri.

This story was originally published August 29, 2016 at 5:00 PM with the headline "Football’s first week produced wild entertainment, jaw-dropping outcomes."