WESTVILLE — The Westville football team was one quarter away from the IHSA Class 2A semifinals.
The Tigers were up 28-14 over Arthur-Lovington/Atwood-Hammond on Saturday at Memorial Field after three quarters.
But the Knights scored in the first play of the fourth quarter and would outscore the Tigers 28-7 in the quarter to get the 42-35 win and move on to semifinal action.
“It should have been ours,” senior lineman Grant Beckley said. “We didn’t take it seriously in practice and some of us was not as focused and that will live with us for the rest of our lives. We put our work in and I just wished we have went further.”
The quarter started with a 20-yard touchdown pass from Marcus Otto to Jayden Parsons to cut the Westville lead to 28-21.
The ensuing onside kick was recovered by ALAH, but the Tigers were able to get an turnover on downs to get the ball back. After Westville punted, the Knights tied things up as Easton Frederick scored on a 24-yard run.
Easton Bolin scored on a 27-yard run to give Westville a 35-28 lead, but just as quickly, ALAH came back as Frederick scored on a 79-yard run to tie the game again with 4:06 left.
Then Bolin fumbled at the 30-yard line to give the Knights a chance and they would get that on the next play when Frederick hit Otto for the go-ahead touchdown with 3:48 left.
Westville had one final chance to get back into it but penalties put them behind and the Tigers could not convert an 4th and 11 situation late. With no Westville time outs and 1:27 left, all the Knights had to do was kneel to finish the game.
“I think we had the ball a couple of times and we stalled ourselves with penalties and we had a major turnover. We had an opportunity to close it out and we didn’t finish the game,” Westville coach Guy Goodlove said. “It’s a part of football and unfortunately, it went against us. I am proud of these kids. they had a great season and have nothing to hang their heads about and they are good kids and good students and its a tough loss.
“I have to tip my hat to Arthur because I told them when you get this deep to the playoffs, every team is good. They are a senior-dominated team and well-coached, they pulled out the tricks when they needed them and we took the bait. We were up 28-14 and then were down. They got the momentum and we couldn’t get it back.”
The start of the game saw that it was going to be a different game as the Knights’ speed on both sides were tough to handle at first.
“They loaded the box and made things different, but I think our line did well and Jack (Ajster) did pretty well,” Goodlove said. “We had a penalty and we couldn’t overcome that. They had playmakers and when they needed a play, they got it. We had opportunities to close it out but we couldn’t close the door.”
ALAH took the early 7-0 lead on a 33-yard pass from Otto to Parsons, but the Tigers would fight back and tie the game on a two-yard run by Ajster.
On the ensuing kickoff, Daylon Doggett got the lead right back for ALAH with an 80-yard return and an 14-7 lead at the end of the first quarter.
In the second, Lincoln Cravens scored on a touchdown run early in the quarter to tie things up at 14-14. After forcing ALAH to punt, Ajster scored on a 6-yard run to give the Tigers a 21-14 lead and with 54 seconds left, Ajster scored again for a 28-14 halftime lead.
Westville was without senior wide receiver Landon Coon, who was injured last week, and for a while the Tigers were without fellow senior Easton Barney.
“I had a dislocated finger and I got it put back in the hospital and I was able to come back,” Barney sad. “We couldn’t get anything going on defense, we couldn’t get a stop and on offense, it was hit and miss.”
The loss ends the Tigers’ season at 11-1 and it was also the end of the line for the careers of 14 seniors.
“I wish the best of luck to the rest of the team next year. I want to tell them that I love them and I am super proud of this team and I wanted to keep it going,” Beckley said. “Everyone is going to do their own things and move on and I wish them nothing but luck in their future endeavors.”
“This team has been my family,” Barney said. “It was my best year in football and I will miss each and every one of them.”
“This group of seniors have done things well off-season and in-season. They were coachable and practiced hard with great attitudes and did everything we asked them to,” Goodlove said. “I feel bad because they deserve to win, but they have to go out and execute and make the plays. We had a great season and the senior class lived up to expectations.”