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Sports

Lindbergh Needs Double-Set Of Last-Minute Heroics To Hold Off Mehlville

Flyers score on long-pass trick play to take the lead, then pull off goalline stand in final seconds for 20-15 win over heartbroken Panthers.

SUNSET HILLS – According to legend, the extremely rare “double rainbow” is supposed to be a symbol of extreme joy and happiness, and is supposed to appear in the sky when God performs a miracle.  

Well, Lindbergh High football fans might want to check the skies of South County today just to be sure, because their Flyers pulled off a double miracle Friday night at Flyers Field, in a critical district playoff game against neighborhood rival Mehlville.

The Flyers trailed 15-14 with about 90 seconds to play on Friday, but hit a 70-yard double pass from senior Jordan Goodman to senior Grant Krueger, then held Mehlville on 4th down from the 1-yard line in the final seconds to preserve a truly heart-stopping 20-15 win over the visiting Panthers.

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“Incredible win,” Lindbergh head coach Tom Beauchamp said, after the Goodman-to-Krueger bomb and fourth-down defensive stand set off a wild celebration among the Flyer faithful. “I’m just so proud of these kids. We've been practicing that play all year but we haven't shown it. It was one of those situations where we executed perfectly.”

Goodman, normally a wide receiver for the Flyers, was the key player on Lindbergh’s miracle touchdown.

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First, the 5-foot-9, 170-pounder caught a backwards lateral from quarterback Peter Simpson, and waited for someone to get open. He then fired a perfect strike to a streaking Krueger, who outran the entire Mehlville defense to the endzone for the score.

“Jordan did a great job catching the ball, resetting himself, and they blocked real well for him,” Beauchamp said. “And with (Grant) flying down the field, he's really fast, he's hard to stop. Jordan threw a perfect strike, and it was over.”

Well, not quite.

Mehlville marched the ball down to Lindbergh’s 1-yard line thanks to some nifty passing by backup quarterback Brendan Moore, who came into the game late in the first quarter, after senior starter Jeff White was knocked out of the game with a head injury.

Unfortunately for the Panthers though, with 15 seconds left in the game, and facing 4th-and-goal from the Lindbergh 1, Mehlville somehow fumbled the center-quarterback snap exchange and lost control of the ball.

The officials never really signaled who had recovered the ball, but it didn’t matter, it was a 4th-and-goal play, which meant without a touchdown, it was Lindbergh’s ball no matter what. 

“I don't know what happened at the end,” Mehlville head coach Eric Meyer said. “It was all kind of a blur. All I know is we didn't get it in there. It was pretty frustrating. You can’t make mistakes like that against a good team like Lindbergh.”

The loss was a truly bitter pill to swallow for the Panthers, who thought they had fashioned a late-game miracle of their own, when they took the lead just before Goodman’s heave to Krueger.

Junior Patrick Partee made one of the plays of the season for Mehlville, when he picked off a Simpson pass and returned it to the Lindbergh 1, with about two minutes left in the game.

Moore then scored on a quarterback sneak and Partee added a two-point conversion run, that gave the Panthers a 15-14 lead with just 1:38 left on the clock.

But those 98 seconds proved to be just enough for Lindbergh to pull off a double-miracle win that kept its playoff hopes alive.

The Flyers are now 6-3 on the season and 1-1 in district play, with one regular season game left, next week at Saint Louis University High in St. Louis.

Last week, , which means the Flyers will need a win against the Jr. Billikens this Friday and a De Smet loss, by a combined margin of 20 points or more, to make the state football playoffs which begin in November.

Mehlville, which is now 4-5 on the season and 0-2 in district play, has been eliminated from playoff contention.

The Panthers will finish out their 2011 season, Friday night, when they’ll host De Smet at Panther Stadium at 7 p.m.

Scoring Summary

 

Score by Quarters

F

Mehlville

0

7

0

8

 

 

 

 

 

15

Lindbergh

0

14

0

6

 

 

 

 

 

20

 

Second Quarter

Mehl: Brendan Moore 1 yd run (Nemanja Orescanin kick), 5:36

Lind: Grant Krueger 3 yd run (kick failed), 4:34

Lind: Garrett Krueger 20 yd pass from Peter Simpson (Jordan Goodman run), 1:21

Fourth Quarter

Mehl: Brendan Moore 1 yd run (Patrick Partee run), 1:39

Lind: Garrett Krueger 70 yd pass from Jordan Harmon (run failed), 1:32

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