The Service football team possessed the football and fabulous field position, owned an eight-point lead and had the clock in its favor Friday night when a curious coaching decision put victory in jeopardy.
An ill-advised, fourth-down pass to the Dimond end zone -- by a third-string quarterback throwing in a driving rain storm, no less -- led to a length-of-the-field interception return by the Lynx, who then tried a two-point conversion that would have tied the game.
Fortunately for the Cougars, linebacker Gil Williams rescued them.
Williams forced a fumble by Dimond quarterback Jeremiah Macalino-Maga on the conversion play to preserve Service's 14-12 Cook Inlet Conference victory at Dimond's Alumni Field.
Macalino-Maga faked a hand-off to his left and appeared as if he wanted to peel back to his right on a bootleg. But Williams knifed through the line for the tackle with just 83 seconds left.
"Just from working against scout teams, I knew the rollout was always an option,'' Williams said. "Under pressure, we had to come up big. Our coaches made a little mistake, but we have to work with that, and we came up big.''
Hector Castillo recovered Dimond's onside kick and Service ran out the clock to improve to 4-2 overall and 3-2 in the CIC, strengthening its position for a state playoff berth.
No one was more relieved than Service head coach Kevin Kern. He said he leaned toward going for what would have been a 32-yard field goal attempt on the fateful play on fourth-and-14 from the Dimond 15. Offensive coordinator Jason Caldarera said he got talked into going for it. Williams said, hey, coaches make mistakes too.
In any event, Emetrius McLeod tried a pass to the end zone. McLeod was playing quarterback because starter Zyrelle Jones suffered a banged-up leg late in the game and back-up Darren Tatum is out with an injury.
The ball appeared to slip from McLeod's hand as he threw it and it wobbled high in the air, where Dimond's Cedarian Brunell grabbed it near the goal line, headed up the sideline, cut to the middle of the field and raced 99 yards to slash Service's lead to 14-12.
But just as he had done in the first quarter, when he blocked a Lynx extra-point attempt, Williams came up clutch.
Ditto for Service's defense, which after allowing Macalino-Maga's 1-yard touchdown run late in the first quarter barely allowed Dimond's offense another sniff of the end zone. Dominik Norman racked two sacks and another tackle for a loss, Matthew Wallender plucked an interception, and Nick Stevens and Hekili Fomai created chaos in the middle of the line.
"They stood big,'' Kern said of his defense. "They kept us in the game, for sure.''
Dimond, which committed 12 penalties and, inexplicably, at one point declined a Service holding penalty, slipped to 2-4 and 1-4 in the CIC. The loss made its playoff hopes more tenuous.
Wet conditions were not conducive for Service's pass-happy spread offense, which went three-and-out on its first three possessions and didn't gain a first down until the second quarter.
But Jones' receivers did a good job of adjusting to the ball, particularly McLeod, who caught eight passes for 106 yards and a touchdown. Jones completed 17 of 30 passes for 200 yards and a touchdown.
Jones' 1-yard quarterback sneak in the second quarter, followed by Steve Beelman's extra point, gave Service a 7-6 lead. Jones' score closed a 10-play drive that included a 35-yard hookup with Trevon Allen on fourth-and-6.
Service earned a 14-6 lead with a 10-play, 84-yard drive that finished with Jones' 19-yard pass to McLeod with 0.7 seconds left in the third quarter. On that drive, Dimond went offside on a fourth-and-1 and also committed two pass interference penalties.
The Cougars appeared to all but snuff any chance of a Lynx comeback when they delivered a fourth-quarter drive, when Jones was still playing, that drained 8:03 off the clock.
Service turned over the ball on downs, but got it back two plays later when Macalino-Maga fumbled a snap and Sergio Pereda recovered with 2:09 remaining.
That preceded the risky fourth-down pass that nearly kept the Cougars from their eventual reward.
Reach Doyle Woody at dwoody@alaskadispatch.com and check out his blog at adn.com/hockey-blog
Service 0 7 7 0 — 14
Dimond 6 0 0 6 — 12
First Quarter
Dimond — Macalino-Maga 1 run (kick blocked), 2:46.
Second Quarter
Service — Jones 1 run (Beelman kick), 3:29.
Third Quarter
Service — McLeod 19 pass from Jones (Beelman kick), 0.7.
Fourth Quarter
Dimond — Brunell 99 interception return (run failed), 1:23.
Service Dimond
First downs 14 8
Rushes-yards 38-89 29-44
Passing yards 200 81
Passes 17-31-2 5-12-1
Punts 4-20.8 3-32.7
Fumbles-lost 1-0 2-1
Penalties-yards 6-55 12-103
INDIVIDUAL STATISTICS
RUSHING — Service: Norman 11-33, Jones 13-33, Fanning 5-14, Evans 3-13, McLeod 6-(-4). Dimond: Tanuvasa 12-60, Tufaga 5-15, Vasai 3-8, Schell 1-0, Macalino-Maga 8-(-39).
PASSING — Service: Jones 17-30-1—200, McLeod 0-1-1—0. Dimond: Macalino-Maga 5-12-1—80.
RECEIVING — Service: McLeod 8-106, Allen 5-44, Hogan 2-44, Norman 2-6. Dimond: Hendrickson 2-39, Rafa Zavala 1-30, Brunell 1-6, Schell 1-6.