High School Team Misses Field Goal as Time Expires, Wins Anyway (Again)

Last week, a Vermont high school football team won on a last-second field-goal attempt, even though the kick came up short. (It's a long story.)

Another week, another high school football game decided by a last-second field-goal attempt. This time, Westland John Glenn had a kicked block by Plymouth as time expired and that was that. Except it wasn't. The John Glenn holder picked up the ball and, after a few confusing seconds, ran into the end zone for the winning touchdown.

Moving pictures madness after the jump.



There are a few potential problems with how the game ended.

As the announcers correctly point out, because the ball didn't cross the line of scrimmage, it was still live. And FanHouse's resident high school official Matt Snyder confirms as much, citing Rule 6-2-3: "Any K[icking] player may catch or recover a scrimmage kick while it is in or behind the neutral zone and advance, unless it is on a try."

So no problem there. But MDS raises another issue: "It looks like players on both teams stepped onto the field after the kick was blocked. Shouldn't that have been too many men on the field on both teams, off-setting penalty and re-play the downs?"

Snyder explains: "From that camera angle, I think all of the [Plymouth] players stayed off the field until they scored (at which point, the game was over). It's hard to see from there, though. If a few [players] did come on, it was only a yard or two way behind the play .... this isn't college or the NFL ... we're never gonna see that with five guys nor are we going to call it if they aren't gaining an advantage. If anything, you'd call a sideline warning (which is no yards the first time, five the second and 15 every time after that). If they aren't participating, we're not saying they played with 12.

For example, if a player is furiously sprinting off the field and he's a yard from the sideline when the ball is snapped, linesmen just take one step forward and give him the benefit of the doubt. They weren't trying to gain an advantage ... no harm, no foul. [high school] is a whole different ball game."

So there ya go: John Glenn wins ... unless, as Sesno wonders, "Was the holder's knee was down when he possessed the ball?"