SHORELINE — Nate Bjella had the game on his foot for King’s football.
After watching Granite Falls erase a 14-point deficit and take a 22-21 lead with 49 seconds left at Woolsey Stadium on Friday, King’s managed to move the ball down to the 15-yard line with three seconds left. It was a do-or-die moment, but all King’s needed was a 32-yard field goal. This wasn’t Bjella’s first rodeo.
Well, actually, it was.
The senior did not start kicking for King’s until this past Tuesday, when the coaching staff noticed he had a strong leg and handed him the job after he hit a few field goals in practices. It was not the smoothest start — Bjella missed the extra point attempt after King’s first touchdown of the night — and the team did everything it could to avoid putting him in that spot at the end, even taking one last end zone shot with eight seconds left.
But there he stood, ready to take a shot that would decide the Emerald Sound Conference title.
Not overthinking, Bjella stepped into the kick and drilled it through the uprights as time expired, lifting the Knights (8-1 overall, 3-0 conference) to a 24-22 win over the Tigers (6-3, 2-1). The win secured King’s its seventh conference title in eight seasons.
When the kick went through, Bjella sprinted all the way back to the opposite end zone as the student section spilled onto the field and his teammates trailed behind.
“That was my first-ever field goal attempt. I mean, pretty nerve-wracking, but I knew I got it,” Bjella said. “Trusting my holder, you know, and just nail it.”
Friday was almost a repeat of last year’s matchup, when Granite Falls overcame a 14-0 halftime deficit to win 20-14 and break the Knights’ streak of Emerald Sound championships. Senior Jaxx Goldsmith scrambled for a touchdown, and senior Beau Everson punched in the two-point conversion to put Granite Falls ahead 22-21 with 49 seconds left. The ensuing squib kick landed just past midfield and only took two seconds off the clock. With all three timeouts, the Knights knew they had a chance.
“We have a ‘next play’ mentality,” King’s coach Jim Shapiro said. “I tell the guys, ‘120 plays, six seconds at a time,’ and we never quit. … We knew we had a chance with the ball in our hand.”
After two short completions to juniors AJ Alvarez and Edward Pellham brought possession into Tigers’ territory with 30 seconds left, junior Henry Wilson hit senior Daniel Binkley down the right sideline for a 27-yard gain. It was Binkley’s only reception of the night, but it was a massive one. The Knights did not pick up any more yards from there, but they got close enough for Bjella to convert his first field goal.
Senior Cooper Ward led the offense with 123 rushing yards and two touchdowns, and Wilson went 11-for-24 for 160 yards and a touchdown. In addition to his winning kick, Bjella audibled out of a punt for a 17-yard rush to get a first down, and he brought in three short receptions.
Everson led Granite Falls with a game-high 135 rushing yards and a touchdown. Junior Blake Hudson added 55 yards on the ground and a score of his own, and Goldsmith recorded an interception on defense.
“Those guys at Granite, the coaching staff’s done a phenomenal job with that program, turned it into a 6-2 program,” Shapiro said. “Lots of wins, motivating those guys. … We knew it was going to be a good night tonight, both sides of the ball.”
King’s was poised to go three-and-out on its opening drive, but right before Bjella went to punt, he felt a defender bearing down fast and noticed an open lane on the left, so he tucked and ran 17 yards for a first down.
“Snap was a little low. It was wet, and I just couldn’t get the ball off,” Bjella said. “I saw a guy running at me from the right, and I just thought I could run it, so I just took it, went off and then got it. So lucky play, but way to execute by my team.”
Ward picked up 40 yards around the left side of the offensive line two plays later, and he went left again to score a 19-yard rushing touchdown to make it 6-0 after the missed point after attempt.
The Knights defense shut down the Tigers’ first drive, and the offense picked back up with the run game. A play action fake to junior Daniel Hoke up the middle on 3rd-and-1 opened up Alvarez for a dump-off over the middle, and he picked up 34 yards on the play to get back into the red zone.
Once again, Ward took it to the house on a 14-yard scamper, and Bjella pushed it to 14-0 with a wildcat keeper up the middle on the two-point conversion.
“I just feel like it was purely on our offensive line and receivers,” Ward said about King’s ability to establish the run. “I mean, I had great blocking all night. I go hit the gap, and wide open every time.”
Granite Falls proceeded to take 8:39 off the clock on its next possession, going 4-for-4 on fourth down during an 18-play, 80-yard touchdown drive with Everson and Hudson taking turns carrying the rock. Everson broke tackles on a 21-yard run down the right sideline to put the offense just outside the red zone, and he took a pitch for a five-yard score eight plays later to cut it to 14-7 on 4th-and-goal. The Tigers finished the night 7-for-8 on fourth-down conversions.
The Knights restored the two-possession lead with 42 seconds left in the half, needing only an 18-yard pass to Alvarez and a 24-yard touchdown pass to Pellham to complete the two-play drive.
The two sides traded possessions in the third quarter with no scores, but Granite Falls turned it around when Goldsmith secured an interception on a King’s 4th-and-13 attempt from the Tigers’ 37. It was effectively an arm punt, but it was all the visitors needed.
Everson opened the drive with a 28-yard rush, and Hudson capped it with a two-yard plunge to cut it to 21-14 with 6:25 to go, right after barely converting on 4th-and-1 to get inside the two-yard line.
Granite Falls’ defense forced a three-and-out, capitalizing on a botched snap that Ward fell on top of for an 11-yard loss. Leaning on the run game that carried them all night, the Tigers took nearly four minutes off the clock before Goldsmith and Everson helped tack on eight points for the 22-21 lead.
“We knew what they were running every time, we just got to execute,” Bjella said. “I mean, they got the better of us. They figured out what we couldn’t stop, but at the end of the day, we held them. We got an opportunity and we took it, so great game by both teams.”
With their dramatic victory, the Knights likely secured a home game in Week 10 to kick off the 1A State playoffs. Granite Falls is expected to make the initial 24-team field as well, but will likely play a road matchup.
For King’s, pulling off a win in this fashion has the team feeling prepared for intense playoff matchups to come.
“I think it’ll boost our confidence a lot,” Ward said. “We had a little bit of confidence issues with the team, but I think this really secures that we can do it and we can win.”
