8 straight! Hammond wins SCISA 4A football championship with dramatic finish
Andrew Turner and Mike Tyler worked their championship game magic once again.
Turner, the Hammond senior quarterback, found Tyler, the LSU tight end commitment, on a 23-yard touchdown on fourth down with 45 seconds in the game left to lift the Skyhawks to a 28-21 win over Porter-Gaud in the SCISA 4A Championship on Friday night.
“The last pass of my career is something I am going to remember for the rest of my life,” Turner said. “All the circumstances of that play, a state championship, fourth quarter, under a minute left, game tied, fourth down.”
The championship is Hammond’s eighth in a row, 22nd overall and fourth under coach Jon Wheeler. The Skyhawks finished the year at 13-0, their 11th unbeaten season in school history.
It’s also the second-straight year Turner hit Tyler for the game-winning touchdown. Last year, Turner found Tyler for the winning score in the fourth quarter against Laurence Manning.
On Friday, Hammond called a timeout before the winning play. Wheeler had a decision to make: go for it on fourth down, or send Aspen Brooks out for a 40-yard field goal attempt.
But Hammond hadn’t attempted a kick that long all season, Wheeler said. So offensive coordinator Rick Reetz, a former Porter-Gaud head coach, signaled a play called LA Pink to hit Tyler down the seam, a call that didn’t work in the first half.
And with the game on the line, Turner threw it down the middle. Tyler made the sliding grab.
“I didn’t want to put in the kicker. I said, let’s put it in the hands of our senior quarterback, senior skill players and see if we could go hit a pass,” Wheeler said. “And it is de’ja vu with Mike Tyler. He made a heck of a ball play.”
It was just Tyler’s third catch of the game. The final reception of his career was a big one.
“I knew I had it. I trust my QB. I trust myself,” said Tyler, who is still being recruited by the University of South Carolina and wore Gamecock gloves in Friday’s game. “... It was there earlier in the game but we didn’t execute it. But we executed it and I got in the (end) zone.”
After Hammond’s score, Porter-Gaud had one timeout left and got the ball to the Skyhawks’ 45 after a pass interference play. But P-G quarterback Nolen Shuman’s final pass attempt was knocked down.
Hammond led 21-14 going into the fourth quarter. Porter-Gaud’s Tony Brown scored on the first play of the fourth, a 1-yard run to tie it at 21-21.
The Cyclones had a chance to take the lead. P-G recovered a bad snap to Turner on the Skyhawks’ 17. Hammond’s defense had trouble stopping the Cyclones’ running attack for much of the game.
The Cyclones appeared to take the lead on Schuman’s first pass of the drive to JJ Fludd, but the score was called back because of holding. Porter-Gaud was backed up and eventually forced to punt.
That’s when Hammond took over at the 20-yard line and drove 80 yards for the winning score.
“When we fumbled, there was something in me that didn’t flinch,” Wheeler said. “I told the boys, you’ve been here before in your mind. Against Cardinal Newman, we had a goal-line stand. We might have been up by 30 or 40 points, but I told them to go to the state championship game in their minds during that time in week 10. That’s what they did.
“I don’t think we have been more proud of a defense. We were outmatched up front and they outcoached me, especially in that first half. Our defense just kept fighting and fighting.”
Turner was 5-of-9 passing for 150 yards and threw three touchdown passes, including a 69-yarder to Manny Johnson that put Hammond up 21-14. Johnson also had a scoring run.
Johnson finished with 132 yards. Kinson Holland rushed for 98. Tyler had three catches for 44 yards.
Each team scored on its first possession. Johnson scored on an 8-yard run to put Hammond up 7-0. But the Cyclones answered on their third play as Fludd took a pitch 83 yards to tie it up at 7-7 with 5:35 in first.
The Cyclones put together a long drive on the ground capped off by Fludd’s 3-yard run to make it 14-7 in the second quarter. Fludd finished with 129 yards rushing.
The Skyhawks tied it late in the second quarter as Turner hit Jack Croft on a 23-yard touchdown on fourth-and-10 to tie it at 14-14 with 2:56 before halftime.
This story was originally published November 22, 2024 at 10:22 PM.
