Oh so close: How Irmo fell short to Northwestern in SC state championship game
Irmo football coach Aaron Brand stood at midfield Saturday night, trying to process the wave of emotions he went through over the final few minutes of the Class 5A Division II state championship game.
Brand’s Irmo squad battled back and forth with Northwestern but came up short in trying to win the school’s first football state championship in 44 years.
Senior Matthew Fish hit a 27-yard field goal as time expired to give Northwestern a 34-31 win over the Yellow Jackets at S.C. State’s Oliver C. Dawson Stadium.
It’s the Trojans’ first state championship since 2015 and sixth overall.
“I just wanted to be respectful to the winning team and stand by the road and watch as the winners go by,” Brand said after the game. “I know they are hurting and I am hurting also. ... But tonight wasn’t our night.”
Brand was hired six years ago and was determined to bring Irmo back into relevance. He spoke on building the Yellow Jackets to be one of the state’s top teams during his pre-game locker room speech.
Irmo went unbeaten last season before losing in the state semifinals to South Florence. This year, the Jackets got over the hump in making it back to their first championship game since 2007, only to come up just shy of the ultimate prize.
After the game, Brand found his son, AJ, the team’s star quarterback, and shared a special moment with him by one of team’s sidelines tents in their final game together.
“I wanted to tell him this wasn’t the last time he loses a football game. He just has to learn how to enjoy this moment,” Brand said. “... He played a great game and had a great career. The future is so bright for him and for the Irmo community and the rest of the Yellow Jackets.”
The game was a matchup of two of the best quarterbacks in the state in Brand and Northwestern’s Finley Polk. The two delivered big performances Saturday and will be teammates next week in the Shrine Bowl all-star game.
Polk, a Gardner-Webb signee, was 33 of 39 passing for 427 yards and four touchdowns. He was 5 of 5 for 58 yards on the game-winning drive.
Northwestern’s Kameron Vance had 11 catches for 164 yards and two touchdowns. Jayden Nichols caught 13 passes for 150 yards and two TDs.
Northwestern coach Page Wofford “said it was a keep-chopping game. So we were going to keep going no matter what,” Polk said. “Irmo is a great football team and it came down to the wire, and we got it done.”
Brand, the S.C. Gatorade Player of the Year, overcame a fumble on the Yellow Jackets’ first possession and turned in another gem in his final high school game.
The Virginia Tech signee rushed for 168 yards, threw for 151 and accounted for four touchdowns. Brand’s 33-yard pass to Donovan Murph, who jumped over a defender and tied the game at 31 with 1:43 left. Murph finished with eight catches for 123 yards and two touchdowns.
Aaron Brand said he thought about going for two after the touchdown, but Irmo had three timeouts and thought they’d be able to get a defensive stop.
Wofford said the Yellow Jackets (12-2) left them with too much time on the clock. He was right.
The Trojans (14-0) marched down the field with quick precision to set up the game-winning field goal. Polk ran a quarterback sneak down to the 10-yard line and the Trojans called a timeout with one second left. Irmo called a pair of timeouts, but Fish drilled the kick. The senior was 10 of 12 on field goals coming into the game.
“I was definitely nervous. They iced me twice but obviously it didn’t really do much,” Fish said. “I practiced it every day for the last four years, so it was light work for me.”
Fish’s field goal capped off a wild fourth quarter in which the two teams combined for 31 points over the final 12 minutes.
Brand gave Irmo its first lead of the game when he scored on a 29-yard with 11:08 to make it 24-17. But the Trojans answered as Polk hit Vance on a 5-yard pas with 9:18 left. The Trojans converted on a fourth-and-15 on the drive when Polk hit Daniel Caldwell on an 18-yard pass to the Irmo 5-yard line.
Polk and Vance connected again on the Trojans next possession to make it 31-24.
How They Scored
First Quarter
N — Knox 8 pass from Polk (Fish kick), 10:33
I — Murph 7 pass from Brand (Williams kick), 4:19
Second Quarter
N —Knox 8 pass from Polk (Fish kick), 2:26
I — Tucker Williams 26 FG, 0:00
Third Quarter
N —Matthew Fish 20 FG, 9:13
I — Brand 18 run (Williams kick), 4:51
Fourth Quarter
I — Brand 29 rush (Williams kick), 11:08
N — Vance 5 pass from Polk (Fish kick), 9:18
N — Vance 8 pass from Polk (Fish kick), 4:05
I — Murph 33 pass from Brand (Williams kick), 1:43
N — Fish 27 FG, 0:00
INDIVIDUAL STATISTICS
RUSHING — N: Gordon-Miles 12-67; Polk 5 (minus-1). I: Brand 21-168; White 10-47; Miller 4-34; Jones 6-8
PASSING — N: Polk 33-39-0 427. I: Brand 12-17-0 151.
RECEIVING — N: Vance 11-164; Nichols 13-150; Knox 6-81; Caldwell 1-18; Gordon-Miles 2-14. I: Murph 8-123; Miller 3-29; Albritton 1 (minus-1).
This story was originally published December 14, 2024 at 9:49 PM.
