St. Pius 28, Woodward Academy 21

Down by two touchdowns halfway through the third quarter, St. Pius’s season was slipping away.

The Golden Lions had one more game on their minds, though.

They scored 21 unanswered points – all in the fourth quarter – to stun Woodward Academy 28-21 and advance to the Class AAAA state final next weekend.

It’s St. Pius’s second finals appearance in the past three seasons. They’ll be looking for their first state title since 1968.

That chance was nearly gone when St. Pius (12-2) took the ball with 5:25 left on the clock, standing 85 yards from the Woodward end zone. The Lions needed one more drive to beat the War Eagles (11-3), and it was hard to tell where the momentum lay.

On their previous possession, they drove 66 yards for what should have been the tying score, but the center’s snap was far too high on the extra point, leaving the Lions with a 21-20 advantage.

Now, they still needed points. One more drive against a defense that had only given up more than 21 points twice all season. They needed to be the third, and they needed to shake off a major setback to do it.

“I told them not to worry about it; we’ve been here before,” said St. Pius coach Paul Standard, whose team has rattled off 12 straight wins since starting 0-2. “Because, to be honest with you, we’ve had three or four come-from-behind victories this year. So our kids understand; they know what they have to do.”

A crucial fourth-down conversion, some key runs and a pass-interference call later, the Lions found themselves at the Woodward 30-yard line with the clock ticking down toward the 1-minute mark.

Having already missed a 47-yard field goal badly earlier in the second half, they needed more yards. Joey Connors was up to the task.

“To be honest with you, I was trying to get into field-goal range,” Standard said. “It just so happened that we had a great block on the perimeter, Joey broke a tackle, and the rest is history.”

The scoring run gave Connors a team-high 124 yards and a score on 10 carries, overshadowing the effort from Holyfield, who finished with 188 yards on 22 carries, but only 38 on 10 carries in the second half.