After the Minooka defense forced an Oswego East punt, the Indians took over on the Wolves’ 40-yard line.

The offense, including running back Chase Nurczyk, took the field with just over two minutes left.

As he had done all game, Nurczyk chunked out play after play, helping Minooka get down to the Oswego East goal line. He punched in, bringing Minooka to within one.

“He was on the sideline hyping us up while we were on the bench,” Nurczyk said of coach Matt Harding. “He said, ‘Let’s do it, let’s run blast.’ ”

And they did.

After the touchdown, without hesitation, Harding left the game in the hands of his offense, electing to go for two and potentially the win.

With two fullbacks in the backfield, quarterback Aidan Guttierez took the snap from center and stuck into the belly of Nurczyk, who barreled into the end zone behind his two lead-blockers, giving Minooka the lead with just 40 seconds remaining.

“I was extremely confident,” Nurczyk said about the play call. “That’s the first play we run at practice every day.”

Minooka would turn away Oswego East on its last-ditch effort to get into field goal range, hanging on to steal a 15-14 victory on the road, and securing a playoff spot in the process.

“We don’t even talk about playoffs,” Harding said. “It’s an expectation in our program.”

Oswego East (6-3, 2-3 Southwest Conference Prairie West) struck first, doing so on special teams. Star returner Zamarion Taylor struck again, this time on a punt, returning it 61 yards for a touchdown late in the first quarter.

Taylor also recorded an interception in the fourth.

Neither offense got into a rhythm, as the front seven of both squads was formidable in the run game early on.

“Those big guys up front, you’ve got to double them,” Harding said. “When you double them, linebackers are free to scrape up and make the play.”

Coming out of halftime, the Wolves created another explosive play for themselves. Quarterback Niko Villacci found his favorite target, Lincoln Ijams, for a 67-yard touchdown catch-and-run, in which Ijams wove through the defense and made multiple would-be tacklers miss.

Villacci finished the night 6 of 13 for 128 yards with one touchdown and one interception. Ijams caught five of Niko’s passes and racked up 124 yards and a touchdown.

“We knew if we got into a certain formation, they would give us a certain look, but truth be told, they did not give us the look we were expecting,” Oswego East coach Tyson LeBlanc said. “Kudos to Niko for hanging in with the play call and to Lincoln for the good run after the catch.”

Facing a 14-point deficit, Minooka (6-3, 3-2) still believed.

“We have fought through a lot of adversity this year,” Nurczyk said. “We’ve been in situations like this before. We were all keeping our heads high on the sideline.”

Minooka started on the comeback trail just four plays later, as Guttierez found Brady Hairald for an absurd 60-yard touchdown catch in which he fought through contact to make the catch, and proceeded to hesitate at the 5-yard line to make a defender fly by him before taking it into the endzone.

Guttierez, who is the third-string quarterback for Minooka, finished the game with 121 yards on 7-of-13 passing with a touchdown.

Minooka was on defense with six minutes left. Harding made a call that would fire up his players and propel them to victory.

“With six minutes left, I switched to the offensive side on my headset and said, ‘We’re going for two,’ ” Harding said.

After forcing OE to punt from inside its own 10, Minooka took over at its 40 with just over two minutes left. Five handoffs to Nurczyk and a quick seam route from Guttierez to Jackson Miranda for 16 yards set Minooka up at the 1-yard line.

“We nicknamed him [Cam] Skattebo,” Harding said about Nurczyk. “He’s just a tank down there.”

He carried the ball 26 times for 155 yards plus the two-point try.

After the successful two-point try, Oswego East attempted to drive the ball down the field but could only muster 11 yards of offense.

“I told them just now that we have 20 minutes to feel sorry for ourselves,” LeBlanc said. “Then we have to move on to next week.”

“They’re still fighting to win football games,” Harding said regarding his team battling through injuries. I’m more proud of that as a coach than any win can ever give me.”