Steve Soucie’s Class 2A analysis: St. Teresa survives furious last-second rush from Tri-Valley

CHAMPAIGN – This time the hare won.

A high-octane St. Teresa offense used a few massive plays to gain control of the Class 2A state championship and then had to withstand a very late speedy rush from Tri-Valley, which to that point had played a more rigorous, plodding ground-based game in a 29-22 St. Teresa win.

Fourth-down frenzy

Fourth-down plays tend to be pivotal, but this game cranked up the intensity level quite a bit.

With a 2-0 lead in the second quarter, Tri-Valley pieced together what would ultimately be a 17-play drive. The Vikings converted on fourth down once to keep the drive alive, but the drive stalled at the 11-yard line and they faced another fourth-down challenge.

Attempting a field goal wasn’t a viable play as the Vikings had converted just one extra point kick all season. So they went for it and appeared to have a touchdown in the offing, but St. Teresa’s Billy Guyse made a fantastic recovery to break up the potential score.

Three plays later, St. Teresa QB Joe Brummer completed an 87-yard touchdown to Brycen Hendrix.

Later in the game, another pivotal fourth-quarter play emerged. St. Teresa had the ball facing a fourth-and-2 at its own 24. The Bulldogs tried unsuccessfully to draw Tri-Valley offsides, then took a timeout, and elected to just go for it anyway. Elijah Willis got the edge and sprinted away for a 76-yard touchdown to make it 23-14.

Big-play centric

Tri-Valley outgained St. Teresa 404-334 in total yardage and the Vikings ran 81 plays to just 33 for the Bulldogs. Tri-Valley also had 27 first downs while St. Teresa had just 11.

Tri-Valley also held the ball for over 33 minutes, while St. Teresa didn’t even reach 15 minutes of time of possession (14:58).

None of it mattered though as 185 of those 334 yards were encompassed by St. Teresa’s first three scoring plays, which pretty much negated the need for any clock-eating drives for the Bulldogs.

The record book

Tri-Valley’s Blake Renegold set state-title game rushing records in the contest, by piling up 43 carries in the game.

Renegold’s 39th carry early in the fourth quarter broke the Class 2A state record for carries in a game that had been held since 1990 by Paul Bauer of Seneca.

A few minutes later, Renegold’s 43rd and final carry broke the record for any classification, which was previously held by El Paso’s Derek Hunsinger and the 42 carries he compiled in the 2022 Class 1A final.

Renegold already held a Class 2A state playoff game record by rushing for 417 yards in Tri-Valley’s quarterfinal round victory over Knoxville.

Quotable

• “We had a heartbreaking loss in the semifinals last year [37-35 loss to Nashville] and they’ve been working since January for this. They [Tri-Valley] put up a heck of a fight and it was back and forth and I couldn’t be more proud of these guys.” - St. Teresa coach Mark Ramsey, who won his second state title having also won as the head coach of Moweaqua Central A&M in 1997.

• “It was our captains and our senior leadership that just didn’t want to quit. We were playing our best football at the end of the year and that’s really what I’m proud of. These guys went to another level. I saw them play for one another and pick each up and build each other up and build off each other.” - Tri-Valley coach Josh Roop