Friday morning at the Nash Rec Center, a friend asked me what the 3A football championship point spread would be in the Byron-Tolono Unity game. At first, I said Byron by 50 points, thinking that this would be easier for them than the IC Catholic and Richmond-Burton were. Remembering Tolono had a good quarterback; I amended that to be more along the lines of 30 points.

Boy, was I ever wrong in predicting a blowout win by the Tigers. At least I had company on that one with prognosticators all over the state. About the only person who dared give Tolono a chance was Matt Leng on the popular “Edgy Tim” high school football podcast.

Being from central Illinois, Leng was hip to the abilities of Tolono quarterback Dane Eisenmenger. He boldly stated that if Tolono could stay close into the fourth quarter, they would win because of Eisenmenger.

Not only did Tolono stay close (56-50), but after recovering an onside kick, they had the ball first-and-goal with under a minute left in the game. Considering Tolono had already scored 21 points in the fourth quarter and Eisenmenger had 205 yards passing in that quarter alone, the odds were now stacked against Byron. What a stunning development.

Needing only three yards to score and all the momentum in the world, Tolono was poised for one of the biggest championship game upsets in IHSA history and the opportunity to win its first state title after six runner-up finishes.

What could prevent them from getting a simple three yards on four tries after already piling up 652 yards of offense? But, football is a crazy game, one reason for its widespread popularity.

First, it was an incomplete pass. Then a false start penalty, another incompletion, another penalty, another incompletion and suddenly it was fourth-and-13.

Still, Tolono was 3-3 on fourth down attempts and 13 yards was no impediment for a quarterback who had already had 14 completions of over 15 yards. Strangely, it can sometimes be an advantage to have an extra 10 yards to work with so close to the end zone.

With fans all over the state getting a dose of entertainment rarely seen for all 48 minutes of the IHSA football finals, everyone had to be on edge as the ball left Eisenmenger’s golden arm.

Tyler Henry, who had 16 catches for 160 yards, was the intended receiver in the corner of the end zone. He had company, though, in the form of Caden Considine.

Considine, who had set a 3A championship game record with 367 yards rushing, made a defensive play that will likely be remembered more than any of his 30 rushing attempts. He knocked the ball away from the sure-handed Henry and Byron could finally party like it was 2023, its last state title.

In the aftermath, those very same fans, be it inside Hancock Stadium, watching online or on TV, are calling this thriller one of the best ever played in the annals of IHSA history.

I can’t dispute that. To me, it harkens back to 2001 when Riverside-Brookfield was in a similar scenario against Joliet Catholic in the 5A playoffs.

Like Tolono, Riverside-Brookfield had a prolific passing attack, while Joliet Catholic was more in the vein of the Byron-type power rushing game. There was so much hype leading up to this game, a carload of us went in to watch it, my first time back in Brookfield since going to the zoo there as a kid.

With thousands of fans and not enough bleachers, I seem to remember fans hanging from trees like monkeys, just to get a glimpse of the action.

A pronounced underdog, R-B stunned big, bad Joliet the same way Tolono did to Byron. With under a minute to play, it was an identical 56-50 score and R-B had a first-and-goal.

Here was a chance to shake up the hierarchy of prep football and send shockwaves all over the state? Since they hadn’t been stopped all night, wasn’t it a given R-B was going to score.

Unfortunately not. As was stated earlier, football is a crazy game and Joliet managed to keep the R-B out of the end zone on four tries, just like Byron did to Tolono.

Joliet went on to win one of its 15 state titles. Byron is up to four crowns and it isn’t out of the question for them to reach 15 state titles.

In the last 10 years, the Tigers have won more games (113) than anyone in Illinois other than Lena-Winslow (117), which made it state title number seven with a blowout win over Brown County.

In post-game comments, L-W coach Ric Arand made it a point to mention that conference rival Stockton was better than any other 1A team in the state. So very true and it was a shame Stockton couldn’t have been in the title game.

Getting back to the Byron-Tolono game, credit needs to go to both squads for tremendous sportsmanship. Play after play, kids were helping each other up from the ground. Extending a friendly hand to an opponent during heated competition says a lot about the character of a program.

Andy Colbert is a longtime Ogle County resident with years of experience covering sports and more for multiple area publications.