Basic overcomes Silverado in game down to the wire

By Anthony Fenech

Saturday, Oct. 24, 2009 | 12:07 a.m.

There were three minutes left to play in Friday night’s divisional showdown between Basic and Silverado when the Skyhawks took the field at their own 15-yard-line trailing by a touchdown.

For the Silverado offense, it was three minutes from salvaging the season.

For the Basic defense, it was three minutes from validating the season.

Fifteen plays and 81 yards later, after five completions, four penalties, three timeouts and two interceptions, Basic’s players rushed the field to celebrate a 7-0 victory.

The defining play in a series of defining plays proved to be Basic senior Marty Christensen coming around the corner and sacking Silverado quarterback Kyle Simmons with about 10 seconds left to play.

With no timeouts left for Silverado, Christensen’s sack forced the Skyhawks offense to line up and spike the football, which they were unable to do in time to force one more play.

“I knew I had to beat my man off of the ball because I was way faster than him,” Christensen said about the sack. “I used one of my moves, got around him and it was an open shot from there.”

What the first 45 minutes of the game — a low-scoring field-position battle — lacked in excitement, was made up for during the last three-minute drive.

“We had our backs against the wall that last drive and they had their backs against the wall the entire game,” Basic coach Jeff Cahill said. “It was tough, but we can count on our defense for that kind of stuff.”

After clawing out of the shadow of their own end zone, Silverado running back Terran Madu-Jules converted on a fourth-and-one close to midfield.

A play later, Simmons threw an ill-advised pass into the hands of Basic’s Devin James, causing an uproar on the Basic sidelines before the play was called back for pass interference.

Simmons followed by connecting on four straight completions, navigating the Skyhawks to the 14-yard-line.

On first down, he dropped back and threw a pass into traffic in the end zone, where it was deflected, intercepted, and once again, called back for pass interference.

“We knew we had to step up at the end, and those calls fired us up,” Christensen said. “They were bogus calls, just terrible.”

The game’s lone score came with 7:02 remaining in the third quarter, when Wolves quarterback Tyler Dobbins found a wide-open Seth Campbell streaking down the sidelines for a 24-yard touchdown.

It was the second shutout of the year posted by the Basic defense.

“Our defense played great tonight,” Cahill said. “They took the offensive and came in here fired up.”

With the win, Basic (7-1) keeps hold of the inside track for the No. 2 playoff position in the Sunrise Southeast Division by winning three straight. Silverado (5-3) now needs help down the stretch, as their three-game losing streak came at the most inopportune of times.

“Hopefully the right teams beat the right teams and if we win the next two we can sneak in,” Silverado head coach Andy Ostolaza said. “But if not, this group of kids will keep competing.”