This week's bizarre high school football score

The fact they are in Division 13 and that isn’t the smallest division is proof that section is way the hell too big and isn’t broken up—for much the same reason SB lost a home game over balls—is they make too much money as is. This is just dumb with a capital dumb.

 

NFHS rules are that the running clock goes into effect once the margin goes to 35 or greater and continues the remainder of the game. A team could trail 35-0 and come back and win 36-35 and the clock would still be running. That's how it was explained to me once. I think such a comeback happened once in Arkansas.

 

Also have been very strict about what can be worn under track and field uniforms (T-shirts, that is). I think they put that in when Reebok became its first name sponsor in the 80s.

 

Ohio is 35 but it reverts to regular timing if the margin gets below 30

 

It's 30 points in the second half to start the running clock in Ohio. The running clock rule stops if the deficit drops below 30.

 

Not a bizarre score — it was 32-26 — but I covered a bizarre 8-man championship game today, with an amazing back story.
Team A (the winning team) was trailing 20-0 at halftime and had run a total of 10 offensive plays for 40 yards. It was being thoroughly dominated every which way.
Then it ran a total of nine plays in the second half, five of which went for touchdowns of 52, 97, 53, 94 and 35 yards.
But wait, there's more!

Team B was driving with less than a minute left. On third-and-9, the QB got pressured and threw up a prayer into triple coverage. Refs threw a flag for PI. This association has its own in-house video production team to livestream big events,with lots of cameras, so they implemented a replay challenge system for the championship games a few years ago. Team A's coach challenged the PI and it was overturned, so it was fourth-and-9 at the 33 instead of first-and-10 at the 18. They got a stop and the ball back with 27 seconds left. Three plays later, the QB (who had six carries for 211 yards and three TDs) dropped back, nothing was open, and he took off. Got to the sideline, juked a guy inside the 5 and scored the game-winning touchdown for a state championship with no time left on the clock. Team A went 71 yards, in three plays and 27 seconds, for the winning touchdown.
But wait, there's still more!

Team A was 2-8 last season and finished 12-1 this year. And its town was flattened by a tornado in March. The school's gym was used as a distribution center for relief supplies for most of the spring and summer. Most of the players on the team worked there. A few were pulling people (alive and dead) out of destroyed houses the night of the storm.
It was like watching the final scenes of a Disney sports movie unfold in front of my eyes. Writing the game story is like being given narrative gold.

And one more nugget. The guy who scored the winning touchdown ... goodness gracious. His whole team is celebrating out around the 30-yard line. Almost every player on the other team is on its knees in despair, scattered around the field. What does this guy do? Before going to celebrate, the first thing he does is walk out of the end zone to one of the other team's players, leans over, puts his hand on his shoulder, helps him up and gives him a hug.
It was one of those moments that brings a tear to even a jaded, cynical eye and restores your faith in humanity for a little while.

 

Yeah, I have no idea why they allowed it or overturned it.
For background, this is the private school association that has members in Mississippi, Louisiana, Arkansas, and one or two in Tennessee. They mostly use NFHS rules, but have some of their own as well when it suits them.
In 2018, they added replay for the championship games only. The reasoning was, they livestream the games and have a very professional broadcast with a lot of camera angles. The replay system uses those. The challenge system is a hybrid of the NFL and college. Coaches get two per game, and apparently there's someone who buzzes down from the booth when necessary. They had a couple of other reviews as well that seemed to come from upstairs.

On this particular play, they threw a flag for PI but picked it up after the challenge and review. The Team A coach who challenged didn't give me a clear explanation when I asked him about it. He said he was challenging what he thought was his guy intercepting the ball (it was dropped). So maybe they looked at it and determined the ball was tipped either coming out of the QB's hand or before the PI?
I didn't get a chance to talk to the Team B coach, and the officials didn't give an on-field explanation that I heard.