Sterling slips away from Moline
Sterling’s James Eshelman couldn’t describe it.
The entire Moline sideline couldn’t believe it.
With 57.4 seconds remaining in the fourth quarter, Moline — clinging to a two-point lead — lined up for a 31-yard field goal to put the season opener on ice.
Instead, the Maroons’ worst nightmare occurred.
Junior holder Christian Davis bobbled the snap from center, then yelled “fire” and rolled right. Davis then threw a pass that found the arms of Eshelman, who returned the interception 84 yards down the left sideline for the game-winning touchdown with 39 seconds to play.
Moline took the ensuing kickoff and quickly drove to the Sterling 20, but a last-ditch attempt at the end zone with 2.2 seconds left fell incomplete to give the Golden Warriors a shocking 28-24 victory at Browning Field.
“I saw that he fumbled the snap, so I immediately ran to the outside because I heard him yell ‘fire,’ ” Eshelman said. “So I was just thinking I could get my hands on the pass and break it up and give the offense a chance to score.
“But when he threw it and it was tipped, I just focused on the ball and tried to catch it. When I crossed that goal line, it was an indescribable feeling.”
Eshelman is the lone returning starter from last year’s 9-3 Sterling squad that lost in the quarterfinals of the Class 5A state playoffs.
Junior Ben Minnick rushed for 97 yards in his first varsity start, and senior Jake Hermes added 126 yards receiving and two touchdowns to go with 40 yards rushing in his debut as a starter.
“I told our kids I couldn’t be prouder of our group. They stuck with it,” said Sterling coach Greg King, a former teacher and assistant at Rock Island. “We could have just folded. When you’re as inexperienced as we are on offense, I couldn’t be happier for the kids.”
Eshelman’s unlikely game-winner wasn’t the only spectacular play for the Warriors.
Hermes seemingly stole his first touchdown reception from the arms of two Moline defenders before scampering for a 56-yard TD in the third quarter. The score was huge considering Moline broke a 10-10 halftime tie with a run of 14 straight points to open the third. Hermes’ score cut Moline’s lead to 24-16, and his second score, a 42-yarder in the fourth quarter, brought Sterling to within 24-22.
That touchdown catch came shortly after an illegal substition penalty by Moline on fourth-and-19 gave Sterling second life. The Golden Warriors converted on fourth-and-4, and five plays later quarterback Niko Rivera found Hermes wide open for the duo’s second TD connection.
“Sterling just seems to hang in there,” Moline coach Joel Ryser said. “They just seem to find a way to stick in there, and all of a sudden they make big plays. You can point to a lot of things that happened in this game that make you say, ‘Whoa!.’
“They came up with some great plays, we had some crazy mistakes.”
Moline’s Bennett Welser, the leading returning rusher in the Western Big Six, started at quarterback Friday for Moline and did not disappoint.
The senior, who played running back last year, was 15-of-19 for 223 yards passing, and he also rushed for 100 yards and a touchdown in his debut as the Maroons’ starting quarterback.
Ryser inserted Welser at QB a few weeks ago.
“He’s our best player,” Ryser said. “ And I’m stupid if I don’t get him the ball.”
Moline running backs Derek Branham, who rushed for 35 yards and a touchdown, and Seth Hood, who returned a first-half punt 45 yards for a score, were limited late Friday night by cramps.
But that’s no excuse for Welser and the Maroons.
“We basically just beat ourselves,” Welser said. “There’s nothing we can do about it. We’ve just got to learn from what we did wrong and not do it next week.”
Adam Soebbing can be contacted at (563) 383-2206 or asoebbing@qctimes.com. Comment on this story at qctimes.com.