Isaiah DeLeon had never thrown a Hail Mary in his career. Kannon Webb had never run out for one. John Walsh said San Marcos hasn’t even walked through the play in practice this year.
But on the final play of the Rattlers’ Friday night contest at Lockhart, Walsh dialed up the play, DeLeon tossed up the prayer and Webb came down with it to secure San Marcos’ first win of the season, 26-25.
“I'm ecstatic that we won. I'm ecstatic that we didn't look good.” Walsh said. “We made terrible mistakes to not have it won already. But our kids — I said it last week, I saw something turn in the scrimmage of our kids believing and trying and really trusting. And I think they just believed and trusted that what we do works and that we put the right guys in the right spots. And Isaiah gave us a chance and Kannon made a play.”
The visitors led for the majority of the game but nearly gave it away with late errors.
Lions senior Jackie Edwards Jr. turned in a 46-yard quarterback keeper for the first score of the night, but Lockhart missed on its PAT attempt. DeLeon found sophomore wideout Ryan Hix on a deep ball during the next drive for a 48-yard touchdown to give San Marcos a 7-6 edge.
A two-yard punch-in from junior running back Kanui Guidry in the second quarter and two field goals from 23 and 28 yards out from senior kicker Jose Duenez pushed the Rattlers in front early in the fourth quarter, 20-18.
“We ran the ball good. We threw the ball efficiently,” Walsh said. “We just made too many mistakes on top of those things. We have to, as a football program, just quit making those mistakes that really force you to lose. You know, I think we’re looking for ways to win but we’re still finding ways to screw it up and we’ve gotta get out of that.”
The Rattlers looked primed to seal their first victory of the year when it took over on its own 20-yard line with just 2:30 on the clock. Guidry gained 13 yards and a first down on two carries, forcing Lockhart to call timeout with 1:31 remaining. Guidry lost a yard on his next attempt, though, and a penalty on San Marcos after the play moved them back another 10 yards.
The purple and white punted three plays later. The hosts returned it to the Rattler 45 and another penalty by the visitors moved the Lions up to the 30 with 25.4 seconds left. Edwards Jr. completed his second pass of the night on the next play — a 30-yard bomb to junior wide receiver Tay Andrews who took it to the house to give Lockhart a 25-20 lead.
Webb returned the kickoff to the 31-yard line, giving San Marcos 10.9 seconds to attempt a comeback. DeLeon tossed it to Webb for a 13-yard pass on the first play of the drive and Webb ran out of bounds to stop the clock at 5.1 seconds. The two connected again on the next play for an 18-yard gain to move to the Lions 38 and Walsh called timeout.
With just two seconds remaining, the team knew it would have to rely on its sophomore quarterback to reach the end zone on its next play.
“That last play, we just drew that thing up from the sideline because we haven't gone over Hail Marys yet,” quarterbacks coach and co-offensive coordinator Lee Vallejo said. “I was just trying to calm (DeLeon) down. You know, he had some rough throws early on. I said, ‘Hey, you just gotta calm down, bud. You know, this is a fun game. Make it fun. Don't put so much pressure on every play. Hey, just let it go.’”
“It really wasn’t too bad,” DeLeon said. “I’m probably feeling (my nerves) more right after the game than it was in that moment. Staying calm was the big factor.”
Lockhart sent a three-man rush, dropping back its eight other defenders and allowing DeLeon ample time to make his throw. He launched the ball toward the left side of the endzone, where a crowd of both purple and black helmets was gathering.
Webb rocketed in the air, snagged the rock and returned to Earth.
“That had nothing to do with me,” said Bryan Webb, Kannon’s father and San Marcos’ safeties coach. “He gets that from his momma.”
“I lined up, I prayed to God,” Kannon said. “I said ‘God, please let me catch this ball.’ All the glory goes to him, that’s a helluva game … I came up, pinned it against my chest, brought it down. Then I was just thinking ‘Hold on, hold on, hold on.’ Then from there, it was just a blur.”
The buzzers sounded and San Marcos exited Lions Stadium with the 26-25 victory.
“Here’s the great thing about that last play: it’s a Hail Mary, right? Everybody knows it,” Walsh said. “Luckily, we had a timeout. Everybody’s talking a mile a minute, scrambling, drawing in the dirt. And they executed.”
The Rattlers will look to ride the momentum of the win into next week when they begin District 26-6A play at Lake Travis on Friday at 7:30 p.m. Walsh wants the team to keep cutting down on its mistakes after being called for nine penalties, resulting in a loss of 90 yards.
But the win will give San Marcos a shot of confidence it desperately needed after finishing 1-9 in each of the past two seasons. As the Rattler coaches emptied the visitors’ press box after Webb’s game-winning catch, one came to a realization.
“San Marcos was due.”
San Marcos Stats
Passing
QB Isaiah DeLeon: 10-24, 212 yards, 2 TDs
Rushing
RB Kanui Guidry: 28 carries, 187 yards, TD
QB Isaiah DeLeon: 9 carries, 59 yards
Receiving
WR Kannon Webb: 4 catches, 71 yards, TD
WR Nathan Henry: 4 catches, 53 yards
WR Ryan Hix: 1 catch, 48 yards, TD
WR Moses Alva: 1 catch, 40 yards
