What a night to remember

I've been covering high school sports for over 35 years and I don't think I have seen a finish to an athletic event like I saw Friday night. In the football season opener between the Grand Prairie High, my alma mater, and Lewisville ended in a bizarre way.

Grand Prairie pulled out a wild wild 42-41 decision, scoring with no time left on the clock and then kicking the extra point. It was maybe the wildest ending to a football game I've seen.

Wait, make that second wildest finish. The 1997 playoff football game between South Grand Prairie and Arlington Lamar at SMU's Ownby Stadium was THE most dramatic ending I've seen. So make this the second one.

After blowing a 35-14 lead with nine minutes left and falling behind 41-35 with 56 seconds left the Gophers were seemingly on their way to begin 2010 with an 0-1 record. But what happened over those next 56 seconds were incredible.

Down to 12 seconds Grand Prairie quarterback Tommy Alvarez threw about a 20-yard pass over the middle to Devante Lacy. Lacy made a spectacular catch to begin with, juked a couple of tacklers and started racing towards the end zone. With the clock winding down everyone in the press box thought he would go out of bounds.

Nope he decides to juke one more tackler but is wrestled to the ground at the 6. The Gophers were desperately calling timeout but the clock showed 0:00. Lewisville players, coaches and fans are celebrating as if they had just won a state championship. The team and coaches were dancing and running around all over the field.

But the referees signalled everyone off the field, gathered at the 6 for a little conference and ruled there should be 0.3 seconds left when the Gophers, who had one timeout left, called time. The back official on the play signalled timeout when Lacy was tackled and even though the clock read 0:00, the official in the back of the end zone said there were still 3-tenths of a second left.

So with one last chance, Alvarez teamed with Lacy again in the back corner of the end zone for the touchdown and Alex Rostro kicked the deciding point.

Incredible night at the Gopher Bowl.