Spears snags his big opportunity

Harding Academy won its fifth state championship and its first since 2002. It was the Wildcats’ eighth state final appearance.
Harding Academy won its fifth state championship and its first since 2002. It was the Wildcats’ eighth state final appearance.

— Harding Academy quarterback Will Francis made a perfect throw to Caleb Spears on a 12-yard hitch route, and the senior’s instincts kicked in.

Uncovered at the Glen Rose 8, Spears absorbed a glancing blow to his hip and then turned up field, running through arm tackles by cornerbacks Dakota Harris and Collin Hunter on his way toward the goal line as the clocked ticked down with less than 10 seconds left Saturday afternoon in the Class 3A state championship game at War Memorial Stadium in Little Rock.

“You look at Caleb, and he doesn’t weigh a lot compared to linebackers,” said Francis, who completed 35 of 48 passes for 499 yards and 4 touchdowns. “I was thinking, ‘Get down.’ ”

Spears wasn’t.

“I just started running,” said Spears, a 6-1, 165-pound receiver said. “Then I thought, ‘Oh, I’m near the end zone.’ ”

Spears plunged across the goal line, completing a 20-yard catch-and-run for a touchdown with 6 seconds left that lifted Harding Academy to a 49-45 victory over Glen Rose.

Harding Academy covered 73 yards in 73 seconds to cap a 14-0 season.

“You just want your kids to make plays, and they had opportunities,” Harding Academy Coach Roddy Mote said.

Spears, a starting cornerback, wasn’t Harding Academy’s first option.

Receiver Kohl Blickenstaff had helped move Harding Academy into range on the previous play by snagging a 12-yard pass from Francis after the throw went through the hands of receiver Isaiah English. But Blickenstaff, who had nine receptions for a game-high 147 yards, came off the field after injuring a shoulder with 13 seconds left on the clock.

“I was like, ‘Oh, man, I better get in there,’ ” Spears said.

Even with his top receiver on the sideline, Mote went back to the same play, 63 Snag Left.

“We ended up running what we thought was the wheel, but wound up with the snag-and-go,” Mote said. “We went back to back.”

Running the Wildcats’ hurry-up offense, Francis didn’t have time to direct Spears before the snap. Spears ran the same route Blickenstaff had run against soft zone coverage and found an open spot with no defenders behind him.

Francis saw Spears, his third option, as he went through his pass progressions and lofted the ball to him, figuring that if Spears went down quickly, the Wildcats could use a timeout and set up a final play. But Glen Rose’s defender didn’t land a square shot on Spears, which allowed Spears to break free and carry Harris the last couple of yards toward the end zone.

Rising from the turf, unsure if he had actually made into the end zone before going down, Spears frantically looked around for the scoreboard. It read 48-45.

“Thank God,” Spears said, recalling his reaction to the first receiving touchdown of his career.

“It’s great that it was his time and he was ready,” Mote said.

Sports, Pages 28 on 12/09/2012

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