High School Football: Starfires Fall Short in 1A State Title Game

A failed two-point conversation with 1:30 to play in the fourth quarter was the deciding factor in South Adams' loss to Covenant Christian in the 1A state championship game on Saturday.

Hood/@petarfox55 class 1a state championship/south adams vs.

Covenant christian/lucas oil stadium scoreboard: covenant christian - 41, south adams - 40 grant moser/south adams football head coach james arnold/south adams sr. quarterback )hey good evening everyone..

Blazing a trail from berne to lucas oil stadium in indianapolis..that's exactly what south adams football did this season..on saturday, the starfires playing in the state finals for the first time in school history, hoping to bring some heavy hardware back to adams county..)???the stars come in with a 13-0 record, ranked number one in the state in class 1-a... taking on fifth ranked covenant christian..

The warriors also come in unbeaten, making their first appearance in state as well...???warriors led this thing 27-6 at the half, but the game is just beginning when we pick up the action in the third quarter... james arnold dials up the deep ball to drew stutzman..

44 yards on the touchdown... that makes it 27-13...???fourth quarter is where this game really gets fun... starfires still down 14 when arnold fires another strike deep down field... this one to trey schoch... that's a 34 yard score... south adams is within a touchdown..???on the very next play from scrimmage... covenant christian quarterback austin frazier trying to set up the screen pass, but alex gorney picks it off... returns it down the warriors one yard 3 line...???two plays later... they hand it to the big fella... nick miller makes his way into the endzone for the 14th time this season... that ties the game at 27 a piece... ???at this point, it's all going the starfires way... ensuing drive for the warriors... frazier is intercepted again... this time it's brayden gilbert making the play for s-a.... stars set up shop at the covenant 12 yard line..???two plays later... christian summersett goes untouched into the blue paint... his 21st rushing touchdown of the season... and all of a sudden, the starfires have scored 28 unanswered to take a 34-27 lead with nine minutes to play in the fourth quarter...???south adams' defense forces a three and out... chance for the stars to add to their lead here, but this is where the game changed... james arnold sacked by trey flatt, who forces the fumble... warriors recover..

???and on the ensuing drive, frazier finds adrian terry over the top for the touchdown... 31 yard strike ties this game at 34 with less than five minutes to go..

???warriors get the ball right back, and it took them just two plays to stirke again... gage coffey bouncing off tacklers on his way in for the go-ahead score from 31 yards out... just like that, the warriors jump back in front... it's 41-34...???but still plenty of time for south adams... next touch for the starfires, arnold goes back to the air... 480 passing yards for the senior today..

148 of 'em to scoch... this 72-yard bomb gets the starfires down to the two yard line..???that sets up summersett again... his second touchdown of the quarter comes with 90 seconds left to play... so we're tied right?

Wrong... grant moser wants to win the game right here, so he goes for two..

???they give it back to summersett, but the warriors are all over it... flatt is there to make the game-saving tackle..???and that's your ballgame... warriors hold on to win, 41-40... starfires' bid for a state title c omes up short..

Moser spoke about the decision to go for two afterwards..)grant moser: "no decision at all.

We talked about it before the game.

If we get into the situation where we've got to go for one or go for two, what are we going to do?

We've got a great junior kicker, but he's a junior kicker.

We're not going to put it on him.

We're going to put it on our seniors who got us here, senior captains.

We talked about it with james and summersett, and summersett said give me the ball.

He had the legs turning, but obviously just too many guys flowing to them.

We would do the exact same thing again, give the senior captains a chance to go for the win."james arnold: "the way we were able to come back, and battle, and get back into the game in the second half, i think it shows a lot about our team's character, about the fight we have to win, so i'm proud of them for that.

We'll be proud we were the best team in school history, but didn't do what we should have done.")so the starfires finish the season with a 13-1 record..over the last two years, they were 25-2 with two conference championships, two sectional championships, a regional, and a semi-state title..certainly a lot for this community to be proud of..brianna that'll do it for sports tonight..gonna send back