Team Heinz wins All-Star Game on last-minute field goal
DU QUOIN -- On Friday night in the Southern Illinois All-Star Football Game, Team Woodward tried what's become an old staple of football - icing the kicker.
Leading 13-12 with six seconds left and the ball on its own 32, Team Woodward called a timeout to give Team Heinz's Dylan Carns a little bit more time to think about the 49-yard field goal attempt he was about to take.
But it didn't work, as Carns, of Pinckneyville, easily split the uprights with nine-tenths of a second remaining, giving Team Heinze the 15-13 victory in a game in which Team Heinze led for much of it.
Carns - who said his longest attempt last season was 43 yards, but was able to connect from 65 in practice - was given the nod after Team Heinz quarterback Brandon Beery (West Frankfort) was sacked for a two-yard loss to bring up second-and-12 from the 32.
The kick ended what had been a roller coaster final two minutes of the game, which included Team Woodward taking its first and only lead of the game on a 22-yard touchdown pass from quarterback Jake Simon (Carmi-White County) to Wyatt Borah (Fairfield) with 1:32 remaining.
Simon added the extra point to give Team Woodward a 13-12 advantage.
In the first year of a reshuffled format which factors in what teams did in their respective regular season conference races, the game was a showcase of defense for much of the first half.
Team Heinz took a 5-0 lead on a 24-yard field goal by Carns, who was named the game's MVP, and a safety with 3:14 left in the second quarter after Sparta's Justyce Bulliner was tackled in the end zone.
Team Heinz made it 12-0 on a one-yard plunge by Eldorado's Payton Price with 4:05 left in the third quarter, but Team Woodward finally cracked the scoreboard on a 59-yard run by Gage Burroughs (Mount Vernon) with exactly one minute left in the frame.
Randolph County was well represented with seven players on Team Woodward - Drew Byington (Sparta), Savion Smith (Chester), Chris Lang (Chester), Bulliner, Rylee Sheldon (Sparta), Daltyn Korando (Chester) and Dylan Adams (Sparta).
After the game, Bulliner was presented the Coach Paul Houghton Award for team sportsmanship on Team Woodward.
"You get your one last opportunity to work with your seniors that you coached," said Sparta coach Rob Kirk. "For me, working with track and wrestling, you get to see your track kids and your wrestlers that you competed against and now you get to coach them.
"That whole part of bringing everybody together and the community together."
Red Bud is not a member of the Southern Illinois Coaches Association (which helps conduct the event), which was why no Musketeers were on either roster.
All three Chester players will be playing college sports, with Lang (Missouri Baptist University) and Korando (Quincy University) continuing their careers on the gridiron this fall. Smith will play basketball at Blackburn College.
"It was an honor to be selected and it was a good experience to play with guys I played against," Korando said.
"It was a good experience, only playing football for three years and even though I'm not moving on to play at the next level, I had a lot of fun playing," Smith added.
"I'm glad I get to go play college football, but nothing's going to compare to high school days," Lang chimed in.
The All-Star Game has gone through several evolutions in recent years, from its reboot as the Southern Illinois versus Western Kentucky All-Star Game in the mid-2000s, to the West vs. East All-Star Game and now the Southern Illinois All-Star Football Game.
The teams this year were named after the honorary coaches - Jim Woodward and Fred Heinz.
The contest has always been limited to graduating seniors only and has served as the unofficial start to summer workouts across the region as teams prepare for the 2017 season.