Aurora Christian wins wild one in overtime

The Aurora Christian defense was on the field a long time in the second half against Immaculate Conception. But the squad rose to the challenge one last time.

After junior John Magee scored his fourth touchdown of the Suburban Christian Conference Gold division contest in overtime, Dylan Smith and David Benson did the rest. The Eagles' defenders sacked IC quarterback Will Cronin on consecutive plays, and the Knights' last-ditch attempt came up empty as Aurora Christian survived 26-20 Friday night at home.

Magee scampered 65 yards on the third play from scrimmage and added a 2-point run to give Aurora Christian (4-2, 3-0) an early 8-0 lead. But after IC quarterback Will Cronin directed the Knights on the first of three time-consuming scoring drives, Magee returned the ensuing kickoff 93 yards to stake the Eagles to a 14-6 lead at the break.

Magee was seemingly corralled by two Knights special-teams defenders along the left sideline, only to break free for the final 60 yards.

"I just got lucky," said Magee, who ended up with 272 all-purpose yards and 179 rushing yards on 20 carries.

Then came the third quarter. The Knights (2-4, 1-2), using their shorten-the-game game plan to perfection, used 18 plays, all on the ground, to forge a 14-14 tie after Conor Hendricks' 2-point conversion augmented a 5-yard run by Jose Godinez. The 65-yard drive consumed 10 minutes, 43 seconds.

Hendricks then recovered a pooch kick at the Eagles' 34-yard line, and the Knights' monopoly of the ball continued unabated.

"That was the plan," said IC coach Mike Alberts. "We wanted to do that all game. Our defense couldn't get the ball back in the first half."

But two separate scoring runs were negated by penalties, and Aurora Christian held on fourth-and-goal from the 4 to run its first play after the intermission with 7:08 to play in the game.

Don Beebe has played the game at every conceivable level, but the Aurora Christian coach never witnessed anything like that 16 minutes and 52 seconds of action. The Eagles did not run a single play on offense.

"And we still won," Beebe said.

IC forced the first punt of the game, only to see Aurora Christian recover the Knights' muff. Magee cashed in from 54 yards out to give the Eagles a 20-14 lead with 3:41 remaining.

"Everyone (on offense) was frustrated (during the Knights' possessions)," Magee said.

"My brother (Sheldon) actually helped me out on (the third touchdown run). My defender over-pursued, and he made a great block."

But the Knights' 14-play, 68-yard march - including two fourth-down conversions ­- was completed with Hendricks' 2-yard plunge with 15.7 seconds to go. But the Eagles blocked the extra point to force overtime.