Barnas, Harper engineer rally for the ages
PHOENIX - This was a comeback for the ages.
The Harper College football team pulled off the greatest comeback in its 38-year history - and the Hawks picked one fine time to do it.
Trailing 38-6 at the start of fourth quarter in the Valley of the Sun Bowl against host Phoenix College in Phoenix, Arizona, Garrett Barnas - perhaps the greatest quarterback in Harper history - worked his magic one more time.
The sophomore racked up 176 of his single-game school record 380 passing yards in the final quarter, including touchdown tosses of 34 yards to Brian LeSeur and 10 yards to Neil Sammons, leading the Hawks to a shocking 39-38 come-from-behind victory over the Bears before several hundred jubilant Hawks faithful Saturday afternoon.
A 2-yard TD run by Streamwood alum Senica Jackson with just 51 seconds remaining proved to be the clinching points.
"We really went out with a bang, didn't we?" Barnas said moments after the mind-blowing effort. "We started making a comeback, and none of us was going to leave here without the win. This is just a great feeling."
That feeling wasn't so great through better part of three quarters for the Hawks.
Barns and the Hawks looked out of sorts early against a Bears team that hadn't played a bowl game in 22 year.
The Bears led 23-6 at the half 30-6 as time was winding down in the third quarter, when Harper coach Dragan Teonic called the following sequence the turning point of the game.
A 2-yard TD pass by the Bears' quarterback Robert Benjamin (271 yards passing, 67 rushing, 1 TD) - his third scoring strike of the game - raised the score to 36-6, leaving the No. 4-ranked Hawks' chances at a NJCCA non-scholarship national title seemingly all but gone.
But the No. 8-ranked Bears inexplicably chose to go for a 2-point conversion with the game clearly in hand, infuriating the Harper players and coaches.
"(The players) were very mad that (Bears) would do what they did with the game in hand," Teonic said. "There was no reason for that and our players took it up themselves to do something about it."
The Hawks countered with a 5-yard scoring scamper by Jackson (8 carries, 37 yards, 2 TDs) with 13:39 to play, slicing the deficit to 38-14 after the 2-point conversion.
A Hawks defensive stand on the next series set the table for a Barnas 7-yard keeper that brought Harper within 38-20.
The defense forced the Bears into a three-and-out series that was capped by Joseph Smith's fumble recovery on the Phoenix 31.
That led directly to the Barnas-to-LeSeur bomb as the Hawks pulled to within 38-26 with 7:50 left.
Barnas, who will be making an announcement today about his future college plans, hooked up with Sammons with 2:54 remaining to complete the comeback.
On the ensuing kickoff, the Hawks' Eric Pugh blasted the Bears' return man and forced a fumble that was recovered by Ayodeji Macarthy on the Phoenix 15-yard line, setting the stage for Jackson's second - and decisive - score.