Referees hand St. Thomas Aquinas football victory over Cocoa with incomprehensible finish
FORT LAUDERDALE — For 46 minutes, 32 seconds, St. Thomas Aquinas and Cocoa played one of the most thrilling and dramatic high school football games you could imagine.
It was a back-and-forth high-scoring affair with two offenses trying to match the other and two defenses desperately trying to make a play to swing the balance in their favor.
Sadly, those memories likely will be overshadowed by the final 88 seconds.
St. Thomas Aquinas won the game 37-36 on a 19-yard field goal by Francesco Pileggi with six seconds remaining.
But how Aquinas even had a chance to win the game is how this game will remembered.
It won’t be the three-touchdown performances by Aquinas running back Jordan Lyle and Cocoa wide receiver Jayvan Boggs. It won’t be Cocoa sophomore quarterback Brady Hart throwing five touchdowns on the road against a nationally ranked opponent in his third varsity start. It won’t be the standout performances by Aquinas receivers Chance Robinson and James Madison II to keep the Raiders in the game in the second half.
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It will be the final 88 seconds and how Aquinas went from being all-but-mathematically out of the game to celebrating a stunning win.
With 1:28 remaining, Cocoa’s defense made a stop on fourth down to take over. Tigers players and coaches were celebrating on the sidelines and the Cocoa fans who made the trip were chanting in the stands behind the bench.
Cocoa coaches were told Aquinas had one timeout remaining, so Cocoa went into victory formation.
92 seconds make it almost impossible for Cocoa to lose — not with four downs and a 40-second play clock to run down between each play.
But it happened.
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On the first play, Hart took the snap, took several steps backward before slowly kneeling down. Aquinas immediately called timeout … with 1:27 left on the clock. Somehow, all of Hart’s activity took exactly one second from the time the ball was snapped to the time he took a knee. It was the second time in a few plays that Cocoa coaches took issue with the clock operator.
Cocoa coaches were irate on the sideline, and the officials called a 15-yard penalty against the Tigers.
On second down, Hart again took the snap and very slowly went back to kneel down. As he knelt, he was tackled by an Aquinas player, which started a small melee between the two teams. The officials flagged the Aquinas player but the clock never restarted after the play. Cocoa snapped the ball for third down with 1:21 on the clock with Hart again taking a knee.
Suddenly, Cocoa had fourth down and more than 30 seconds remaining on the clock. Cocoa elected to punt on fourth down, something which stunned the coaching staff as they felt they had a first down after the Aquinas penalty.
As soon as the ball was punted, a flag was thrown in Aquinas territory, which Cocoa coaches believed was for too many players on the field. The flag was picked up and waived off.
Aquinas quickly capitalized, with quarterback Andrew Indorf completing a ball to Robinson that put the Raiders at the Cocoa 2-yard line. The Raiders clocked the ball with 13 seconds left, ran one more play then brought Pileggi on to win the game.
It truly was an amazing game.
Cocoa, the defending Class 2S state champion, led most of the way and was every bit a worthy opponent for Aquinas, the defending Class 3M champion, who routed Cocoa 42-14 a year ago.
It was an epic contest that likely won’t be given it’s due because of the final 88 seconds and the way the officials made themselves part of the game’s lore.
It’s unfortunate.
Cocoa and Aquinas deserved a better, more fitting ending.
So do we.
Jon Santucci is the statewide high school football recruiting reporter for the USA Today Florida Network. He can be reached at jsantucci@gannett.com.
This article originally appeared on Treasure Coast Newspapers: St. Thomas Aquinas football rallies by Cocoa with nonsensical finish
