ADAM RAEDER
ORWELL — Imagine you’re Anthony Oscar. An injury thrust you into the starting quarterback role.
Now you’re staring down the biggest play of your life.
You’ve led Grand Valley through four quarters, but now it’s overtime and you’re down to one play.
You’re in your senior year, so you know first hand how rough it’s been to be a Mustang. But now you’re so close.
So close to getting your team it’s first win in over a year. More importantly, so close to getting your first win over Jefferson.
You can almost smell victory over the sweat of your tired linemen.
You set up in the shotgun and take a look at the end zone. Fourth-and-goal. That’s where you’ve got to go.
You take a look over the defense then signal for the snap.
Things go wrong right away — the snap is low. You have to grab it off the ground. By the time you look up, no one is open. You need to buy time.
You role out, the long legs on your 6-foot-4 frame quickly eating up the distance between you and the sideline. You’re running out of room. You need to make a decision — pass or run.
The cornerback does, too. As you look up, you think you see it, he’s coming toward you.
You make your decision. You unwind your long arm and let go.
You know what rides on this — everything.
Now, imagine you’re A.J. Henson.
By virtue of your years, you’ve escaped the frustrations Oscar’s had. You’re only a freshman.
But your grandfather is the head coach. You know all too well how long this town has been waiting for a reason to get excited. You know what hopes and dreams the seniors have riding on this game.
You line up out wide. At 5-8, you don’t have the wide receiver’s typical big frame (you may grow into that later) but you have a knack for finding open space — you’ve shown that already.
You take your spot at the line and watch the ball. As soon as it moves, you’re off. With the ball five yards out, you don’t have much room to work with, but you’re going to use all you have. You sprint toward the back of the end zone, then sneak a peek back.
Your quarterback is rolling your way. And the corners and safeties are watching him.
You’re all alone.
You just stand there and watch as Oscar sets himself. You watch the ball leave his arm in what seems like slow motion.
You know what hangs on the next two seconds — everything.
The corner does bite toward Oscar, just like he hoped, and after a long, grueling wait, his throw finds its way to Henson. His hands are true.
Touchdown Mustangs.
For the first time all game, Grand Valley has the lead. A lead they’d hold on to by the slimmest of margins, claiming a 27-26 overtime win against the Falcons at Grand Valley Stadium.
“It was just beautiful,” Oscar said. “I was thinking, ‘As soon as the corner takes that step, I’m throwing it right to him.”
“It was the slowest thing I’ve gone through in my life,” Henson said. “I didn’t think it would ever come down.”
But come down it did, and when the game-tying extra point went wide, it brought six straight years of futility against the Falcons down with it.
“This was big, especially for us seniors,” Oscar said. “We’ve been here three years, and haven’t beaten them once. This is huge.”
It also guarantees the Mustangs that this season will be better than last year, when they toiled to an 0-10 record.
“These guys have incredible heart,” Henson said. “This means a whole lot. The senior class went the last three years without beating Jefferson. You could see in their eyes what this meant.”
It meant so much, that when the Mustangs went into halftime trailing 14-6, having barely been able to move the ball against the Falcons defense, it was the seniors who let their team know that the second half was going to be different — it was going to be theirs.
“We challenged them to leave it all on the field,” Oscar said. “We told them, ‘Make sure when you look at yourself in the mirror, you can say you did all you could.’ ”
The challenge worked.
On the first drive of the second half, the Mustangs needed just two pitches to Jacob Susman to find the end zone as the junior running back ripped off runs of 44 and three yards. Then Oscar found wide receiver Kevin Stacey for the tying two-point conversion.
“Our seniors stepped up to the challenge,” Grand Valley coach Tom Henson said. “They led us.”
But after a slew of turnovers kept Jefferson off the board for almost an entire half (in the end, the Falcons would lose three fumbles and throw two interceptions), quarterback Johnny Namey’s 30-yard bootleg gave the Falcons the lead with just 3:46 left to play.
“I thought he played really well,” Jefferson coach Jimmy Henson said of his quarterback. “He had a couple interceptions, but he did some good things and gave us some options (with his running).”
Namey would finish as his team’s top rusher, carrying the ball 11 times for 84 yards.
But his longest run of the night wasn’t enough to seal a win because Susman answered with a longer sprint.
Susman took the ensuing kickoff 65 yards, setting the Mustangs offense up on the Jefferson 15-yard line.
After their first two plays went backwards, Oscar connected with Stacey on a 16-yard fade in the left corner of the end zone to even the game.
“What did I tell you? Turnovers and special teams,” Jimmy Henson said. “Those were the difference.”
Getting the ball to start overtime, Grand Valley would need six plays — and those fourth-down heroics — to get into the end zone. It would take Jefferson only four for a score of their own, three of which were Namey runs, including his 2-yard plunge for the touchdown.
Then, all the Mustangs could do was watch and hope as the Falcons lined up for the extra point.
“My heart stopped,” A.J. Henson said. “I couldn’t breathe. I couldn’t move.”
Until he saw it — just wide right.
Then pandemonium erupted.
There were hugs. There were all manners of high-fives.
For the first Friday night in a long time, it felt great to be a Mustang.
“It’s been rough for a while,” Tom Henson said. “No one knows how well the team has hung together. And how supportive the community has been. That’s important.”
And if you were there in the stands at Grand Valley Stadium, you don’t have to imagine what it felt like to bask in the glory when that support turned into a win to remember.
Raeder is a sports writer for Star Beacon. Reach him araeder@starbeacon.com.
