Chowchilla scores touchdown, gets 2-point conversion to defeat Caruthers in final seconds
The decision to go for the two-point conversion and the win in the final seconds wasn’t a tough one for Chowchilla High School head football coach Alex Pittz.
Momentum was on Chowchilla’s side after the Tribe drove 72 yards in the final minute and senior receiver Anthony Avila had pulled them within one point of Caruthers after hauling in an 8-yard touchdown catch. The Tribe had also been successful on all three of their two-point conversions earlier in the game.
Still, the Northwest Sequoia League championship was on the line.
Chowchilla quarterback Davian Stephenson took the snap, saw the middle was taken away and bounced the ball to the outside and easily raced into the end zone.
Final score: Chowchilla 32, Caruthers 31.
The Tribe (7-2, 6-0 Northwest Sequoia League) clinched at least a share of their first league championship since 2016.
“We’re exhausted and we’re going to take advantage of it when we’ve got it,” said Pittz about the decision to go for two and the win at the end. “They hadn’t stopped us on two-point conversions all night and I don’t want to put it back in (Hunter Babb’s) hands again. We had momentum and we wanted to take it.”
Caruthers (6-3, 5-1 NSL) still had time for one offensive play, but Babb was tackled and the Tribe players exploded off their sideline to celebrate a hard-fought victory against Caruthers and Babb, who entered the game as the nation’s leading rusher with 2,356 yards to go along with 34 total touchdowns.
Avila and some of his teammates were in tears after pulling out the victory.
“There’s no way to describe the way I’m feeling right now, the way we’re all feeling, what the town is feeling, what the team is feeling, what the coaches are feeling,” Avila said. “There’s no words to describe what we’re feeling right now.”
It’s a game that went back and forth in the second half. Caruthers stopped Chowchilla at Blue Raiders’ 1-yard line on the final play of the first half to keep the Tribe’s lead at 16-14.
Babb showed why he’s leading the nation in rushing as he finished with 283 rushing yards and four touchdowns on 27 carries.
The senior broke free for a 36-yard touchdown run to give Caruthers a 31-24 lead with 1:12 left in the game.
The Tribe — who rushed for 352 yards in the game — had to turn to Davian Stephenson to lead them down the field on the final drive. Stephenson switched from receiver to quarterback for the Tribe when starter Benson Soares tore ligaments in his knee on the second drive of the season.
“I believed in us, I knew we could do it, but we all had to do our jobs,” Stephenson said. “We got it done.”
Stephenson led the Tribe 72 yards on the final drive with just 1:06 left on the clock. The junior quarterback completed four of six passes for 57 yards.
“The poise for a guy who has never played quarterback before, he’s just gotten better and better every single week,” Pittz said. “To have the poise and just the ice water in his veins to get that done, it’s a pretty special player.”
Stephenson lofted a high pass into the back corner of the end zone where Avila out-jumped a defender and pulled down an 8-yard touchdown catch to pull Chowchilla within 31-30 with 8.9 seconds left.
It was Avila’s second touchdown catch of the game.
“That’s how we roll, that’s Chowchilla Tribe football right there,” Avila said. “We don’t give up until the game is over. It was on me. They told me big time, big plays. That’s what I’m here for, that’s what I had to do. I love it.”
That set the stage for Stephenson to run in the two-point conversion and the Tribe were soon celebrating their first championship in seven years.
“Extremely proud, 20 guys, 20 of the toughest men I’ve ever coached,” Pittz said. “It’s the story of the season, continue to overcome adversity and continue to fight, never, never be down. It’s not if it’s going to happen, it’s when is it going to happen.”
Chowchilla can win the title outright next week when it travels to Liberty, which has just one league loss.
