Week 5 was about as exciting a finish as you could ask for in SOFA as the Yellow team stormed back from a 20-6 deficit to force double overtime and win 58-56 at Kickapoo High’s practice field.

David, a newcomer to SOFA, was a very formidable opponent for Yellow as he threw passes to the heavens. Jody and Jerome caught deep balls all over in the first half, and Jerome scored off a bomb — before you knew it the score was 20-6 and it looked like Yellow was about to be blown out.

I wasn’t a very effective QB today so we switched out to Pete and it paid off. He led us to the 1-yard line where Jessica promptly punched it in for nine points (HALLELUJAH) and cutting the lead to 20-15. After the conversion the score stood 20-16.

Jerome went deep again and caught another beautiful pass from David to extend the lead to ten at halftime, and the score was 26-16.

Yellow received to begin the second half and responded to the challenge by scoring on a pass from me to Ryan for a TD and a 26-22 deficit. The conversion failed and Yellow kicked back off.

We traded touchdowns and trailed 32-30 with seven minutes to go. Yellow got a huge stop on defense after Jerome couldn’t haul in his third long pass of the day on a fourth-down hail Mary…we responded by running it down the field, then Pete directed me to the back corner of the endzone where I caught my only TD of the day. It put us up, 38-32 after a nifty two-point conversion by Ryan.

Jody promptly returned the kickoff for a 38-38 tie, and we marched back downfield hoping to take the lead once again. However, with 1:20 left, Ryan tried to escape David’s sack and flung it to Nathan — but Jerome stepped right in front of it for the interception. He returned it to midfield, and Red set up shop from there.

Red scored on a nifty run by Jody to go up 44-38 with only forty seconds left in the game, but it left us one more chance. On first and second down we got short gains, but on third down with 25 seconds to go, Pete saw me open in the flat…I cut to the inside and thanks to Nathan’s block I gained twenty yards, running out of bounds to stop the clock with 18 ticks left.

Pete then escaped David’s rush and ran to glory from twenty yards out, tying us up at 44 apiece with only 10 seconds left. Our conversion, which would have put us up by one, failed after the ball sailed off Ryan’s fingertips in the back corner.

David’s pass fell harmlessly to the turf with no time on the clock, setting us up for an equal-possession overtime.

Red scored on the first play, with David handing off to Jody, who used his blockers to spring him free for a 50-44 lead. Pete intercepted the one-point conversion but had his flag pulled, so the score stayed at 50 apiece.

Nathan then caught a touchdown for us, and tied it at 50, sending us to a second OT session.

In the second session, Red started out with possession again and — what do you know — Jody scored again to put Red up 56-50. On a fade route to the end zone for a two-point conversion, Pete picked off David and returned it all the way for a two-point score for Yellow, making the score 56-52 and meaning the game would end regardless of what happened next possession.

We worked it down to the five-yard line — Nathan caught a pass to the 2, Jessica ran forward to the 1, and then Ryan caught a pass for no gain. On fourth and goal from the 1, Pete zipped a pass right in to Ryan — I think Jerome tipped it, possibly — and Ryan held on for the TD and the 58-56 win.

What a thriller! Hope you all can join us next week…see some photos of this week here.