Ladies and gentlemen, football is back. Merely seeing the pigskin being tossed around is more than welcome after a six-month absence, but we were given a special treat as the season kicked off with some fireworks at a high school football game down in Georgia.
Here's the scenario: Loganville High School and Monroe Area are knotted at 39 in the fourth overtime of the game. Facing a 3rd-and-long at Monroe Area's 13-yard line, Loganville needed something, anything to mix it up. So, they dipped into their bag of tricks.
Loganville's No Look, Over the Head Pass
@SportsCenter this gotta be in the top ten!! Happened in 4th overtime to win the game. @LHSFBRecruits pic.twitter.com/6FL6m6PAVL
— Willie Oglesby (@og_triple_og) August 20, 2022
RELATED: Offensive Lineman's "No-Look Backwards Pass" Trick Play Somehow Works
Red Devils running back Solomon Leslie, who was lined up at quarterback, took the snap and handed it off to tight end Connor O'Neil in what appeared to be an end around.
*Lee Corso voice* Not so fast, my friend.
O'Neil stopped in his tracks and whipped a no-look pass over his head to fellow tight end Joshua Ruder. The ball, by some miracle, ends up in Ruder's wheelhouse. The players go crazy. The crowd goes crazy. The sideline goes crazy.
Here's a field view of the play:
Over the head pass for the win in overtime pic.twitter.com/pIe8p4FY1Q
— Pardon My Take (@PardonMyTake) August 20, 2022
Now, walking off after the ballsiest trick play call of all time would be a storybook ending. However, Ruder was ruled down at the half-yard line. Things ended up working out, though. Loganville scored on the next play to go up 45-39, and the defense held on its next series to secure the win.
The play, which is called "Banana in the tailpipe" for all the Beverly Hills Cop fans out there, is something the Loganville head coach Brad Smith uses as a fun way to end practices.
"We practiced it, we drew it up and told them that it's just a gimmicky play that we're probably never going to use, but there's a good chance that when you do stuff like this it's going to work," Smith told the Athens Banner-Herald. "Nobody is expecting it, nobody would remotely think that someone is going to throw it over their head like that toward the end zone."
Truth. The play is the embodiment of "this is so crazy, it might actually work."
What a way to kick off the 2022 football season.
