Tied heading into the final drive, Whiteland was making a final charge.
In the closing seconds of the game, Warrior quarterback Brant Kunz called his own number to deliver the go-ahead touchdown with 16 seconds left to give Columbus East a 28-21 season opening loss.
The Warriors were left with third down with 24.4 seconds when timeout was called. Following the timeout, Kunz did a quarterback sneak right into the pile, and after a few seconds the referees awarded Kunz with the go-ahead score.
East ended up with good field position to start the game on a runback from Trey Neal, but the Olympians couldn’t take advantage. A three-and-out forced them to punt.
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A bad punt by East gave Whiteland great field position near midfield. Whiteland took advantage of the opportunity when Kunz threw to Dalton DeBaun for the 22-yard score to put the Warriors ahead 6-0 after the 2-point-conversion was unsuccessful.
After the Olympians punted on their next possession, Whiteland had another great field advantage. Kunz attempted to go deep on the pass, but it was intercepted near the end zone by Elliott Koopman.
This time, the East offense started driving. After some runs from Malachi Parks, Mark McDonald and Crase Bergman, the Olympians got it down to the goal line. Whiteland stopped them three times, but on fourth down, McDonald broke through, leaping over the pile, and the extra point was good for 7-6 lead with 46 seconds left in the first quarter.
On the ensuing possession in the second quarter, the Warriors established a good drive that was capped off with a Kunz 1-yard run to put Whiteland back out in front 13-7 with 8:05 left in the second quarter.
On the ensuing possession, the Olympians got another drive going, and it was finished with a 10-yard run from McDonald, his second touchdown of the game to go ahead 14-13 with 3:28 left. The Warriors looked to add more points to the board with less than 10 seconds left to play in the first half, but a field goal was no good and the Olympians possessed a 14-13 lead at the half.
Whiteland had the opening possession of the second half and was slowly driving down the drive and were in Olympian territory. However, Kunz threw the ball in the air, and it was intercepted by Koopman. On the ensuing East possession, Parks coughed up the ball, and the Warriors recovered.
Whiteland drove it down to the goal line. The Olympians stood their ground and forced a field goal attempt by the Warriors. However, a roughing the kicker penalty was called, which gave Whiteland an automatic first down. The East defense held its ground once again, but this time the Warriors went for it on fourth down, and it paid off. Kunz kept the ball for the score and also ran in the 2-point-conversion to lead 21-14 after the third quarter.
In the final quarter, East got the tying touchdown when Tryce Villarreal punched it in from 5 yards out to tie the score at 21-21, setting up the final sequence.
