For '09 title, New London-Spicer packs all it takes to win into one quarter

The Star Tribune is celebrating 50 years of high school football state tournaments one day at a time for 50 days.

"We have guys who make plays, and it got better and better and better. It's different guys at different times. It was great." — Stephen-Argyle coach Mark Kroulik

New London-Spicer senior lineman Jon Haverly made plans for his championship medal.

"I'm not going to take this off for … four or five months," Haverly said to his teammates after the Wildcats scored 22 fourth-quarter points to rally for a 28-21 victory over Glencoe-Silver Lake for the Class 3A title. It's the only championship for the central Minnesota communities.

Quick-footed junior quarterback Jayme Moten connected on 14 of 17 passes (a Prep Bowl record .824 completion percentage) for 242 yards and three touchdowns, all coming in the fourth quarter.

The Wildcats switched to a spread offense in the fourth quarter, and Moten completed all 12 of his passes in the quarter. He directed New London-Spicer on a nine-play, 67-yard drive for the winning touchdown. He threw a 4-yard bullet to Aaron Jenny, who had six defenders within arm's reach, for the go-ahead score with just over three minutes remaining.

"Jayme played phenomenal," Wildcats coach Dan Essler said. "We have a lot of tremendous athletes running around out there, and it's tough to cover them all."

In other finals:

"I was trying to just play my game," said Alt, who suffered a broken collarbone in the game. "Not worry about the fans, not worry about anything else. It worked. This is the best feeling I've ever had in my life,"

"We're pretty happy with that," Storm coach Mark Kroulik said.

State championship games

Class 5A: Cretin-Derham Hall 16, Eden Prairie 5

Class 4A: Totino-Grace 45, Sartell-St. Stephen 7

Class 3A: New London-Spicer 28, Glencoe-Silver Lake 21

Class 2A: Waterville-Elysian-Morristown 33, Moose Lake-Willow River 22

Class 1A: Minneota 42, Adrian 21

Nine-Man: Stephen-Argyle 37, Nicollet 22