Morris rolls the dice in OT to lift Graham-Kapowsin to stunning win over Oregon powerhouse Sheldon

EUGENE — The ESPN executives who chose to put Friday’s interstate high school football showdown between Graham-Kapowsin and Sheldon (Ore.) on national television must be feeling pretty good about that decision.

Powered by three sensational individual performances, Graham-Kapowsin rallied Friday night from a 15-point second-half deficit to force overtime, and the Eagles won a wild, back-and-forth shootout, 51-50, when quarterback Dylan Morris connected with Jonas Waugh for a walk-off two-point conversion that sent the players and visiting crowd into a raucous postgame celebration.

“We just wanted to win,” said Morris, who threw a 25-yard touchdown pass to Malachi Roberson on the Eagles’ first possession of overtime, pulling Graham-Kapowsin within 50-49 after Sheldon opened the OT period with a touchdown of its own.

“We had faith in our dudes that we could execute and we did. We went over there and were going to go PAT, and then we all just said, ‘Let’s do it. Let’s go for the win.’ It’s a nonleague game and you’ve got nothing to lose, so you might as well roll the dice.”

Following a timeout, Morris faked a handoff to running back Tommy Loa and rolled out to his right, hitting Waugh in stride as the sophomore waltzed into the corner of the end zone for the game-winning conversion.

“We knew we had it. When we called that play, you could tell real quick that we knew it was going to work,” said running back Aaron Olmos, who battered the Sheldon defense for 199 yards and two touchdowns on 27 carries.

“It was incredible. For most of us, this is a once-in-a-lifetime thing. It’s a really amazing experience. The adrenaline rush you get from knowing that you’re on TV is amazing.”

When Friday’s game started, ESPN execs must have been holding their breath after it was announced that Michael Johnson Jr. — Sheldon’s star dual-threat quarterback who is committed to Penn State — would not play due to a dislocated shoulder.

That took some of the luster off a planned head-to-head matchup between two of the top quarterback recruits in the 2019 class, but Morris — who committed to Washington after his sophomore season — did his part to entertain the national TV audience by completing 18 of 29 passes for 313 yards and four touchdowns, including a 7-yard scoring pass to Roberson and a two-point conversion throw to Michael Kelley Jr. to tie the score at 43-43 with 4:45 remaining.

Both teams got another possession with a chance to win in regulation, but Sheldon fumbled the ball away deep in Eagles territory with 2:10 remaining, and the Eagles were forced to punt after going three-and-out.

That set up overtime, where Sheldon quickly jumped on top, 50-43, with a 23-yard touchdown hookup between backup quarterback Griffin Line and senior Zach Folsom.

If the Eagles felt any pressure, it didn’t show.

Morris went back to his most reliable target, hitting Roberson for a 25-yard touchdown pass on a seam route before throwing the game-winning conversion. Roberson finished with 11 catches for 222 yards and four touchdowns.

While the passing game sparkled in crunch time, it was the running game that wore down Sheldon over the course of four quarters. Graham-Kapowsin rushed for 229 yards, most of them coming between the tackles courtesy of Olmos, a 6-foot, 220-pound bruiser.

“We like to be really intense and physical up on the line. We want to run that defense into the ground because that’s what we’re made to do,” Olmos said. “I’m a power back, so we’re going to pound it and pound it into them until they can’t take it. That’s when we’re going to take over.”

“It was a great football game,” Graham-Kapowsin coach Eric Kurle said. “Sheldon, power to them, they worked their butts off and played hard. They jumped on us a little in the second half and we had to power back, but the thing is, this group of kids are gamers.

“Our kids battled there and made some plays. They could have let it fall away — if the kids didn’t have the character and the poise ... we probably wouldn’t have been able to get back. But the kids found a way to win.”

Sheldon seemed to take control of the game late in the third quarter when the Irish scored 22 points in the span of 93 seconds to turn a 7-point deficit into a 43-28 lead.

Line threw a short touchdown pass to Folsom that tied the score at 28-28 with 4:32 left in the third quarter. Graham-Kapowsin fumbled the ensuing kickoff and Sheldon senior Matthew Burgess scored on the very next play to put the Irish on top, then Burgess added another touchdown run at the 2:59 mark to put Sheldon ahead by 15 points.

Burgess led the Sheldon offense with 169 yards and four touchdowns on 25 carries. Line completed 14-of-19 passes for 130 yards with two scores and an interception, and he also ran 14 times for 39 yards.

“We just have a lot of kids that play with an incredible amount of heart. I’m excited right now, and I’m disappointed,” Sheldon coach Josh Line said. “We’ve got tough kids and we’ve got a great culture. The message was team, and being resilient, and fighting.

“I couldn’t be more proud of these kids. They just hung in and battled.”