SAINT CLAIR - Nativity's goal-line defense - Bear 46 - dug its heels into its end zone.
With just 1:01 left in the game, the Green Wave had no more ground to give.
Quarterback sneak. Nothing.
Quarterback sneak again. Nothing once more.
Timeout. Sweep right. senior Kyle Kaledas dropped Our Lady of Mount Carmel running back Eric Stewart for a 1-yard loss.
Fourth-and-goal from the 2, the Green Wave desperately hanging onto their one-point lead and just 5 seconds remaining ...
Just like senior Aric Foster would not let go of Stewart following a free kick, senior Jeremy Hoban would not let go. The rest of his teammates arrived to the ball carrier.
Hoban tossed Stewart to the ground. Hoban's Nativity teammates tossed him to the ground and jumped on top. The Green Wave would not let go of a 15-14 lead, preserving their first victory of the season with an almost unbelievable and impractical goal-line stand in the final minute Saturday afternoon at Veterans Memorial Stadium.
"I was really up after the first three stops," Hoban said. "For the fourth one, we knew they were going to do something outside. I split the double-team and saw him coming by. Once I had my hand on him, I knew it was over. I wrapped up and rolled down with him.
"It's a good team effort. I didn't make the first two stops on the goal line. Inside, that's not me. Awesome goal-line stand to end the game."
And, to the victors go the spoils. With his victory-preserving tackle to end the game, Hoban was the first Nativity player to ring the victory bell in the southeast corner of the stadium.
"That was awesome," Hoban said. "I had it first. I made that game-winning tackle, so I rang it first. I missed it from last year. There's nothing like it. It's a tradition we have. It just seals the deal on the home victory."
That victory did not come easily for the Green Wave (1-2).
Nativity dodged one bullet when Marcus Renninger recovered a fumble on the 1-yard line to stop a scoring threat with 6:15 left in the game. It was Renninger's second recovery of the game.
The Green Wave took a safety, allowing the Cougars (1-2) to pull within 15-14 with 4:15 left.
On the ensuing free kick, Stewart broke through and Foster, falling to his knees, dragged the bruising running back to the ground at the Green Wave 32.
"We made a lot of big plays today, kids stepping up," said Nativity coach Tony Klazas, raw emotion still spilling over from the win.
"It's about heart. They played with such passion today. We've just got to harness that and use it every week.
"They played as a team today. They just played together, which is a good thing."
OLMC pounded the rock all the way to the Green Wave 1, setting up a first-and-goal situation.
Nativity dug deep.
"We played with everything," senior Garrett Houseknecht said. "We didn't leave anything on the field. We left it all out there. Every one of us busted our butts, gave it everything we could. We didn't let up.
"We had some mistakes, but that didn't discourage us. We kept playing with our heart, and everybody played together as a team."
Twice Cougars quarterback Tyquan Bryant tested the Green Wave front with sneaks, and each time he was rebuked at the line of scrimmage for no gain.
The Cougars tried the right side of the Nativity defense, and Kaledas, who didn't play last season, came up to drop Stewart for a loss of a yard.
Finally, with just 5 seconds remaining, the Cougars tried the left side and Hoban broke through for the game-saving tackle.
"You've gotta hand it to Jeremy," Kaledas said. "He finally stepped up and made a play. He's feeling down after his block in the back play, and he came up and came through. He got that out of his head."
Our Lady of Mount Carmel put the game's first points on the board on its first offensive series. Bryant found 6-foot-7 receiver William Jenkins for a 67-yard touchdown pass and a 6-0 lead.
Nativity answered early in the second when quarterback Daniel Lozada found Kaledas for a 10-yard TD pass. Foster's extra point gave the Wave a 7-6 lead with 9:41 left in the half.
The Cougars responded following a blocked punt that set them up at Nativity's 18. Two players later, Bryant hit Jenkins for a 17-yard score and a 12-7 halftime lead.
Lozada and Houseknecht, along with the Nativity offensive line, got the Wave moving in the fourth quarter.
Nativity put together an 11-play, 69-yard scoring drive capped by a 5-yard touchdown toss from Lozada to Brady Morgan for a 15-12 edge with 10:05 left.
Lozada finished 10-of-19 for 95 yards and rushed for 39 yards on 13 carries. Houseknecht added 25 yards on nine totes, while Morgan caught three passes for 36 yards.
Getting the ground game going was key to Nativity's success.
"Very important because we had those couple of big runs there," Houseknecht said. "Without those big runs, we wouldn't have had the field position we did in order to score. We found the flukes in our line, fixed them and took it to the house."
That score set up the end-game heroics and provided a major confidence boost.
"I think it went up 110 percent from what it was," Houseknecht said. "Now that we have a win under our belt, we have something to look back on now instead of a loss. We can be confident in ourselves. It's just a big mental thing because we don't have to fix as much as we did last week or the week before."