By Chris Garner
WALTON — To judge a young man’s career by his last play would be wrong, and to do so in the case of Damon Foreman’s last carry for the Lewis Cass Kings would be downright criminal.
Time after time the senior signal caller had been The One to make play after play for the Kings — not only in Friday’s double-overtime loss to Fort Wayne Bishop Luers, but all season long.
Foreman proved his mettle once again Friday: an 11-yard option run on third-and-10 midway through the third quarter; a nifty 23-yard quarterback sneak on fourth-and-inches; a 12-yard flea flicker touchdown pass early in the fourth period; and another 11-yard run on third-and-4 to the Luers 10.
And so it was fitting in the eyes of the Cass faithful that the football be in his hands for the pivotal moment of the game, as the Kings went for two points after drawing within 54-53 of the Knights.
Except this time, it was not meant to be as the bulk of the Luers defense swarmed Foreman one yard shy of the goal line, one last time.
“We walked through [the play] during two timeouts and I still don’t think we blocked it right,” Kings coach Scott Mannering said. “I wanted the ball in Damon’s hands and I thought we’d make it [but] we came up short.
“I thought [the offensive line] played real well. We gave [Luers] some problems and guys executed. If you’d told me we’d score that many points with that many yards, I’d think we’re going to win. We just needed one yard more.”
Luers coach Matt Lindsay noted Foreman gave his squad problems all game.
“We finally stopped Foreman,” Lindsay said. “He’s an awfully good kid.”
A crestfallen Foreman thought back to the semistate game two years ago when Luers came to Owens Memorial Field and edged the Kings 14-0 in 2007.
“I’m going to feel this [loss] for a long time,” the three-year starter said. “This is the second time we lost to Luers and I wanted to win for that senior class in ’07. We had ’em. We had ’em beat.
“They’re a good team. They had so many weapons and were so fast. We played with them.”
Tough night
Freshman kicker David Watterson had what could generously be described as a rough night. He missed three extra-point boots, any of which could have proven to be the winning point in regulation.
Watterson also had the misfortune of kicking off several times and twice in particular to Luers’ Ken Mullen, who returned both a total of 138 yards deep inside Cass territory. He scored on the next play from scrimmage each time.
But don’t blame Watterson for Friday’s loss, says coach Mannering. He was only doing the job no one else could or would.
“In his defense, we had four seniors that we put in that position this season who wanted no part of the pressure. They couldn’t do it,” said Mannering. “He’s worked at it very hard.
“[Mullen] is going to embarrass a lot of people. We tried to keep the ball away from him and did all but two times. When you score a lot like we did, we had to kick off a lot, which was a real concern.”
After the Kings scored first in the first overtime, Mannering chose to turn up the pressure on the Knights by successfully going for two. Later, after Luers scored twice and kicked an extra point after the second-overtime TD, Mannering went for the win with Foreman’s unsuccessful two-point try.
“We needed [Watterson] to be better but he’s the best we had,” Mannering said. “If it came down to we had to kick an extra point to win I would have put him back in. I think he would have made the next one.”
