By joe scalzo

scalzo@vindy.com

GIRARD

With his team trailing by one, 40-39, with 23 seconds left and Liberty running back Lynn Bowden showing no signs of catching the flu before overtime, Girard High football coach Nick Cochran decided to put the ball, and the game, in the hands of his best player: senior quarterback Nick Cardiero.

Cardiero had just tossed a 27-yard touchdown pass to senior Chris Vince, capping an improbable 22-second scoring drive that started after Girard senior Isaiah Mann returned Liberty’s squib kick to the Leopards’ 35. Having already missed two extra points — and having already watched Liberty’s freshman phenom terrorize his defense — Cochran opted for the two-point conversion.

“I don’t know if we’re going to stop them [in overtime],” Cochran said of Liberty. “If we do what we’re supposed to, he [Cardiero] should be standing up in the end zone.”

Liberty coach Kevin Cylar’s defensive plan?

“I just tried to get as many seniors out there as possible,” Cylar said. “This is their team.”

As he had done all night, Cardiero lined up next to James Cupan in the shotgun. Cardiero faked the pitch and headed straight into the middle of the line, where he was met by Liberty senior Dontre Adams. Cardiero dove at the goal line but fell about two inches short.

The ensuing onside kick squibbed out of bounds, allowing Liberty to run out the clock.

“Battle of Belmont,” said Cylar, the first year head coach who spent the last eight years at Ursuline. “Obviously this was my first one and my seniors all week have been giving me the history lesson and they just came up big.

“From the waterboys on up, everybody did their part today.”

Bowden’s part, however, was just a little bit bigger. He carried 32 times for 207 yards and four touchdowns, but his biggest play came at quarterback.

Facing a fourth-and-5 at the Girard 33 with 1:15 left, Bowden took the shotgun snap, immediately retreated in the face of pressure and did his best Frank Tarkenton (or, if you like, Russell Wilson) impression, scrambling deep in the backfield before chucking the ball in the general direction of QB-turned-WR Asim Pleas, who caught it near his ankles for a 17-yard gain.

“I was supposed to run, but I told my receivers to still do their routes, so if I got in trouble, I could still throw the ball,” Bowden said. “It was a little wobbly, but my boy Asim managed to get it.”

Two plays later, Bowden again lined up at QB and ran 16 yards for a touchdown that gave Liberty a 40-33 lead with 45 seconds left.

“That [moving Bowden behind center] was something we had been working on for some time,” Cylar said. “That was nothing we planned [for Friday]; we didn’t work on it at all this week. But sometimes you just go with your gut.

“I feel like if we spread the field out, you’ve got a puncher’s chance. This is a heavyweight fight, so I wanted to put it into my big hitter’s hand and see what he could do with it.”

The same was true of Cochran with Cardiero, who threw for 240 yards and two TDs and ran for another 50 yards and a TD.

“The only people that are going to stop us is ourselves,” said Cochran, whose team started slow and fell behind 20-6. “That’s what happened tonight.”