Heaps shows guts in defeat
Oaks Christian Defeats Skyline, 28-25
SAMMAMISH, Wash. -- Helicopters periodically circled overhead. A battalion of TV trucks with satellite antennas extended filled the parking lot. A sellout crowd started lining up three hours before kickoff and stretched all the way out of Skyline High School and down a busy, four-lane street when the gates opened.
On Friday night in this well-manicured suburban community 25 miles east of Seattle, the main attraction was a teenage quarterback matchup featuring Jake Heaps and Nick Montana. It was hardly a disappointment for the 6,000-plus people who squeezed into Spartan Stadium and watched a steady Montana outduel an ailing Heaps and lead the visiting Oaks Christian Lions (Concord, Calif.) to a 28-25 victory, ending Skyline's 30-game win streak.
"It was the opportunity of a lifetime," said Heaps, suffering from the flu and vomiting periodically on the sideline. "Unfortunately, I made a mistake at the end of the game."
With 49.9 seconds remaining, the Brigham Young University-bound quarterback (the nation's 119th-ranked overall prospect) drove his team to the Oaks Christian 30, only to have his wobbly pass intercepted by Lions defensive back Max Napolitano when it was meant to be dumped out of bounds.
Heaps, hit as he let it go, completed 14 of 32 passes for 262 yards and two touchdowns, throwing three interceptions. Montana, who will return to Seattle next fall as Washington's top incoming quarterback recruit, was a little more accurate, connecting on 21 of 33 attempts for 262 yards and two scores, with two interceptions.
"It was a shootout and a battle," said Malcolm Jones, Oaks Christian's two-way back, who is the No. 71 prospect on the ESPNU 150. "Both quarterbacks had their struggles and both had their good points. I'd say it was a draw."
On an unseasonably warm and cloudless evening in the Northwest, the whole show was more movie premiere than football game. With his leading-man looks and wearing a black top, Joe Montana showed up to watch his son play, eerily looking more like actor Daniel Craig's James Bond character than a former NFL quarterback. Wayne Gretzky, whose son Trevor is a backup quarterback for Oaks Christian, sat in the stands with his actress wife, Janet. And shortly after the opening kickoff, actor Will Smith, whose son Trey is a Lions wide receiver, snuck through the north end zone with a four-man entourage, joining his wife Jada Pinkett Smith in the crowd.
With a half-dozen college assistant coaches analyzing the action from the Skyline sideline, Heaps appeared disoriented once the game began. He was sacked on his first play by future BYU teammate Alani Fua and fumbled. He couldn't get the snap off in time on the third play, leading to a penalty. On his team's second possession, Heaps questioned the sideline play call and signaled for a timeout. He threw his first interception on the following play.
All of this early confusion on behalf of the home team helped Oaks Christian bolt to a 14-0 lead within the game's first five minutes and threatened to blow this one wide open. Montana was responsible for both scores, finding Trey Smith in the end zone with a 12-yard pass and connecting with Fua on a 24-yarder.
"These guys are from California and it's a different type of speed," Heaps explained. "We had to adjust. After the first quarter, we adjusted. In the first quarter, we definitely had some nerves. We got the jitters. But there was no doubt we could come back."
The Skyline quarterback, guzzling fluids nonstop between offensive possessions, made good on this promise by leading his team to 17 unanswered points in a chaotic second quarter.
He found his favorite receiver, junior Kasen Williams, on 84- and 37-yard TD passes to tie the game, and Sean Penberthy put the Spartans ahead with a 30-yard field goal, all in four and a half minutes. The free-wheeling Williams had the ball poked from his grasp from behind on the Lions' 20 on the longer play, but recovered it in the end zone.
Montana, however, regrouped his team nicely and had it back on top for good, 21-17, with a 25-yard scoring toss to Fua right before halftime.
"Nick's a fantastic player," Heaps said. "They won the game, so he had the advantage. I thought it was a great opportunity for him to show the Washington fans what he could do."
Heaps came down with the flu the night before the hyped contest. Although he threw a tighter spiral, he wasn't nearly as mobile or as comfortable standing in the pocket as Montana. He couldn't have been feeling very well when Oaks Christian blew out to a comfortable 28-17 advantage on Jones' 52-yard scoring burst up the middle on the first play of the fourth quarter. Jones, who rushed for a game-high 134 yards on 19 carries, said afterward he would visit Stanford next weekend and then choose between the Cardinal and UCLA.
Stoic on the sideline while several of his teammates turned and tried to incite the overflow following, Heaps had more willpower than firepower at the end. He directed his team on a 53-yard drive in six plays, handing off to running back Nick Washburn for a 2-yard score, and then hit Michael Ford with a two-point conversion pass to pull Skyline within three. He moved his team 46 yards in four plays before his fateful pick.
Besides the celebrity turnout, the game was unusual for all the crossover connections. Heaps wasn't planning on spending Saturday in bed recovering; he flew to Utah with Oaks Christian linebacker Zac Stout and Fua, all future college teammates, to attend the BYU-Florida State game. Montana, who stopped and posed for a photo with a Skyline cheerleader before reaching the locker room, planned to spend the day at Husky Stadium watching Washington host USC. He also admitted to approaching Skyline's Williams, who had six catches for 164 yards in the game and is the son of a former Huskies receiver (Aaron Williams), and suggesting they become college teammates.
In Oaks Christian's postgame celebration on the field, Will Smith drew a huge crowd, wisecracking and doing an impersonation of his son on the field reacting to a play. "He was bobbled-heading on me," the actor quipped.
Heaps was gracious in his first defeat as a Skyline starter, answering every last reporter's question before heading to a shower. The quarterback hype surrounding the game was more amusing to him than distracting.
"Both Nick and I know it was a team effort, but it was a lot of fun," he said. "I'll never forget this game. Or this loss."
Dan Raley is a freelance writer in Washington.
