Academy knocks off unbeaten St. Pius in wild thriller

St. Pius scored the first 21 points. Albuquerque Academy scored the final 21 points.

In this case, it was better to be last than first.

Academy scored three touchdowns in the final 6 minutes and 52 seconds, including two in the last 24 seconds, and the unranked Chargers posted one of the bigger upsets of the prep football season, taking down Class 4A’s No. 2-ranked St. Pius 49-36 in a bonkers District 2-4A matchup on Saturday afternoon at Richard A. Harper Memorial Stadium.

“This has been the best moment of my life so far,” Academy junior quarterback William Braun said. “I’ve never been so happy to be out here with my brothers.”

The Sartans (4-1, 1-1 in 2-4A) were 4A’s last undefeated team. The Chargers (3-3, 1-1) ended a three-game losing skid with this supremely wild victory.

“It was a rollercoaster,” Academy coach David Lee said with a tired laugh.

The Sartans led 21-0 eight minutes into the game and made it look easy with three scores on just 10 snaps.

But the Chargers had the last laugh against their private school rival, outscoring St. Pius 21-0 in the fourth quarter.

“There’s true hatred in our blood for St. Pius,” Braun said. “It’s an amazing feeling. Nothing is like it so far.”

Braun tossed a 13-yard touchdown pass in the back of the end zone to Gage Conway for a 40-36 lead with 24 seconds to go — although it took a couple of minutes to learn that information.

One official ruled the pass incomplete with Conway not having gotten a foot down, according to Conway. Then the crew huddled, and Conway said they changed course and said he had gotten at least one foot down. While a St. Pius defender appeared to also have his hands on the ball, the tie possession goes to the offensive player.

The play was a risk insomuch as Academy was well within field goal range for Conway, and the Chargers didn’t need to throw with the Sartans having exhausted their supply of timeouts.

“It’s a very risky throw,” Braun agreed. “But I have full confidence in my man. That’s probably my best friend in the world, I knew that he was gonna do me a solid.”

With a 2-point conversion, St. Pius led 42-36.

Conway added a 40-yard pick-6 with six seconds to go.

“That was probably the best victory I’ve ever had in my life,” Conway said.

It had been five weeks since the Chargers won a game, at the end of August against Del Norte. Conway broke a pinkie in that game, and he missed the subsequent three losses after that as a position player (but not as a kicker). The Chargers were idle last week.

“We had a chip on our shoulder,” Conway said. “We just lost three games in a row, and we wanted to prove them wrong.”

It was Conway who also scored on a 38-yard touchdown pass with 6:52 to go that cut a St. Pius lead to 36-34. He caught a ball from Braun at about the 10, and had a St. Pius defender literally on the ground hugging his leg and waiting for reinforcements. Braun eventually shook free, and walked backward into the end zone. He was flagged for taunting.

And this was significant, because Academy had to go for 2 and the tie, but now the Chargers had to snap it from the 18 rather than the 3-yard line.

Academy made it anyway, with Braun throwing to Conway.

But the Chargers were called for holding — just one of an unending blizzard of flags that contributed to this game lasting a marathon 3 hours and 19 minutes.

Academy went for the 2-point try from the 28 and just about converted, with a receiver being pushed out of bounds at the 1, so the Sartans retained a two-point lead.

The Academy defense registered a stop and forced a punt, and the Chargers, down 36-34, took over at the St. Pius 48. Several strong runs by Ryan Williams got Academy into the red zone.

“We just flipped the switch in our minds,” Conway said. “This past week, all of our coaches have been telling us to refuse to lose, don’t let losing be an option, and I think that’s what we did today.”

St. Pius looked fantastic early. Quarterback Isaiah Carpenter dropped a short pass to Cayl Cox-Liggins on the first play, and Cox-Liggins did most of the work on a 55-yard touchdown. Hershul Olloway Jr. added touchdown runs of 40 and 49 yards, and the Sartans were unstoppable.

A 50-yard TD pass from Braun to Logan Hague ended the bleeding for Academy. That was the first of two long hookups between those two. The other was a 56-yarder late in the first half, which ended with St. Pius holding a 28-20 lead. Olloway had three rushing scores, and 4A’s most explosive back finished (unofficially) with 131 yards on 17 carries. He had 131 yards by halftime.

Academy caught St. Pius on a 7-yard TD pass to Finn Thompson, and a 2-point throw to Conway, with 4 minutes left in the third quarter.

The tie didn’t last long. Carpenter threw a short swing pass to Olloway, who shed a couple of would-be tacklers and turned the play into a 47-yard touchdown, Olloway’s fourth of the day. He also added a 2-point run for a 36-28 advantage.

Lee said the Chargers taking care of the ball — turnovers have been a major problem all season, he said — was crucial in his team’s comeback. He said they had been averaging four giveaways a game.

“They believed,” he said.

“I don’t think we ever lost confidence for a second,” Braun said.

Academy's win added some chaos to a district that already has been unpredictable. Chaparral leads at 3-0, with Portales next at 2-1, and the Rams are in Albuquerque next week to play St. Pius.

Academy plays Manzano (also 1-1) next Saturday at Wilson Stadium.

“I think we realized that when we put out 100 percent,” Conway said, “we can beat any team in the state.”

Said Lee: “What’s funny is, I never looked at these guys (from St. Pius) as worlds better than us. I felt our team was a pretty darn good team.”

St. Pius football takes on Albuquerque Academy: Photos