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EDWARDSVILLE — Just when King’s College quarterback Russell Minor-Shaw appeared to be running out of magic, he pulled off a few more tricks on the Monarchs’ final possession Saturday afternoon.
The most impressive was a Houdini-like escape from a sack attempt. The most important came on his final throw of the Mayor’s Cup Game against Wilkes.
Minor-Shaw threw a 6-yard TD pass to Ryan McCombs with 12 seconds remaining to finish off an 87-yard drive as King’s defeated Wilkes 27-23 in the annual battle between the Wilkes-Barre rivals.
Minor-Shaw, who was making his first start, finished 29-of-43 for 260 yards and three touchdowns while also rushing 13 times for 82 yards and a score. He was selected King’s MVP of the game. Wilkes’ MVP was receiver Jimmy Johnson, who caught four passes for 113 yards and a touchdown.
“The kid exemplifies grit in everything he does,” King’s first-year coach Skyler Fultz said of Minor-Shaw. “He hasn’t had it easy since he came in as a first-year player. He struggled to try to learn our offense, but the talent was always there.
“It was always, ‘Russ, when you put this together you’re going to be an amazing player.’”
After stuffing Wilkes on a fourth-and-1 run at the King’s 13-yard line, the Monarchs took possession trailing 23-20 with 2:37 left in the fourth quarter.
Minor-Shaw kept what would be King’s final drive alive with a 13-yard pass to McCombs on a fourth-and-3 from its own 19-yard line. He was sacked for a 9-yard loss by Wilkes defensive tackle Lance Priestas on the next play, but a roughing-the-quarterback penalty on second down gave King’s a first down at the 37 with 1:16 remaining.
Three incompletions — a throwaway, an overthrow and an underthrow — left King’s in a fourth-and-10 situation. Minor-Shaw appeared wrapped up in the middle of the line for a sack, but twisted out of the tackle attempt and completed a 25-yard pass to wideout EJ Schreiner.
Two more completions put the ball at the Wilkes 6-yard line with 18 ticks left. From there, Minor-Shaw rolled right and floated a pass over a defender and into the hands of McCombs for the game-winning score.
“It was just trying to get down the field,” said Minor-Shaw, a senior who played at Archbishop Carroll in Radnor. “Coach called great plays and I just had to execute them and I executed them.”
Wilkes had one last play after returning a squib kick to its 45, but a desperation heave by quarterback Isaiah Rodriguez was off mark.
“We had critical situations where we made really bad plays and that cost us the ball game,” Wilkes coach John Drach said. “So either you learn from those and grow from those or you take a step backwards.”
Wilkes struck first as Rodriguez hit Johnson in stride for an 80-yard touchdown seven plays into the second quarter. The Colonels then used a gadget play up go up 14-0 with 7:58 left until halftime.
Quarterback Xavier Powell handed off to running back Elijah Jules, who started left and then pitched the football to Zane Grover looping behind him in the opposite direction. Grover then threw a 31-yard TD pass to Powell, who had drifted into the right flat unnoticed.
King’s pulled within 14-6 when Minor-Shaw threw an 18-yard touchdown pass to running back Jayon Hailey in the left corner of the end zone at 3:34 of the second quarter. A bad snap on the point-after resulted in a blocked kick and Wilkes’ Jesse Addesso scooped up the ball and raced to the end zone for two points to give the Colonels a 16-6 lead at halftime.
King’s 27, Wilkes 23
King’s`0`6`14`7 — 27
Wilkes`0`16`0`7 — 23
Second quarter
WIL — Johnson 80 pass from Rodriguez (Barbieri kick), 11:34
WIL — Powell 31 pass from Grover (Barbieri kick), 7:58
KIN — Hailey 18 pass from Minor-Shaw (Mazias kick), 3:34
WIL — Addesso 98 point-after return, 3:34
Third quarter
KIN — Minor-Shaw 44 run (Mazias kick), 10:04
KIN — DiGregorio 8 pass from Minor-Shaw (Mazias kick), 0:05
Fourth quarter
WIL — Higgins 11 pass from Rodriguez (Barbieri kick), 8:11
KIN — McCombs 6 pass from Minor-Shaw (Mazias kick), 0:12
Team statistics`King’s`Wilkes
First downs`26`16
Rushes-yards`29-131`25-104
Passing yards`260`254
Total yards`391`358
Passing`29-44-0`18-28-0
Sacked-yards lost`2-17`0-0
Punts-avg.`5-37.2`3-41.7
Fumbles-lost`0-0`0-0
Penalties-yards`4-40`8-75
INDIVIDUAL STATISTICS
RUSHING — King’s, Minor-Shaw 13-82, Hailey 7-27, Robinson 8-20, Ellis 1-2. Wilkes, Rodriguez 17-26-0-223, Grover 1-1-0-31, Powell 0-1-0-0.
PASSING — King’s, Minor-Shaw 29-43-0-260, Gilchrist 0-1-0-0. Wilkes, Jules 19-101, Powell 2-4, Rodriguez 4-(minus-1).
RECEIVING — King’s, Schreiner 7-85, DiGregorio 4-53, Hailey 5-39, McCombs 4-39, Carey 4-21, Robinson 4-20, Feese 1-3. Wilkes, Johnson 4-113, Higgins 6-64, Powell 1-31, Moore 3-24, Jules 4-22.
INTERCEPTIONS — none
MISSED FGs — Wilkes, 23WR