Kickin' it: Schmitz helps SJ-O football beat Unity

ST. JOSEPH — The moment his right foot made contact with the football, Charlie Schmitz didn’t think his Friday night would turn out how it did.

The 5-foot-5, 130-pound senior kicker for St. Joseph-Ogden spent most of his night on the sidelines at Dick Duval Field, out of sight and out of mind for the thousands of fans who had descended upon the Spartans' home venue.

Schmitz had done his job until the closing seconds, making all three of his extra-point attempts in the first half. But those were kicks from 20 yards away, right down the middle of the field.

Pressure, sure, but none like what he faced when he trotted onto the turf to attempt a 31-yard field goal with Friday night’s Illini Prairie Conference rivalry game between SJ-O and Unity tied at 21.

Only 5.9 seconds remained in the fourth quarter when SJ-O junior Brennan Oleynichak sent the long snap between his legs. A snap SJ-O senior Tayton Gerdes put down on the left hash and waited for Schmitz to follow through with a right-footed strike.

Once he did, Schmitz didn’t think he had just made a game-winning field goal.

“Dude, no,” Schmitz said with a laugh. “Usually, I do, but I saw it hugging the left side.”

That was the same vantage point SJ-O senior wide receiver Tanner Siems had from the Spartans’ sideline.

“I’m going to be honest,” Siems said. “I thought it was wide left.”

But after the football started towards the left goalpost, it veered back to the right and through the uprights, clearing the crossbar by about 10 yards.

By this time, Schmitz started to realize what was happening once he was swarmed by a mob of his teammates with 1.2 seconds left.

After a couple of failed lateral attempts by Unity on the ensuing kickoff, the Spartans sprinted towards their home bleachers with a 24-21 win and serenaded the Maroon Platoon — SJ-O’s student section — with the school fight song to cap off an epic night.

“Crazy game,” Unity coach Scott Hamilton said. “All those points and everybody running up and down in the first half and then nobody’s really doing much in the second half. High school football I guess, huh?”

Indeed. The first two quarters saw both the Spartans (2-0, 2-0 Illini Prairie) and the Rockets (1-1, 1-1) move the ball at will. SJ-O senior wide receiver Coy Taylor put the Spartans ahead 21-14 with 4:11 left in the second quarter when he hauled in a 26-yard touchdown pass from SJ-O junior quarterback Kodey McKinney.

“I got a little bit excited after that one,” Taylor said with a grin, “but I was so hyped.”

Unity, however, didn’t wilt against the Spartans and took its opening drive of the second half 70 yards in just under four minutes, tying the game at 21 following a 5-yard touchdown run by senior running back Garrett Richardson with 8:08 left in the third quarter.

Then, defense and special teams play made its effect felt the rest of the night.

“That’s a credit to Unity,” SJ-O coach Shawn Skinner said. “They really got the game played in the kind of tempo and style they wanted. I’m proud of our kids for responding. Obviously, we’d like to play a little more faster, a little more free, but we took some steps to show that we can play that style if and when we need to.”

SJ-O needed it more than ever during the final two minutes. And delivered. Facing a fourth-and-4 from the Rockets’ 37-yard line with 1:25 remaining, the Spartans dialed up a slant for Siems, who caught it in stride around the 30-yard line from McKinney and then used his 6-foot-4, 185-pound frame to drag a few Unity defenders before he was stopped at the Rockets’ 14-yard line.

“A bunch of big catches by him,” Taylor said. “We trust him, and he’s a big target for us.”

“We saw there was a disadvantage on their defense where I could run a slant right in the middle and get some extra yards,” Siems added. “We went with that and executed it. I knew I was pretty far past the first-down marker. If someone wasn’t hanging around my ankle, I thought I could have gotten to the end zone.”

Instead, the Spartans set it up for Schmitz to make his first field goal of his season in dramatic fashion after a few more plays netted no more yards in the final minute.

“We knew that was in our hip pocket, and we knew Charlie had that ability,” Skinner said. “We actually kind of screwed it up because he’s better from the right hash, but we talk about this all the time: don’t blink. He didn’t blink.”

Neither did the SJ-O defense. With the game tied at 21, Unity opted to go for it on fourth-and-1 at the Spartans’ 17-yard line with 4:10 left in the third quarter. But the SJ-O defensive line was able to break through the Rockets’ offensive line and stop Richardson for no gain, giving the ball back to the Spartans.

It didn’t necessarily win the game like Schmitz’s kick did, but it played a part.

“Our defensive line was just keeping their line off our middle linebackers and helping them be able to make plays,” said Quincy Jones, an SJ-O senior who starts on the offensive line and defensive line. “That was the biggest part of it. Just keeping them clean so they could fill the holes and do their jobs how they’re supposed to.”

All of those stops in the second half by both teams allowed Schmitz to do his job and seal SJ-O’s second straight win against Unity after the Spartans outlasted the Rockets for a 38-35 victory at Hicks Field in Tolono during the second week of the 2023 season.

“We always like playing Unity,” Jones said. “Last year was a good game that came down to the last seconds. This year, great game that came down to the last seconds. It always keeps you on your toes, so that’s nice. I don’t like when they’re that close, but when it happens and you win, they’re fun.”

McKinney helped spearhead SJ-O’s offense by completing 19 of 30 passes for 244 yards and two touchdowns. Unity junior Brayden Henry came down with a second-quarter interception for the game’s only turnover, one of several superb plays by Henry on the night.

Taylor (nine catches for 111 yards) and Siems (five catches for 87 yards) both caught touchdowns for the Spartans, with Taylor producing a team-high 80 rushing yards on six carries.

“I thought we showed big improvements in the second half defensively,” Hamilton said. “We just had some plays we didn't make that you’ve just got to make in these games. Ultimately, Taylor and Siems made more plays than what we did. Hats off to those guys.”

Richardson and Unity junior quarterback Dane Eisenmenger provided most of the offense for the Rockets. Richardson rushed for a game-high 166 yards on 38 carries and one touchdown, while Eisenmenger was 8 of 14 for 111 yards and two touchdowns. He hit Unity junior Mason O’Neill on a 38-yard touchdown pass that tied the game at 7 with 2:33 left in the first quarter and found senior Oliver Rawlings on a 21-yard touchdown pass with 9:07 remaining in the second quarter that tied the game at 14.

“I thought Garrett ran really well,” Hamilton said. “Hopefully we can get our passing game going. We’ve got to get our young receivers more accustomed to what’s going on and play a little faster.”

Schmitz was still getting used to all the attention thrown his way just before 10 p.m. on Friday. A backup kicker last season for the Spartans with since-graduated Joe Frasca handling those responsibilities, Schmitz deflected some of the praise heaped upon him.

“There were so many people who had come up to me telling me to stay focused, I was trying to block that out and just take deep breaths when I walked out there,” Schmitz said. “It’s nice, but at the same time, everyone else is putting in so much effort. It almost doesn’t feel right to be getting all the credit for this.”

That’s now how his coach or teammates viewed it.

“He’s been working all summer trying to perfect his kicks,” Jones said, “and it showed when we needed it.”

Skinner echoed the sentiment.

“Nobody really knew much about him, at least on Friday nights, until now, “ Skinner said. “You couldn’t ask for something like that to happen to a better kid.”