10-19-2024 1:46am

Epic 4th quarter comeback and Hononegah still has a chance for a NIC-10 crown

Hononegah wins 22-19 over Belvidere North.

Belvidere, IL - Friday night at Milt Brown Stadium on the campus of Belvidere North High School, I was witness to one of the best high school games I have ever seen.

It wasn’t only because Hononegah won 22-19 over the Blue Thunder of Belvidere North. This game had just about everything.

On Oct. 18, 2024, Hononegah took control early with an opening quarter scoring drive capped off by Brock Anderson: 7-0 Hononegah. When the scoreboard flipped to the 2nd quarter, Belvidere North wrestled away control and took a 13-7 halftime lead.

After halftime, Belvidere North added another TD after a rare special teams mistake by the Hononegah Indians punt team gave the Blue Thunder a short field. That led to a touchdown and made the score 19-7. One quarter left for the Indians to mount an epic comeback and get into first place in the NIC-10 conference race with one game left.

Well, the Indians had the magic of Dominic Kelly on offense and a defense that told each other, "No more for Belvidere North tonight." (I was close enough to the field I could audibly hear them tell each other just that -it’s the brotherhood of football).

The Indians offense got into the end zone with one minute and six seconds left, then kicked the ball back to Belvidere North who returned it to near midfield (45 yard line). No worry as the time ran out of the hourglass for Belvidere North. They got into field goal range with 14 seconds left and decided to kick. A slight tug on the kick and it went wide left. Indians kneel down and the sidelines and stands go crazy.

With the win, Brian Zimmerman becomes the Hononegah High School’s winningest coach. While the team took a knee to talk about the game, Coach Zimmerman was splashed with a cold water bath. The team gave him a giant hug which probably felt great after such a hard-fought win.

Listen to what Coach Zimmerman had to say afterward.

I was able to catch up with the senior starting quarterback, Dominic Kelly, after his celebration with teammates and coaches - check it out here.

I appreciate Coach Zimmerman and his staff for the access they gave me and Dominic Kelly for taking a minute to speak with me about the epic win against Belvidere North.

Thank you to Hononegah Football on Facebook for use of the graphic in the story.

A self-described sports evangelist, Harold Bone is the Rockton-Roscoe News sports editor who is committed to finding stories behind-the-box scores and discovering engaging sports content.Got a story idea? Contact Harold via email at harold@roscoenews.com and follow him on Twitter at @SPRTSEDRRNews.