And the winner of the STEEL Conference Championship is . . . BILLY GOATZ!  BILLY GOATZ battled MMG in an extremely close game that would determine not only the champion of the STEEL Conference but the team that would advance to the league championship game.

The STEEL Conference Championship was exactly the kind of football game fans want to see.  It was a competitive, back-and-forth game that came down to the very last play in order to determine the winner.

I accurately predicted the two teams that would reach the STEEL Conference Championship in MMG and BILLY GOATZ.  I knew it was going to be a close game between these talented teams, however, I failed to choose the right winner.  I had picked MMG to defeat BILLY GOATZ, but the opposite happened.  BILLY GOATZ came out on top and defeated MMG by a final score of 28-27.  

Here’s a recap of how it all went down:
The first half was successful for both offenses – each scored touchdowns on all of their possessions in the half.  On MMG’s third play of its opening drive, QB Tony Battaglini threw a bomb to Trey Johnson in the back of the endzone for a touchdown.  However, BILLY GOATZ answered right back with a TD of their own.  QB Jordan Fowler completed a pass to Simon Bekavac who evaded tackles to run all the way for a touchdown to tie the game at 7 all.

MMG’s next drive was much like the first in the way it ended – with a long TD bomb by Battaglini – but this time, it was to Brandon Livsey.  BILLY GOATZ responded yet again with a touchdown from Fowler to Rick Douglas to take the lead after a successful extra point to Matt Griffith.  MMG would score one more time before the half on a second TD pass from Battaglini to Johnson to go into halftime with a 20-14 lead.

In the second half, the defenses seemed to come alive a little more.  Neither team scored on their opening possessions.  However, BILLY GOATZ scored on their second possession when Fowler found Dave Bassi for a TD on their fifth play of the drive.  The extra point was no good, keeping the game tied 20-20.  MMG answered back, though, capping off their own 5-play drive with a long TD pass from Battaglini to Johnson.  The extra point was good to Brandon Livsey and MMG took the lead 27-20.  

In their final drive, BILLY GOATZ went the length of the field to score a touchdown on a pass from Fowler to Bekavac for his second TD of the game.  Down two, BILLY GOATZ took a risk and decided to go for the win instead of the tie.  Their risk paid off after the 2-pt conversion was good to Douglas to take the lead and the game.  With 13 seconds left, MMG tried several attempts at the long ball, but failed to score and BILLY GOATZ came out champions.  

This game was no doubt a battle of the offenses in a great quarterback matchup between BILLY GOATZ’ Jordan Fowler and MMG’s Tony Battaglini.  Fowler finished the game with an almost perfect completion rate of 95.2% and throwing for 4 TD passes.  Battaglini also finished with four TD passes and a 73.9% completion rate.  MMG’s Johnson led the way offensively with 3 TD receptions and Douglas of BILLY GOATZ had a game-high four tackles.

It’s hard to criticize either teams’ play in this one.  Both teams came to ready to play and played well on both sides of the ball in the hard-fought matchup.  However, BILLY GOATZ’ ability to capitalize under pressure is what gave them the upper hand in this one.  They successfully converted the 2-pt attempt which had they not done, they would have lost the game.  With that all being said, congratulations to both teams on great seasons and to the BILLY GOATZ as champions of STEEL.