Lutheran St. Charles scores late, beats Lamar in Class 2 final

With the game on the line, Lutheran St. Charles went to Stanford-bound [player_tooltip player_id="37528" first="Arlen" last="Harris Jr"]. and the running back delivered with a 2-yard touchdown run with 6 seconds left to provide the game-winning score over Lamar, 33-27, in the Missouri Class 2 championship game. Harris scored twice to help the Cougars win their first state championship against a Lamar squad that had won eight state titles and was the defending champions. There however may have been some post-game controversy as video stills from the title game shows 12 men on the field for the Cougars on the play where Harris scored the game-winning touchdown. Lamar, ranked No. 1 entering the game, jumped ahead 14-0 early and then took a 27-21 lead before a kickoff return by [player_tooltip player_id="103071" first="Charles" last="Young"] III tied the game at 27-27 with a little more than 8 minutes to play. <strong>Players of the Game</strong> <strong>Lamar (13-1)</strong> <strong>[player_tooltip player_id="103443" first="Joel" last="Beshore"], QB, 2023</strong> He accounted for 20 of the Tigers’ 50 carries and led the team with 83 yards rushing and a first-quarter touchdown that helped Lamar take an early lead. Running the Tigers’ offense that relies on misdirection in the backfield, Beshore shined in keeping the Cougars guessing who had the ball. Counting himself, four different ball carriers had seven or more totes. He was 14 for 22 passing for 130 yards and a 62-yard touchdown pass to Trace Willhite that made it 14-0. Beshore finished the year with 1,260 yards and 13 touchdowns on the ground and 1,542 and 18 touchdowns passing. Playing in the secondary, he had five tackles in the title game, second most on Lamar, and added an interception. <strong>[player_tooltip player_id="101688" first="Austin" last="Wilkerson"], S, 2023</strong> The 6-0, 180-pound safety had a team-high seven tackles in the finals, giving him 108 on the season — also a team-high for the year. Wilkerson also blocked a point-after attempt by the Cougars in the fourth quarter, which kept the game tied at 27-27, which gave Lamar a chance to go ahead. He finished with a team-high five interceptions this season. On offense, he had 56 yards — 6.2 yards per carry — and had a 23-yard carry. During the title game, he had back-to-back rushes of 23 and 12 yards to put the Tigers in scoring position late. <strong>Trace Willhite, RB/DE, 2022</strong> Willhite scored on the long touchdown pass from Beshore, finishing with two catches for 64 yards. He was also third on the team in rushing yards with 58, which included a team-best 27 yards gain. He also came up big in the fourth quarter when he caught a two-point conversion from Beshore to tie the game at 27-27. Willhite had four tackles and the lone quarterback hurry for Lamar. On the year, he ran for just under 600 yards and had 60 tackles. <strong>[player_tooltip player_id="101685" first="Logan" last="Crockett"], RB/LB, 2023</strong> Crokett had a unique offensive line with 59 yards rushing with a pair of second-half touchdowns, the latter making it 27-21. Crockett almost had a two-point conversion that would’ve tied the game at 21, but was called out of bounds despite a dive toward the end zone had him falling on the pylon. He also led the team in catches with seven but had -1 yards on those seven catches, but had one catch for 14 yards. Crockett played only six of the team’s 14 games but still accounted for more than 700 yards on the ground. <strong>Lutheran St. Charles (12-2)</strong> <strong>[player_tooltip player_id="37528" first="Arlen" last="Harris Jr"]., RB/S, 2022</strong> Harris ran for only 41 yards — well below his 120 yards per game average — but played a big part in the game on both sides of the ball. He racked up 11 tackles to lead the team. The son of former NFL running back Arlen Harris, Harris Jr. ran for 1,607 yards and 36 touchdowns on the ground. <blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">This is the play that won Lutheran St. Charles the Class 2 state championship. Lamar finishes the season as state runner-up. <a href="https://t.co/rVvzXHs6LA">pic.twitter.com/rVvzXHs6LA</a></p>&mdash; Reina Garcia (@ReinaGarciaTV) <a href="https://twitter.com/ReinaGarciaTV/status/1466916120951152642?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">December 3, 2021</a></blockquote> <script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script> <strong>[player_tooltip player_id="130169" first="Ayden" last="Harris"], RB/LB, 2024</strong> The younger brother of [player_tooltip player_id="37528" first="Arlen" last="Harris Jr"]., Ayden was second on the team in tackles in the title game with nine, while also having a tackle for loss. He also had four totes for 25 yards on the ground. For the year, he had 643 yards on the ground and on defense, racked up 179 tackles. Other defensive numbers included two sacks, one INT, five forced fumbles and one fumble recovery. <strong>[player_tooltip player_id="103071" first="Charles" last="Young"] III, WR/CB, 2022</strong> Young made a pair of big plays that impacted the game. The first came on defense when he forced a fumble that junior CB CJ Holloway picked up and returned 50 yards for a touchdown that gave the Cougars a 14-13 lead at halftime. After Lamar tied the game at 27-27, Young took the ensuing kickoff 88 yards for a score with 8:33 left in the game. Young finished with five tackles and one pass breakup and had 137 yards of kickoff returns. <strong>[player_tooltip player_id="37540" first="Aaron" last="Coffey"], QB, 2022</strong> The 6-foot-5 gunslinger was 13 for 19 passing for 197 yards and a 62-yard touchdown pass to sophomore WR <strong>[player_tooltip player_id="171963" first="Kaleb" last="Mays"]</strong> in the second quarter to get the Cougars on the board. Coffey spread the ball out to six different targets, hitting Mays and junior wide receiver <strong>[player_tooltip player_id="172016" first="Michael" last="Parr Jr"]</strong> four times each. Mays had 118 yards, while Parr had 48 yards, but 27 yards on a long pass attempt on a key third-down attempt that kept the winning drive alive and moved the ball into Lamar territory. <em><strong>You can follow Cody Thorn on Twitter at <a href="http://www.twitter.com/FreelancingCT">@FreelancingCT</a></strong></em> &nbsp;