11/06/09
Nothing is settled until ... Nick Bartollota says it's settled.

In a Class 6 sectional playoff game where heroes were lined up around the block, it was Bartollota, the smallest player on the field, who settled the back-and-forth battle between Fox and Lindbergh. Fox's
5-foot-5 sophomore kicked a 29-yard field goal in overtime to lift the Warriors to a 31-28 victory Friday at Lindbergh.

Bartollota, 5-foot-5 and 150 pounds, had tied the score 28-28 with a PAT after Fox's Bobby Mahoney threw a 7-yard touchdown pass to Jimmy Brewer to pull the Warriors within a point with 17 seconds left in the game.

Lindbergh failed to score on the first possession of overtime.

The victory sends Mississippi Area Football Conference champ Fox, 9-2, to next week's playoff quarterfinals. Lindbergh, coming off the first undefeated regular season in school history, closes its season at 10-1.

"It's a bitter pill to swallow," Lindbergh Coach Tom Beauchamp said.

Fox's playoff path ought to be looking familiar. This is the second year in a row the Warriors have rebounded from a loss in the last game of the regular season to score an overtime win in the playoff opener. It's also the second year in a row, Fox has earned a rematch against Oakville in the playoff quarterfinals. Last year, Fox defeated Oakville 39-27 in the quarterfinal-round game.

If things had gone a bit more smoothly in the final seconds of regulation on Friday, Bartollota's star turn in overtime wouldn't have happened. Trailing 28-27 after Brewer's touchdown, Fox lined up to go for a two-point conversion that could have won the game in regulation.

"Absolutely, we were going for two," Fox Coach Nick Gianino said. "They're a 10-0 team, and they're supposed to win the ballgame, so we're going for two to win."

The two-point play never got started. When Fox jumped offside before the snap, the Warriors changed plans and sent Bartollota in to kick the PAT and tie the game.

The overtime session felt a bit anticlimactic after a hectic fourth quarter. Fox scored in the final seconds of the third quarter to lead 21-14. Lindbergh answered with a seven-minute, 12-play scoring drive that ended Tim Hamm-Bey scoring on a 5-yard run with 3 minutes, 43 seconds left. Fox's David Jenkins blocked the PAT kick to keep Fox on top 21-20. When the Warriors couldn't run out the clock --

Lindbergh pushed Fox back 27 yards on three plays and forced a punt from the 5 -- the Flyers cashed in on a last-chance drive that was set up by Hamm-Bey's punt return to the Fox 20. Grant Krueger scored on a 4-yard run with 1:06 left and the Flyers made it 28-21 on a Kyle Portell-to-Will Spitzfaden pass for the two-point conversion.

Starting at their 38, Fox tied the game with a seven-play, 41-second drive. Mahoney completed five passes on the drive, the last a scrambling 7-yard touchdown pass to Brewer.

dbarnidge@yourjournal.com