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One of the best Hail Marys I have seen. Congrats to Noah and his team.

I read reports that the other team took an intentional safety on 4th down by running the ball out of the back of the endzone, and then decided to squib kick to midfield rather than kick it deep.

It resulted in a great play—incredible.

Nice to see a Lake Mary standout win on a Hail Mary before matriculating to the University of Notre Dame du Lac.

Vero Beach was up 21-3.

They took an 8 point lead and turned it into a 6 point lead and put themselves in a situation where they could lose on a TD and extra point? If the coach did that, he should resign immediately.

Up 8 points and starting near their own 40, Vero Beach intentionally ran backward on successive plays to burn clock while eliminating offensive execution risk in heavy rain. Rather than expose the ball to exchanges, piles, or an iffy-at-best punt operation, they deliberately engineered a 4th-and-long situation and took a timed safety with 12 seconds remaining.

That sequence eliminated all offensive snaps, avoided punt risk in poor conditions, and forced Lake Mary to win on the least probable sequence in high-school football. Crucially, it reflected the game context: heavy rain was significantly degrading passing, and Vero Beach’s had already intercepted Grubbs three times. The staff effectively bet that, under those conditions, Lake Mary wouldn’t even reach a spot where Grubbs could credibly throw into the end zone — let alone that a high-school receiver would secure a tipped Hail Mary, immediately recognize the situation, execute a clean lateral to someone who could fight through the final yardage, and then go on to convert the PAT in driving rain. That's not uninformed, that's taking the house side of a 7-way parlay.

The outcome was extraordinary, but the decision-making process — prioritizing turnover avoidance and forcing a low-probability terminal play against a quarterback they had already repeatedly beaten — was defensible given the weather and game context. Calling it “incredibly stupid” is purely outcome-driven and ignores the actual risk tradeoffs the staff was managing in real time.

It's even worse finding out they started from their 40-yard line. It's just dumb putting yourself in a situation where you could lose the game even if it took a fluke to do it. Take a knee three times, punt the ball away, make them go around 80 yards in less than a minute, and get a two-point conversion to tie the game. If they could do all that, then you still have overtime to win.

It’s worth asking how we’d be talking about this if the counterfactual had played out instead: they sneak three times and punt in the heavy rain, and on one of those four plays the ball comes loose — the kind of late, wet fumble everyone has seen — leading to a quick scoop-and-score, followed by a far easier two-point conversion. At that point you’re heading to overtime, which is essentially a coin flip, and I suspect we’d be hearing just as much criticism about exposing the ball and the punt unit in those conditions.

And less risky than taking the snap and running around. The bottom line is they put the team in a situation where they could lose regardless of how remote the possibility was, and they did. The other option doesn't expose them to an outright loss if they score.

You are clearly wedded to the idea that this was indefensible regardless of the actual situation the coach was in. I disagree and have explained why. At this point, we’re not really debating the decision anymore — we’re debating whether context matters, and I’m on the side that it does.

Under normal conditions, kneel-punt is the right answer. In this game, the rain was heavy, the punt operation had been shaky, and the quarterback they were facing had already been intercepted three times. The staff chose to eliminate offensive snaps and special-teams risk and force the opponent to win on the rarest possible sequence instead. That exact fluke happened, but judging the decision solely by the outcome skips over the context and the risks they were actually trying to manage.

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Even a high school coach should know not to put his team in a position to lose. So you punt and at worst, the best they can do is tie the game on a punt return or Hail Mary and they still need to make a two-point conversion to tie.

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