What a game!

It was thrilling, exciting, exhilarating, hard-hitting, gut-wrenching and at times excruciating to watch for Fremont-Mills and New London fans, but lucky for the latter, one of the best games in UNI-Dome history ended with a Tiger touchdown.

After a fourth-down Mason Porter interception stopped the Knights in their half of overtime, the Tigers ended the Class 8-Man semifinal football game on a one-yard quarterback sneak by Isaac McSorley that won the game, 60-54.

Fremont-Mills had battled back from a 21-point deficit to force overtime on two clutch throws to the end zone by star quarterback Mason Vanatta, one for a touchdown with 15 seconds left, and one for the game-tying two-point conversion, but the Knights offense suddenly stalled for their OT drive.

'Ultimately, I let the kids decide whether we were going to take the ball or whether we were going to be on defense first,” head coach Mark McSorley said after the game. 'The kids wanted to be on defense first, and our decision-making a lot has been in trusting the kids and listening to the kids.”

As it turns out, the kids made the right decision. Vanatta was taken down at the line of scrimmage by McSorley on first and goal from the 10. Keontae Luckett batted away a pass to the end zone on second down, and Vanatta scrambled to the five on third down to set up a fourth-and-goal from the five.

Vanatta, who had danced around the Tiger pressure all day, found himself in a tough spot with a couple of New London defenders coming at him. He tossed the ball into the end zone, but instead of finding a Knight receiver, he found Porter, who stepped in front of the pass for his second interception of the game.

An illegal substitution penalty gave the Tigers a five-yard headstart, getting first-and-goal from the five-yard line. Keontae Luckett took the ball to the three-yard line on first down. Jordan Johnson took the ball to the one-yard line on second down, and then McSorley finished it off with the game-winning sneak.

'Jordan Johnson said, ‘I got you.'” McSorley said about the final play. 'I got the snap, and I kind of took a hit back and I felt him behind me, and he just pushed me all the way in, so I've got to give the credit to him.”

The game couldn't have started any worse for the New London defense. Mason Vanatta took the first offensive play of the game 62-yards to the house, elluding New London tacklers the whole way. Connor Alley made the PAT, and it was 7-0 Knights early.

New London's offense couldn't get anything going in their drive, but the first takeaway of the game gave New London the ball back in the red zone. Porter jumped the first pass thrown by Vanatta and returned it to the 16-yard line.

'I was just trying to sit in the gap and anticipate the interception,” Porter said. 'It fell right to my hands, and I just tried to run with it.”

Frustratingly for the Tiger offense, they couldn't find the end zone on their next drive. Even more frustrating was the field goal attempt, which was blown up on a botched snap. McSorley tried to save the play by heaving the ball into the end zone, but it was picked off.

The Tigers trailed 7-0 after one quarter, but found themselves in a bigger hole early in the second period. Vanatta burned the Tigers again, this time on a 31-yard touchdown run. The PAT failed, but Fremont-Mills led 13-0 with 10:24 left in the half.

New London finally got a big play on their next possession. On the first play after the Knight touchdown, Keontae Luckett ran through defenders for a 65-yard touchdown run to give New London life. New London missed their PAT attempt as well, but the lead was down to seven, at 13-6.

'It's kind of a momentum boost to get your morale up and get your energy up,” Luckett said about his big run. 'The game's not over, you've got to keep playing hard.”

A Fremont-Mills punt led to another Tiger touchdown. This time it was the passing game getting it done. On second and 12, McSorley launched a jump ball to Porter down the far sideline. Porter made the catch and rolled into the end zone for a 48-yard score. Roberto Carrillo hit the extra point, and it was 13-13 with 8:10 still remaining in the half.

Vanatta kept giving New London fits with a 24-yard touchdown run on third and four on the next Knight possession. The two-point try failed, however, and that left the door open for New London to take the lead.

The Tigers had to get tricky on fourth-and-eight from the 28-yard line. New London called a double-reverse pass, from McSorley, to Luckett, to Johnson and back to McSorley, who slid to make the nine-yard catch and get the first down. That led to another shot to Porter down the sideline, an 18-yard touchdown pass to tie. The PAT gave New London a 20-19 lead.

'I saw an opening because they played a zone,” Porter said. 'They had the first guy stop me at the line and then they just let go, so that little window between the first and second guy was wide open, pretty much the whole game. And, it works a lot easier when you play with your quarterback for six years.”

Fremont-Mills drove the ball down inside the five-yard line before time expired in the first half. Vanatta was a little shaken up with an ankle injury during the drive, but was good to go in the second half.

New London exploded at the start of the third quarter. McSorley scored on a 38-yard touchdown run on New London's first possession. The Knights fumbled the ensuing kick return, and Currey Jacobs fell on the loose ball. Porter caught a 23-yard touchdown pass to give the Tigers a 33-19 lead, and F-M coughed it up again on the first play of their next drive.

McSorley scored again with his feet, scampering in on an eight-yard touchdown run. The PAT stretched the Tiger lead to 40-19, putting the Tigers up 21 points in the blink of an eye. New London's crowd was going wild, and it looked like the Tigers might pull away.

But Vanatta and the Knights had other plans. Fremont-Mills scored 14-straight points to cut the lead down to 40-33, getting a 19-yard touchdown pass from Vanatta to Dylan Chambers and a 10-yard touchdown run from Seth Malcom.

McSorley hit Darius Whaley on a 12-yard touchdown pass late in the third quarter, but that didn't hault Fremont-Mills' offensive momentum. Vanatta found Malcom on an 11-yard touchdown pass to help cut the lead back to seven points. A botched Tiger punt attempt led to a 19-yard touchdown run from Malcom, but New London did get a break on another missed PAT, which kept the Tiger lead at 47-46 with 5:50 left in regulation.

Fremont-Mills did have the ball down one, but a dropped pass on fourth down gave the Tigers the ball in Fremont-Mills territory with 2:25 remaining. New London pounded ahead, eventually scoring on a one-yard touchdown run by Luckett with 1:44 remaining. The PAT stretched the lead to 54-46, but Fremont-Mills still had one timeout.

As he had done all day, Vanatta made the plays he needed to. Scrambling from the New London pass rush on both plays, Vanatta found Chambers on a 12-yard touchdown pass with 15 seconds left. He then scrambled around and found Austin Gartner for the game-tying two-opint conversion to stunningly tie the game, 54-54.

'He was probably one of the best quarterbacks (and) shiftiest quarterbacks we've played,” said Whaley, who chased Vanatta around all night. 'He's like Isaac. There's no other quarterback we've played this year that's like him.”

But despite everything, New London answered the call when it mattered most. Porter's interception helped New London breathe, and the Tigers had all the confidence in the world that they would score to win the game.

'We knew we had it,” Whaley said. 'If we got stopped, we got down and kick a field goal, and we have faith in Roberto.”

McSorley had 213 yards passing, 65 yards rushing and seven total touchdowns, four of which came through the air. Porter had 122 yards receiving and a score, and Whaley finished with 49 yards receiving and a touchdown of his own. Luckett ran for 142 yards and two scoers in the win.

The Tigers will now face the Cinderella story of Class 8-Man, unranked Rockford in the state championship game. Rockford blasted previously undefeated Southeast Warren 52-19 in the first semifinal game.

That game will be next Thursday, Nov. 15. Kickoff time is 10 a.m.