Leyden 22, Addison Trail 15

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Leyden kept its state football playoff hopes alive Friday night when it drove 47 yards for a touchdown in the final 1 minute, 3 seconds of the game to post a 22-15 win over visiting Addison Trail.

The victory left the Eagles (4-4, 3-2) needing a victory in Friday's 7:30 p.m. regular-season finale at West Suburban Conference Gold Division-leading Downers Grove South to finish 5-4 and possibly earn an at-large berth in the playoffs for the second consecutive year.

"If we win, we're in," Leyden coach Tom Cerasani told his team after the win over Addison Trail (1-7, 1-4).

While a 5-4 record doesn't guarantee entry into the playoffs, Cerasani said he believes Leyden will have enough playoff points (based on opponents' wins) to get in with a win over Downers Grove South.

"Downers is a very good team, but so are we," Cerasani said. "The biggest thing is that we need to believe we can do it. We also can't let them jump out on us. If we're in the game in the fourth quarter we have a shot, and that's what we want to do."

For a while Friday, it appeared as if beating Downers Grove South still wouldn't be enough to possibly get the Eagles into the state playoffs.

After Leyden came back from a 7-0 halftime deficit to take a 14-7 lead on third-quarter touchdown runs of 3 yards and 1 yard by Angel Maldonado (39 carries, 264 yards), Addison Trail responded with a 3-yard TD run and two-point conversion run, both by halfback Frank Cervantes, to to take a 15-14 lead with 10:01 left in the game.

The Eagles failed to score on their next two offensive possessions, but used some good defense and their three timeouts to force the Blazers to punt one last time. An eight-yard punt gave Leyden the ball at the Addison Trail 47-yard line with 1:03 to play.

Junior quarterback David Rose, who was 1-for-12 before the final drive, completed throws for gains of 16 and 12 yards in that final drive. Maldonado added runs of 3 and 15 yards, before scoring from a yard out with :30 remaining. Rose connected with fullback Eric Bolanos for the two-point conversion, and Vince Aiello intercepted a pass from Addison Trail quarterback Eric Janik in the final 15 seconds to seal the victory.

"We didn't give up," Cerasani said. "We never looked like we were beat." Rose agreed. "Everyone was excited when we got the ball back for that last chance to score," he said. "(Teammate Thomas Cartwright) told me to forget about anything bad that had happened earlier in the game because we were going to do it."