• Sunday, February 19, 2012
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Football Game's Fantastic Finish Features 15 Laterals and Winning Touchdown

A Division III football game ended on Saturday with a spectacular play featuring 15 lateral passes that ate up a minute of time past the end of regulation and culminated in a touchdown that gave Trinity University of Texas a come-from-behind 28-24 victory over Millsaps University.

The game, played in Jackson, Miss., at Millsaps, seemed to be all but over with two seconds left on the clock and Trinity in possession of the ball but behind. A forward pass was completed, but it appeared to fall far short of the end zone. Then the receiver lateraled the ball, and the recipient lateraled it again. Video of the game shows the rest.

The game call was by Jonathan Wiener, a Trinity sophomore, and Justin Thompson, a former Trinity player. Somehow, they manage to keep up with the laterals, as one follows another, without losing track. They do kind of lose it at the end, though.

The San Antonio Express-News reported that officially the play was a 44-yard touchdown pass, apparently because the lateraling started on the Millsaps 44-yard line. No word from Trinity’s hometown paper, however, whether this was a planned play. —Andrew Mytelka