By Brian McKim
On a crisp Monday morning in Lincoln in front of 1,800 estimated fans at Memorial Stadium, the FC Sacred Heart Irish earned a third come-from-behind playoff win of this fall and in doing so, captured the program’s eighth state football championship, beating Twin Loup 44-28.
Sacred Heart, the eighth seed in the East bracket entering this year’s playoffs, went through top-seeded Osceola with an implausible 34-28 road win in the second round, then traveled way north and hammered fifth-seeded Bloomfield 46-12 before finally returning home to face No. 1-ranked and second-seeded BDS in a dramatic rematch of a 36-12 Irish loss back on Oct. 7. Sacred Heart’s thrilling 16-12 upset, with the winning drive mounted capped with 14 seconds left on the clock, secured a return trip to Lincoln’s Memorial Stadium for the D2 title game, against the No. 1 seed in the West. Again, and only fittingly, the Irish fell into a quick 14-0 hole only to climb out and emerge holding the shiny trophy. FCSH Coach Doug Goltz improves to 8-0 in state football championship games and the 2016 trophy will find its place alongside that garnered in 2013, 1994, 1993, 1992, 1991, 1990 and 1989. None of those seven teams overcame half the adversity this one did. After losing to BDS in the regular season, FCSH (fairly or otherwise) nearly tumbled completely out of the state rankings, emerging 10th that week in the Omaha World-Herald. This week? No. 1.
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