September 27, 2003
Piper Upsets Mill Valley
By KEVIN KADUK
The Kansas City Star
Piper coach Dick Tatro didn't waste much time in making a decision on the age-old dilemma of going for the win or settling for the tie.
Mill Valley had run the ball successfully all night. It was likely to run the ball even more in overtime. Piper had just engineered a 74-yard touchdown drive in 57 seconds, pulling within one point. One and a half seconds remained on the clock. It was Piper's homecoming night. The crowd was noisy. Momentum was on their side. The decision was simple.
"If we went to overtime, we were going to be here all night," Tatro said. "So we decided to strike while the iron was hot and go for two."
Quarterback Scott Lipovac rolled out on the two-point conversion attempt, found no receivers and made a mad dash to the right corner. Three yards later he was in the end zone for a 22-21 victory that upset Mill Valley, ranked No. 3 in The Star's small-class poll.
The successful conversion capped a wild second half in which Piper overcame numerous penalties and three turnovers and erased two different Mill Valley leads. Both teams are now 3-1.
Lipovac finished the game by completing 16 of 26 passes for 215 yards and two touchdowns. He was five for seven on the final drive with the two incompletions coming on spiked passes to stop the clock.
"I knew that if we got the ball back, we'd be OK," said Lipovac, a senior. "We've been working on the two-minute drill in practice, and we were ready for something like this."
It appeared as if Mill Valley would stave off the upset when running back David Woods scored a 30-yard touchdown, his third of the night, which gave the Jaguars a 21-14 lead with less than 1 minute remaining.
But Lipovac and the Pirates quickly responded with their game-winning drive. Lipovac continually rolled out to pass, causing an already tired Jaguars line to chase him even more.
Lipovac hooked up with Alex Angelotti on his first three completions, then found Shawnn Lampson on a 20-yard pass that brought the Pirates to Mill Valley's 10-yard line with 9 seconds remaining.
That set up the winning touchdown as Lipovac found Jeff Hamilton through traffic for the winning pass. The play was similar to one earlier in the quarter, when the two connected for a two-point conversion that tied the score 14-14.
"It's just a huge win for us," Hamilton said. "They've beat us pretty bad the past two years. Beating them is something we've wanted to do."
Mill Valley beat Piper 39-0 in 2002 and 41-0 the year before.
Piper grabbed the early lead when Lipovac found Chris Shannon down the right sideline for a 53-yard touchdown pass. But Mill Valley's Woods broke through on the next kickoff, returning the ball 86 yards to Piper's 2.
Woods, who finished the night with 207 yards in 33 carries, scored on the next play. The two teams did not score again until the third quarter, when Woods scored his second touchdown of the night for a 14-6 Mill Valley lead.
Lampson scored the second Piper touchdown on a 19-yard run in the fourth quarter
