Video: Five fantastic high school football playoff finishes

If Friday Night Lights aren't a hot enough commodity, consider the same product during playoff time.

"Insane." "Are you kidding me?" "Never seen anything like it."

Those were such the tweets of fans to the following wild and unpredictable playoff games and finishes. 

There's a long postseason to go, and we may even see better this coming weekend, but here are five of the more unforgettable finishes and/or games from the 2014 high school football postseason throughout the United States.



These are in no particular wacky order.

1. Bad Decision

Fort White (Fla.) played a fantastic game right to the end against heavily favored Florida State University (Tallahassee, Fla.). But they made bad choice.

They punted to University of Alabama-bound Ronnie Harrison, who returned it 80 yards for a touchdown. On the final play, giving FSU a 20-14 win in a Florida 4A state playoff game.

The Fort White punter did wonders just to catch an errant snap and perhaps he originally attended to kick the ball out of bounds. But off-balance and desperate, he just got it off — a good punt by any other standards. The one problem: it fell into the hands of the ever-elusive Harrison.{PAGEBREAK}
2. Whiplash


It's rare a game lives up to expectation, especially when the game is picked as the No. 1 game in the nation. But the crazy 68-64 Centennial (Corona, Calif.) win over Serra (Gardena, Calif.) in the CIF Southern Section Pac 5 playoffs Friday surpassed it.



The game featured more than 1,000 yards and — get this — 15 lead changes in a battle of once nationally-ranked teams. The back-and-forth action could have caused whiplash for fans trying to keep up. See complete story.

Serra lost despite one of the best games a quarterback has played in a Pac-5 playoff game. Khalil Tate passed for 402 yards and five touchdowns, and ran for 119 more and three more scores. J.J. Taylor scored on a 1-yard run with 5:23 left for the 15th and final lead change, putting his team up 68-64. An interception by host Centennial with 2:57 to go basically sealed it.{PAGEBREAK}
3. Good Lourdes

Who could blame the Lourdes (Rochester, Minn.) coaching staff for going for two points in a do-or-die elimination Class 3A playoff semifinal game with Pierz. It was snowing and cold.

When Lourdes running back Carter Greguson looked to be stopped cold a yard short of the end zone, it looked like an ill-fated decision. But quarterback Noah Hillman and Greguson were on the same page. Hillman screamed for the ball and, while in the grasp, Greguson pitched the ball back.

Hillman basically strolled into the end zone and the top-seeded Eagles escaped with a wild 25-24 victory.

"It was crazy," Hillman told SCTimes.com. "Coaches always tell us not to go down with the football on a two-point play. Carter pitched it to me and I just found the end zone."{PAGEBREAK}
4. Hail Matthews



Hail Mary passes are, by definition, desperate plays. But the pass that Dunham (Baton Rouge, La.) completed to stun Menard on Friday night seemed particularly unlikely. Quarterback Jyron Walker threw up a prayer in the vicinity of receiver Josh Matthews — and about eight Menard defenders.

Somehow, Matthews came down with the pass for a 46-yard score, and Dunham came away with a 27-24 victory over Holy Savior Menard in the LHSAA Division III playoffs.

"I saw the ball go up. They tipped it up in the air and I took it off of one of the defensive player's hands," Matthews told The Advocate after the game.{PAGEBREAK}
5. Whiplash 2


On a field just five miles away from the original Whiplash, in the very same town, in the very same Southern Section Pac-5 Division of the playoffs, the home team Norco (Calif.) hung on for a 71-70 win over St. Bonaventure (Ventura). The game went to triple overtime and 43 points were scored after regulation. See the Qwixcore scoring summary.

The game featured quite a battle of quarterbacks as Norco junior Victor Viramontes accounted for 538 yards and eight touchdowns. St. Bonaventure quarterback Ricky Town, who has committed to USC, threw for 374 yards and a school record six touchdowns, according to the Ventura County Star.

In the third overtime, St. Bonaventure scored a touchdown and went for two. It failed, On 3rd-and-goal from the 11, Viramontes found Kenny Mattocks with the game-tying touchdown and Wes Koerber kicked the extra point to end it. According to the Riverside Press-Enterprise Viramontes indeed found Mattocks. The pass was actually intended for Jordan Bogardus. Besides Viramontes' 345 yards rushing, teammate Gaven Hughes rushed for 245 yards and two scores.



Now the two archrivals who combined for 138 points in first-round wins get to play each other, as Norco visits Centennial.