No. 22 Warren Central survives over St. Xavier thanks to wild penalty, Hail Mary sequence

Video: No. 22 Warren Central @ St. Xavier
View images by photographer Wayne Litmer from this showdown in Cincinnati.

There was a lot of uncertainty at the end of the wild 19-18 Warren Central (Indianapolis) win at St. Xavier (Cincinnati) on Friday night.

One thing is clear: They'll be talking about this one for years to come.

The home team thought it had won the game 18-13 after a short Warren Central completion near midfield and a series of desperation laterals finally was stopped by St. Xavier on what seemed like was the last play of the game.

But there was one problem: St. Xavier's players came off the sideline and went on the field to celebrate before the game ended.

After a five-minute delay, the referees penalized the home team, which gave Warren Central the ball for one last play at the Bombers' 42-yard line.

Zach Summeier (242 yards) then fired up a Hail Mary pass that was hauled in by four-star sophomore receiver David Bell (6 catches, 110 yards) at the 1. He stepped into the end zone to complete an improbable victory for the nation's No. 22 team.

Warren Central had dominated the game throughout but committed 16 penalties for 160 yards, two coming on fourth down that extended St. Xavier's last two drives. The Bombers (4-4) cashed in both to take an improbable 18-13 lead with 30 seconds left on a 42-yard completion from Chase Wolf to Andrew Wittrock.

It was the seventh-straight victory for Warren Central (8-1), which lost a Week 2 game to 13th-ranked Colerain (Cincinnati). This time Warren Central got the job done against a very tough Ohio foe.

After a field goal by Kevin Rockwood gave St. Xavier a 3-0 lead, Warren Central took the lead 6-3 with 10:19 left in the second quarter on a 2-yard run by Tristen Tonte (21 carries, 126 yards). A 42-yard completion from  Summeier to Bell on a fake punt set up the score.

Warren Central seemed to take control of the defensive struggle on a 71-yard touchdown run by Tonte early in the second half.

A 15-yard penalty on fourth down set up a 36-yard field goal by Rockwood to close it to 13-6 with 3:58 to play. St. Xavier once again took advantage of a fourth-down penalty, this a pass interference call that gave the Bombers first-and-goal at the 9.

On the next play, Wolf completed a 9-yard TD pass to Matthew Fox to close to 13-12 with 1:30 left. But the Bombers went for a 2-point conversion and a Wolf pass fell incomplete. St. Xavier failed on its first onside kick attempt, but it didn't go 10 yards, so it got another chance and this time recovered, setting up the Wolf to Wittrock TD that seemed to give the Bombers the win.

Not so.

It was the regular-season finale for the Warriors, who locked up their first Metropolitan Interscholastic Conference championship since 2011 with a come-from-behind 40-30 win against Carmel last week. St. Xavier (4-4) had a four-game winning streak snapped when it lost to Greater Catholic League South rival La Salle (Cincinnati) last week.