One minute left. The ball on the 1-yard line. Two 3A ranked teams.

All that transpired in the first 47 minutes between No. 6 Valley Christian and No. 7 Gilbert Christian came down to one snap of the ball.

Gilbert Christian was in position to win after a key interception by Evan Scott. All the offense had to do was move the ball 36 inches to beat its 3A Metro opponent.

The Trojans defense needed to find a way to stop the scoreboard from changing. There wasn’t going to be enough time to for the offense to counter.

When it ended Valley Christian won it, 11-10, Friday night at Gilbert Christian when sophomore Noah Gonzalez recovered a fumble and the offense ran out the clock.

“It was a bobble and miscommunication of their part,” Gonzalez said. “I saw it and I pounced on it. I got through and it was just sitting there. It’s what our defense does. It’s perseverance. It’s never giving up. It looked like they were going to take the lead, but things like this happen.”

Gilbert Christian’s chance to win it ended when a low snap led to a bobble exchange between the quarterback and running back as the Trojans defense collapsed on the Knights backfield.

Gonzalez came out of the pile up with the ball and essentially the victory.

“It’s just adversity and making the plays when we needed to,” said strong safety Noah Lewis, who had a pass break up in the fourth that saved a touchdown. “This is the first time beating them here. It’s a great environment and we showed out.”

Valley Christian (7-2, 3-1) won thanks to a tired defense that defended a short field all game long, and had stops on several fourth downs behind the play of Corben Cecil, Lewis and Gonzalez.

The offense, which had very little time of possession in the first half, scored on the last drive of the first half on Austin Schuder’s heave to Lewis, who beat two defenders and scored with 2 seconds left in the half.

And then completed the 2-point try on double pass to from Schuder to Cody Broek to Gonzalez to close within 10-8. It’s a play the coaching staff has been saving for the right moment.

It proved to be the difference.

The other scoring drive started the second half as the Trojans went 70 yards, mostly behind 1,000-yard rusher D’Andre Dickerson, before Noah Daniels kicked a 26-yard field goal for the 11-10 lead.

“The first half, it was all about execution, and being behind on down and distance,” Valley Christian coach Jake Petersen. “We couldn't get anyting going. We knew, if we were patient, it would start going our way. The big play before the half was huge to give us some momentum.”

Gilbert Christian, which has lost three in a row to sit at 6-3 overall, 2-3 in region, had plenty of chances to score throughout the game with four drives that started at the 50 or in Valley Christian territory.

“Anytime you get inside the opponents zone you need to get points,” Knights coach John Carlson said. “I knew Valley was a good team, and Coach Petersen does a really good job. We needed to get a touchdown there somewhere. (Valley) made some plays that prevented us from scoring more.”

Additionally, the Knights went for it on fourth down, passing up long field goal attempts, five times, converting on the fifth attempt only.

“Execution of field goals isn’t always clean for us,” Carlson said. “It’s a work in progress. We made one tonight. It’s not automatic points necessarily and our defense was playing well. I felt like if we could pin them back we’d be okay.”

Gilbert Christian’s coaching staff promoted freshman Jack Duitsman, wearing No. 42 and not listed on the roster, to start at quarterback, and the Knights went 66-yards on the first drive of the game as he connected with Malachi Ahlman for an 8-yard touchdown pass.

Despite all the opportunities with a short field, Gilbert Christian managed only a field goal the rest of the way to go up 10-0.

Carlson said some of the playing calling toward the end of the first half – especially knowing the eventual outcome – probably should have been different.

“The decision to get more points there was an aggressive one by me and in hindsight maybe we should have run the ball more there with a 10-0 lead,” Carlson said. “If I had known the outcome, I would have run the ball, but I thought we could make some plays there. It didn’t work out the way we wanted it to.”

In the end, the Knights gave a freshman his first varsity start at QB, played the rival and sixth-ranked Trojans until the last possession before an unforced error ended what looked to be a game-winning drive.

“We bounced back and these kids work hard,” Carlson said. “They’re great kids and they play for each other. It hurts. Valley is a great team and great program, and it is a fun rivalry. Our seniors really wanted to beat them and we came up short.”   

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