He rolled out to his right with his eyes firmly locked on teammate Trey Bahr, who was trying to create some separation in the end zone.
The Aquinas High School football team’s season was on the line, and it trailed unbeaten Columbus by 14 points with less than 3 minutes remaining in a WIAA Division 4 sectional championship game at the chilly Veterans Memorial Field Sports Complex.
The senior quarterback hadn’t rushed for a touchdown all season, but his options were vanishing as quickly as Bahr’s space as he approached the right side of the end zone.
So Thornton, who was left face down on the turf for a moment after a rushing hit after releasing a pass just a few plays earlier, pulled the ball down and took off from outside the 10-yard line.
“I haven’t really done that, like, ever before, but I was confident,” said Thornton, who did rush for one touchdown as a junior. “I decided that nothing was going to stop me before the end zone.”
The play caught the Cardinals (11-1) off guard, but they tried to close in. As Thornton fell into the end zone with 2:50 on the clock, the Blugolds (11-1) had new life that they made sure to capitalize on.
One recovered onside kick, one Thornton touchdown pass to Bahr and one Bahr extra point later, with 1:58 on the clock, Aquinas was celebrating an unlikely 29-28 victory over a team that beat it in Week 2 and controlled most of the action on Friday.
That means the Blugolds’ quest for a fourth straight WIAA championship is still alive with the next obstacle being a state semifinal against Racine St. Catherine’s (12-0) at a neutral site next week.
“I’ll be honest,” Aquinas coach Tom Lee said of Thornton’s scoring run. ‘ It was one of those, ‘No, no … yes!
“From my angle, I didn’t know that he was going to get in, and I’m looking at the ticks on the clock saying, ‘No, no, throw it.’ It was definitely one of those, ‘No, no … yes!’ moments.”
Thornton’s 9-yard touchdown run and two-point conversion pass to Logan Becker cut the Columbus lead to 28-22 and set the stage for an onside kick that was perfectly executed by Brady Lee and Bahr. Lee put the ball where Bahr could recover it cleanly at the 46-yard line.
“It’s been a long time since we’ve had to do it, and they roll their eyes every Thursday when we rep it in practice,” Tom Lee said. “I made them take reps (Thursday in practice) and in pregame. Sometimes it just bounces the right way for ya.”
Five plays later, Thornton dropped a long pass in the hands of Bahr as he reached the end zone with pretty good defensive coverage, and Lee made the surprising decision — to players, anyway — to kick an extra point for the lead instead the normal two-point conversion attempt.
Bahr’s kick was good, and less than 1 minute after the Blugolds trailed one of the top teams in the state by 14 points, they were celebrating a lead.
“ESPN does that analytics (odds of winning) thing,” Bahr said, “and I’d like to see what that would have been (before Thornton’s touchdown run).”
The final two touchdown drives shone deserved light on Thornton, who had completed 4 of 12 passes with an interception before they began. Thornton completed 4 of 7 passes for 98 yards with the touchdown run and touchdown pass over the final 3:31.
There was a concerted effort to get the ball in the hands of Bahr, but most of those opportunities were far down the field.
Thornton missed on a few passes by overshooting him early, and overcompensated later in the game and left a few passes short of his target. But even an incomplete pass to Bahr in the end zone — he was ruled out of the back of the end zone — right before his touchdown run was put exactly where it needed to be by Thornton.
The incompletions early didn’t shake Thornton’s confidence.
“I knew our wide receivers had this, and I knew (the passes) would come in eventually,” said Thornton, who completed 8 of 19 passes for 202 yards — a 25.3-yard average per completion. “Trey made a great play (on the tying touchdown), and I knew he could.”
Lee said the play on the final touchdown was initiated by Bahr, who caught four passes for 128 yards and felt good about his ability to get enough separation and make the key catch.
“This is the most unbelievable win I have ever experienced,” Tom Lee said. “I feel like I’m hooked up to a 220 (-volt) that you plug your washing machine into. That’s what I feel like is running through my body right now.”
