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Wild finish lifts White Bear Lake

By Amelia Rayno, Star Tribune, 09/30/11, 10:20AM CDT

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Bears defeat Woodbury on late field goal

Coming into the Friday matchup, the Woodbury and White Bear Lake football teams were rife with similarities. The teams — who had matching records in 2010 — both entered the game at 3-1, with the only loss for each team coming from Stillwater. The Bears had scored 83 points in the past two games; the Royals racked up 84.

The teams then showed they had another likeness: a major affinity for drama. There were five scores in the final six minutes, and four possession changes in the final two minutes. When the final buzzer sounded, the Bears were the ones able to make the late-game magic count, coming away with the 24-21 victory.

“This is definitely the craziest game I’ve ever played in,” said White Bear Lake junior running back Nick Truen, who scored two touchdowns in the fourth quarter. “We’re all brothers and our team is really strong.”

With Woodbury up 7-6 in the fourth, after a third-quarter botched extra-point attempt by the Bears, the Royals padded the lead with a touchdown with just under seven minutes remaining. That’s when things got crazy.

On the ensuing kickoff, Truen returned a kickoff 80 yards, and the Bears successfully converted a two-point conversion to tie the score at 14. But on the Bears’ kickoff, Royals junior running back Quran Al-Hameed gave his team the lead right back with his own return for a TD, 92 yards. The Bears promptly marched the ball back down the field, stringing together several big plays that had been lacking earlier in the night and finding the end zone once more on a 7-yard run by Truen.

Woodbury’s second play after Truen’s TD was a fumble recovered by the Bears. Then WBL quarterback Eric Gebeke threw an interception. Then Royals quarterback Sawyer Moon threw his own pick on the next play, giving the Bears the ball one more time, inside the 10 with 31 seconds remaining.

After Chris Xiong — who had missed the extra point earlier — put the field goal through the poles, the sideline erupted onto the field in a sea of black and orange.

“It wasn’t just me, it was the whole team behind me,” Xiong said. “It was an amazing team effort.”

Kicker finds redemption after earlier miss

White Bear Lake kicker Chris Xiong hadn’t missed the entire season. Then, in a game that seemed to promised to remain low-scoring, Xiong muffed an extra point attempt.

“It was a bad snap, a bad hold, a bad kick – a bad everything,” he said after the 24-21 Bears win.
 
The miss kept the Bears behind, 7-6. It was the third quarter, and the home team had struggled to get anything going the entire night, with their previous possessions ending with a fumble, a turnover on downs, a punt and a fumble.
 
Still, with the score close and the chances slim, Xiong said he kept his head up, like he always does. Soon, his team lifted him up too, and gave him a second chance.
 
The Bears offense – buoyed by an impenetrable defense -- scored two touchdowns in the fourth quarter to put Xiong in position to get the ball again, this time for a field goal try with 31 seconds remaining, with the chance to win the game.
 
“I was just trying not to get nervous,” he said. “I was just thinking ‘This is another field goal.’”
 
He converted it as such – just like he has been doing all season for the Bears.
 
“It felt amazing,” he said. “But it wasn’t just me, it was the whole team behind me. It was a team effort and our D really stepped it up.”

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