From the archives - Amari Spievey

Thought this was interesting on my return to Palmer Field. From 6 years ago when Amari Spievey (now of the Lions) stars for the Falcons against Shelton:

In freezing temperatures, and with other games much closer by, I made the decision to head to Middletown Saturday night to watch Xavier take on seventh-ranked Shelton.
There were some underlying reasons why I made the trip: I thought the Falcons had a good chance to pull off an upset, I knew the field conditions wood probably be poor (they were, ice was all over the field), and the Gaels needed the game to stay in the Class LL playoff hunt (more on that later).
But there was only one real reason why I wasted an hour driving and put an extra 70 miles on my vehicle, and his name is Amari Spievey.
I’d heard about him, read about him, but had never seen Spievey -- Xavier’s standout running back -- live, I had not covered a Xavier game in three years. Many people consider Spievey the best player in the SCC, and that’s someone writing a column like this just has to see live at least once, whatever the price a Honda Civic has to pay.
But as so often happens in life, when you go looking for one thing, you often find another. And what I found last Saturday night had little to do with Spievey. Sure, he ran for 99 yards and a touchdown, and got the game-clinching interception as Xavier upset Shelton, 27-20, but it was a tremendous team effort that got the job done for the Falcons.
On his first carry of the night, Spievey fumbled and was injured, forced to sit out a series. Shelton immediately scored, but junior Shea Dwyer came off the bench to post a 51-yard touchdown run against a Gaels’ defense that hadn’t given up a point in the previous nine quarters. On the next series, Spievey returned and Dwyer never got another carry. Such is the life of a backup, but Dwyer’s TD gave Xavier momentum it would carry throughout the contest.
Tight end Matt Maguire, a senior captain, had three receptions for 64 yards and a 2-point conversion, and had perhaps the catch of the year, a diving grab that he caught inches from the ground on a 3rd-and-7 play from the Shelton 15-yard line. The Falcons scored on the next play, and although they trailed at the half, 20-19, they believed they could get the job done.
“We challenged them at halftime,” Xavier coach Sean Marinan said. “We know they are a very good team, the defending Class L champions, and we needed to pick it up a notch on defense.”
Xavier was dealt a tough blow midway through the third quarter when senior quarterback Mike Crescimano was carried off the field on a stretcher because of a left shoulder injury.
As backup Corey Moses was trying to get his legs under him, the phone calls to the Palmer Field press box began.
They were from Crescimano’s father, Don, who is also an assistant coach with Xavier. He was calling from the local emergency room because, even in a hospital room, Mike wanted to know how his team was doing.
“Shelton 20, Xavier 19,” he was told. Ten minutes later, he was told the same thing. Another ten minutes, same story.
But midway through the fourth quarter, Moses had his legs. He ran for 12 yards, hit Spievey for a 14-yard gain, and completed a pass to himself (it was tipped) for four yards. Then, he took a three-step drop and lofted a pass down the right sideline. It was underthrown, but when the Shelton defender slipped, Ryan Cody came back, grabbed it, and waltzed into the end zone in front of the student section.
“Xavier 27, Shelton 20. Five minutes left.”, Crescimano was told. The phone calls started coming more frequently.
The Gaels got inside the Falcons’ 30-yard line twice after the go-ahead score, but when Semil Desai’s pass was intercepted at the Xavier 20 with 45 seconds remaining, the phone rang almost immediately.
“Xavier 27, Shelton 20. Final.”
As Xavier and the student section celebrated on the field, there was probably a mini-celebration in the emergency room. It was, in all aspects, truly a team win.