Late pick seals Prague win

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  • Prague assistant coach Tony Willoughby celebrates with defensive back Aiden Auld in the waning seconds of the Red Devils’ win over Crossings Christian Friday night. Auld intercepted a pass in the end zone to clinch the victory. Photo/Brian Blansett
    Prague assistant coach Tony Willoughby celebrates with defensive back Aiden Auld in the waning seconds of the Red Devils’ win over Crossings Christian Friday night. Auld intercepted a pass in the end zone to clinch the victory. Photo/Brian Blansett
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Prague freshman Aiden Auld intercepted a pass in the end zone with 15 seconds left Thursday to preserve a wild 36-30 win over Crossings Christian.

The game started like a track meet, with neither team able to slow the other, but morphed into a defense-dominated game in the second half.

Finally, it came down to a Crossings Christian possession that started on the Knights’ 22-yard line with 2:13 left to play and moved to the Prague 25 with 22 seconds left in the game.

After an incompletion on first down, the Knights went for another pass, which quarterback Owen Crotts lofted toward the right side of the goal line.

Enter Auld, who outleaped the Crossings receiver and brought the ball down.

“He was where he needed to be,” said Prague coach Mike Hedge. ‘Don’t let them in the end zone,’ that was his job.”

The Red Devils’ offense ran one snap to drain the clock, and the victory was theirs.

It was the first district win for Prague, which goes to Star-Spencer Fri

The Red Devils have had an on-again, off-again season and didn’t play for three weeks due to an open date and two cancellations from COVID-19.

They beat Stroud on Sep. 11 and didn’t play again until a 64-46 loss to Kellyville on Oct. 9.

“Not playing in a month has hurt us,” Hedge said. “You can tell. Our game speed’s bad, but you know we have some fighters.”

Hedge said the change in the game’s pace was due to adjustments by the defenses.

“I think they figured us out a little bit and we figured them out,” he said. “We threw a few little wrinkles at them and they didn’t adjust real well, but they’re a good defensive team and we knew they would fix what was going on.”