Everyone had a different angle. Everyone had a different reaction. Everyone went through a different roller coaster of emotions.
Afterward, everyone had a different opinion.
Of course, the opinions, generally, were split along pretty obvious lines.
But the two that mattered were the officials in the endzone, who ruled that Josh Malm, despite a clutch catch with no time left on the clock after Jhalil Mosley found him during a wild scramble and hit him with a strike in the front corner of the endzone, was out of bounds when he came down with the ball. The ruling ended Monticello’s season, including a six-game win streak that put Monticello on the cusp of its first state semifinal appearance since 2008.
“Of course, you know what I’m going to say standing from the other side of the field,” said Monticello coach Rodney Redd. “It looked like a great play.”
From that angle it certainly did, but photo evidence indicates that several Kettle Run officials including athletic director Paul Frye near the play and the official near the front of the pylon seemed to almost immediately react that Malm was out of bounds. Kettle Run head coach Jeff Lloyd, of course, concurred.
“No, it wasn’t [controversial],” Lloyd said. “The kid was out of bounds. His one foot was out of bounds, and if you have one out and one in in high school, it’s not a catch. His front foot was out. He dragged his back one, but his front foot was out. First. That’s why it was no catch.”
Admittedly, Lloyd had a better view than Redd, as the play occurred on the Kettle Run sideline, though with the number of players, athletic department officials and the referee likely would’ve made any clear view from the coach’s box obstructed. A Monticello receiver who was behind Malm claimed he was inbounds. Several members of the chain crew on the Kettle Run sideline reportedly thought Malm was clearly out. Mosley, who had a pretty good look at it after scrambling to create the open passing lane, of course thought Malm was in and argued as much in the ensuing confusion.
“It looked like he had a foot in, that he caught the ball cleanly,” Mosley said. “The ref said otherwise and that was the ballgame.”
Perhaps most telling of the confusion that followed in the moments immediately after the ruling, the defensive back guarding Malm fell to the ground, pounding his fists in agony, obviously assuming that Malm was inbounds.
It was a bang bang play, making it very difficult to call. It’s as frustrating a way for a team’s season — and the careers of a senior class that includes Mosley, wideout James Banks, center Sam Marshall, tackle Austin Mays and a slew of other Monticello standouts — to end as it possibly could in the playoffs.
Redd seemed to sense that, and instead of piling on to the moment with what would’ve been justified frustration, focused on the resilient comeback by his charges that allowed them to be in that position, for Malm’s catch to potentially win it. After all, the Mustangs were down 17-0 at the half.
“I want to focus on how these young men came back out there, got themselves together and fought back,” Redd said.
It wasn’t Monticello’s only shot either. Alex McNair nearly hauled in a touchdown with eight tenths of a second left in the back corner of the endzone, but the ball slipped away during the difficult, leaping catch. The Mustangs left points on the board at other junctures too, including a first half goal line stand by the Cougars. But it didn’t change the immediate pain for the Mustangs.
“They’re not going to go back and change it,” Redd said. “It is what it is.”
