They were down 12-7 in the fourth quarter, but the Superior Bobcats weren’t about to let the playoff win slip away from them.

The team put together a 67-yard scoring run in the final minutes of the game. Tanner Coon threw a 44-yard pass to Adam Kay and Superior to the 12-yard line. From there, Superior struggled against Troy’s defense, but on fourth-and-goal from the one-yard line, Coon took the ball through and into the end zone for a win, 15-12.

“They played hard together when they had to get the job done,” Coach Dan Lucier said. “That’s sort of been our trademark all year. Of the nine games we’ve played, all but one has been a good game and most of them have been won in the last four or five minutes.”

Lucier said that they knew Troy was going to be a hard team to beat from the beginning.

“They have one of the best offenses we’ve gone against this year,” Lucier said. “We knew we would have to prepare for them. These guys beat Florence and they’re a real capable team.”

The outcome was similar to the first time Superior beat Troy earlier in the season. The Bobcats were behind and in the last two minutes of the game, Superior stole the win. Lucier said that they knew they were going to have to be on their game defensively.

“I think that they got inside the ten yard line and we stopped them,” Lucier said. “They got inside about three times and we kept them from getting in. We seem to come out flat in the first three quarters and I’m not quite sure why that is.”

The Bobcats left the first quarter ahead. They scored on a two-yard run by Coon and then Daylon Kuhl kicked the ball into the end zone for conversion points. The score was 7-6 at the end of the first quarter. Neither team made any head way in the second or third quarters and then Troy came out to score in the fourth. 

“I’m always nervous,” Lucier said, “but it’s a good nervous.”

Lucier said that there wasn’t a whole lot of strategy that needed changed, they just needed to get some good passing plays down. He said that the intensity finally kicked in during the last six minutes.

“We didn’t seem to be playing with intensity until the last six minutes or at least that what it felt like to me,” Lucier said. “I’m proud of them, though. I’m proud just because we were picked to finish fourth and then for us to win the title and the first playoff game is huge. We’re here and anything’s possible.”

Lucier said that Superior is one of the smallest Class B schools in the state and said that the scenario each week is sort of like David and Goliath.

“We talk a lot about being like David and knocking Goliath down. And it’s a great feeling, a sense of accomplishment. I know my job is successful when we play better than we were supposed to and when we do that consistently it’s even better,” Lucier said.

The Superior Bobcats will host Fairfield at 1 p.m. on Saturday. Lucier said that they are going to need to have that intensity right from the start that they’ve been playing with in the last few minutes of the game.

“They’re a good football team and they do some pretty good things. We’re going to be at home and we go this far. Nobody should under estimate us. We’re going to bring our best game Saturday,” Lucier said.