It was just a week ago when William Chrisman junior Declan Watson reclaimed the starting quarterback job.
He started out as the starting quarterback for the Bears before sophomore Connor Elliott took over as the lead signal caller for the next five games.
Head coach Michael Rose-Ivey then gave the job back to Watson, who started in a 48-6 loss to Platte County in the final regular-season game.
He then got a chance to start his first playoff game against North Kansas City Friday and Rose-Ivey’s to put him back in at quarterback paid off.
The junior completed 12 of 21 passes for 248 yards, one interception and five touchdowns, one of which came on a game-winner to tight end James Taula with 1:38 remaining as he came up big in the Bears 36-28 victory over the Hornets in the Class 5 District 8 quarterfinals at Independence All-School Stadium.
The No. 4 seeded Bears will now travel to Grain Valley to take on the Eagles at 7 p.m. next Friday in the district semifinals. They lost to Grain Valley in Week 8, 61-16.
“He led us to a game winning drive against Winnetonka and struggled the next week,” Rose-Ivey said of Watson. “He never took himself out of the fold and remained coachable. He was still committed.”
The best game of Watson’s career couldn’t have come at a better time for the Bears, who hadn’t won a playoff game since 2020 and had an up and down 2023 to this point.
“I built off the loses we had before and knew I had something like this inside me,” Watson said. “(My accuracy) has been way better than it was earlier in the season. I have a lot of weapons.”
Watson utilized a lot of single read throws and it worked to perfection as he formed a explosive trio with senior wide receiver Jamir Robinson-Smith and Taula.
Taula caught five passes for 129 yards and three touchdowns, none bigger than his catch with 1:38 left when he ran a simple fly route, beat his defender and caught a pass in stride from Watson for a 34-yard score.
Robinson-Smith, who was consistently creating separation and even completely deked defenders with double moves, caught seven passes for 125 yards and two TDs.
“The guys believe in me and my quarterback believes in me,” Robinson-Smith said. “I always thought Declan was going to be one of our primary guys this summer. He’s worked his butt off and has adapted to a new culture at Chrisman.”
Rose-Ivey said Northtown was missing some key members of their secondary and said his team was able to exploit some weaknesses in their secondary. The Hornets were keying in on stopping senior running back Lance Nauer, who had 86 yards on 21 carries. That left them vulnerable to the passing game as the Hornets were consistently putting seven or more players in the box.
Northtown (2-8) was able to strike first despite coming up empty on its first possession following an onside kick recovery. Isaiah Woodyard blocked a punt from Taula in the end zone and it went out of bounds for a safety to put his team up 2-0 at the 5:12 mark in the first quarter.
After the Bears forced a turnover on downs with a sack following a bad snap by the Hornets, Watson led a 34-yard drive and ended it with a 9-yard scoring pass to Taula, who boxed out linebacker Kaden Anderson and made a contested catch with 5:17 remaining in the first half. After a 2-point conversion run from Nauer, Chrisman led 8-2.
Both teams then traded touchdown late in the first half as Northtown quarterback Garin Walton hit running back Elvis Pernell on a check down pass that led to a 6-yard score that put his team up 9-8 following an extra point with 2:02 left.
Taula helped his team answer one minute and 4 seconds later we he made a leaping grab on a pass from Watson. His defender fell down as he raced into the end zone for a 43-yard receiving touchdown to help put his team ahead 16-9 after a two-point run from Nauer.
Hornets senior Herb Bass then took the kickoff and ran into the end zone from 81 yards out as he found a huge hole on the right side of the field and no one on Chrisman could catch him as is kick return TD narrowed Chrisman’s lead to 16-15 after a missed extra point.
Chrisman immediately responded when Watson floated a pass to Robinson-Smith down the right side line. The senior wide receiver broke a tackle after making a catch about 13 yards down field, cut to the left side of the field and broke two more tackles for a 62-yard catch-and-run that led to him reaching the end zone, giving Chrisman a 22-16 halftime lead after a failed two-point conversion attempt.
“Tonight was an example of us not being in a position to make sound tackles,” Northtown head coach Leon Douglas said. “I thought we had a lot of missed tackles and we weren’t able to get them down on initial contact.”
That score held until halftime, but the Hornets didn’t go away as they scored on their opening drive of the second half. On fourth-and-13 from the NKC 44, Walton hit a wide open Bass for a 32-yard gain to the 12th. Pernell later plunged into the end zone from 1 yard out to tie it at 22-22 at the 7:31 mark in the third.
Up to that point, the Hornets had been aggressive by going for it on nearly every fourth-down opportunity. This time it was Rose-Ivey’s turn to be gutsy in those do-or-die situations.
He took a huge gamble by having his team go for it on fourth-and-7 from his team’s own 24. Watson was able to hit Taula for an 11-yard gain and a first down. That drive finished with a 5-yard TD pass from Watson to Robinson-Smith to make it 28-22 with 37 seconds remaining in the third period, following a failed two-point try.
The Bears were then in prime position to take over the game when Bass fumbled on the ensuing kickoff and Chrisman senior Thomas Sao recovered it at the Bears 35. The team couldn’t take advantage as Watson threw an interception on a pass right to Northtown cornerback Te’Ron Chappell, who returned it 65 yards for a score, tying it at 28-all following a blocked extra-point try with 11:16 left
After both teams had an empty possession after that, Taula came up big with a fake punt and run for 15 yards on fourth-and-15 that kept a late drive alive, and he later caught the aforementioned game winner.
“We’re all strong minded and committed to getting that first down,” Taula said. “We all came together.”
Chrisman senior Travis O’Brien later got the game-sealing interception on a pass from Walton with 1:04 left to seal it.
