Seven seconds left to play, ball at the five-yard line and down four points. 

Sultana football quarterback Jacob Higgs catches the snap. His designed read — a trips formation on the right side of the field — was taken away as Kaiser adjusted and played man defense. 

Higgs then did what he did all night. 

As Higgs sprinted towards the left pylon the final buzzer sounded as the clock hit zero. The sophomore quarterback beat his defender around the edge and assertively stretched the football with both hands over the goal-line. 

After around 30 seconds of deliberation from the referees over a penalty marker that felt like an eternity, Higgs gets the good news. 

The sideline erupted in a frenzy as the Sultans pulled off a 29-27 victory at Jay Reed Field on Thursday night. 

“They couldn’t tackle me all night so I took off, ran, scored,” Higgs said. “I saw them and thought I was going to have to do something — dive, the Taylor Heinicke — but I was able to get in there and score. Sultans win, baby.” 

Higgs finished the game with 155 yards on nine carries with three rushing touchdowns. Both Higgs and Sultana head coach Terry Cleveland said that the team has been making a conscious effort to utilize the quarterback’s athleticism more and it panned out against Kaiser.

“I feel like we underused him last year,” Cleveland said. “He’s shown that he can run the ball too and everyone is seeing it.” 

Before the Cinderella ending for Sultana, though, there was a lot of adversity that the team went through. 

A lot of it was self-inflicted. 

Countless penalties and two first-half turnovers put Sultana in an early 12-0 hole with Kaiser holding all the momentum. 

Wide receiver LaMason Waller helped flip that momentum with a four-yard rushing touchdown to put Sultana on the board. On the next drive, Kaiser botched the punt and fell in the end zone for a safety. After being down 12-0, Sultana went into halftime down 12-9.

That momentum carried into the second half where Higgs scored his first two rushing touchdowns. Suddenly the game looked to be in the Sultans’ hands. Sultana had the ball with a 12-point lead and 7:30 left to play. 

Then things started to unravel. Kaiser forced Sultana to punt and quickly drove down the field to make it a three-point game with 4:35 left to play. On the ensuing drive, Sultana was faced with a tough fourth and inches call from its own 40. 

Higgs escaped the pressure and dashed into the endzone for a 60-yard rushing touchdown, only for the play to be called back for holding. Sultana then sent out the punt unit and a low snap resulted in the punter inadvertently taking a knee, giving Kaiser the ball just outside the red zone with 2:50 left. 

Backed up on third and 20, Kaiser managed to pick up a first down after Sultana’s coverage broke and left the tight end wide open down the sideline. One play later Kaiser took the lead with a three-yard rushing touchdown. 

It was reminiscent of the Sultans’ loss to Hesperia last season, where they were unable to protect a late lead and drain the clock. 

Cleveland admits that he was thinking about that during the final drive Thursday night. But instead of letting it cause trepidation, Cleveland used it to motivate his players. 

“A lot of them know that feeling of being on the losing end in those last seconds,” Cleveland said. “So I told them ‘if you want to feel like that again then let it happen.’ But I guess they ain’t trying to feel that way ever again.” 

Sultana moves to 2-0 on the young season with the win and it represents two important firsts. This is the first time Sultana has beaten Kaiser since they started playing each other in 2018. It is also the first time Sultana has started the season with a 2-0 record since 2015. 

Down 12-0 in the second quarter, Sultana faced a third and 30 from midfield. Higgs found Corey Cabriales for a 34-yard completion and the first down. That set up Waller’s touchdown run just three plays later. 

After a big completion to Waller that brought Sultana to Kaiser’s 32-yard-line, Higgs provided the appetizer to his game-winning touchdown. On a designed run, Higgs skirted up the left side of the field 27 yards to give Sultana first and goal from the five with 25.9 seconds to play. 

81.8% — The percentage of Higgs’ completions that went to Waller

50  — the number of seconds Sultana had to drive 65 yards to score the game-winning touchdown. 

4 — The number of rushing touchdowns for Kaiser running back Jonathan Marshall Jr. 

Higgs scored three of Sultana’s four touchdowns and was responsible for 297 of Sultana’s 347 offensive yards in the game. 

Cleveland on the growth of his second-year quarterback: “The kid is super talented, knows the game. I mean, some of the plays he calls on his own, the guy is a great kid. Somebody is going to be blessed to get him (after high school).” 

Higgs on what he told his teammates when their backs were against the wall: “I kind of just told them that we got this. We’re a good two-minute offense, spread, that’s what we do. I just told them that we got it and I focused. I’m that guy on the field and they can’t stop me.” 

Cleveland on Marshall’s big game and how it prepares Sultana: “It super prepares us for Apple Valley. Of course they are going to have a much better offensive line but they have a big guy running the ball too in Dustin Reynolds. It’s teaching us that we have to learn to tackle these guys low and not try to come high.” 

Sultana is on the road to take on Granite Hills, which is also 2-0. Cleveland said that he knows it is going to be another tough challenge for his team that he is excited for.