Ben Schultz

It was fourth-and-15 with 43 seconds remaining and Adams Central trailed then-No. 5 Cozad (Omaha World-Herald). Adams Central had the ball 44 yards away from the end zone.

What better time to draw up a play on the spot?

The play was something you'd see in Kansas City . It was similar to the theatrics that Travis Kelce has done on Sundays under the brightest of lights, off the riff and off the cuff. But in Hastings at Patriot Field, the play was planned.

"We've never practiced that," Adams Central coach Josh Lewis said. "We have a double-pass trick play, but we've shown it the last couple weeks and he (offensive coordinator Matt Overmiller) was like 'I don't like that. I want to run a hook and lateral.' And I was like OK sounds good, let's do it."

First, quarterback Jackson Sughroue found Nick Mousel. Then Mousel turned and lateralled the ball to Brodie Luskan, who had nothing but green grass in front of him.

It worked seamlessly.

The sideline erupted, the home fans were loud and excited, while the visiting fans were stunned.

"One of the best things I like about coaching in games like that ... you get to feel the energy on the sidelines from the kids and the coaches, and it was awesome, it was loud, chaos was breaking out," Lewis said. "In the moment as a coach you're celebrating, but then you gotta think 'What's the situation?' and at that point we were only up one so we wanted to try and get a two-point conversion to force the field goal."

That was the scene and the science to how Adams Central picked up its biggest win of the season.

Now with two weeks left, Lewis will look to see what that win does for the team going forward.

"We told our kids coming into that game, people that watch us ... they're like you guys are close. We could play a little bit better, but you're close on everything," Lewis said. "I think that game kind of helped reinforce that idea of OK, we can hang, we can compete a little bit."

It doesn't get easier in week eight for Adams Central because it will host a Lincoln Christian team that's 5-2 coming off a 30-21 win over Aurora, and one of its losses was to Central City by a score of 52-50.

"The last three weeks we've played teams that kind of like to spread it out and throw it, and they run the ball well but they spread it quite a bit," Lewis said. "You got to be locked in all the time, we're going to have to play really good assignment football and be where we're supposed to be."

Leading the way from the quarterback position is Sughroue. On the season the senior has 1,289 passing yards and nine touchdown passes.

"He spent the first part of the season learning the timing of things and speed of the game, and I think he's done a good job of learning all that and knowing what the offense is looking for," Lewis said. "He's just a kind of competitive, athletic-minded type of kid, and so even when things aren't there right away he's kind of had a knack this year for scrambling around and making something happen."

The Patriots have a swiss army knife on their team in the form of Kaleb Wahlmeier. He leads the team in rushing with 276 yards and three touchdowns. He's the team's kicker and defensively he leads the team in tackles.

"It's a nice little luxury to have. He'll run the touchdown and then he'll kick the PAT and then he'll kickoff and he's back there in the secondary," Lewis said.

There's two weeks left in the regular season and Adams Central is 3-4 and on the outside looking in at the playoff race. But Adams Central can only control what it does going forward, so that's what it plans on doing.

"We're looking at these two games knowing we gotta go 1-0 in every week to make it there (the playoffs), and they're both games we can win and they're both games we can lose," Lewis said. "So we've got to be sharp two weeks in a row to make what we want."

Lincoln Christian 30, Adams Central 24

Ranked area teams in week six

Class C-1

No. 6 Central City at Broken Bow: Central City is coming off its fourth 50-point game of the season when it beat Milford 55-7. Parker Zikmund threw for 245 yards and four touchdowns. Corbin Kyes ran for 150 yards in the win and surpassed the 1,000-yard mark on the season. He's the first Bison to accomplish that since 2007. Broken Bow is 3-4 on the season and is coming off a 21-14 loss to Minden.

Class C-2

No. 8 Grand Island Central Catholic at No. 6 Boone Central: GICC has its toughest test of the season in defending Class C-1 champ Boone Central. GICC has just one loss on the year and is coming off a 45-6 win against Cross County. Boone Central is 5-2 on the year and has won its last four games by multiple scores.

Class D-2

No. 1 Central Valley at Chambers-Wheeler Central: Central Valley enters the last week of its regular season with some momentum. It held Palmer scoreless in a 66-0 win. Chambers-Wheeler Central is 2-5 on the season and coming off a 52-12 loss to Burwell.

No. 6 Riverside vs. Fullerton: Riverside is on a roll and has won its last three games. It's coming off a 59-20 win against Nebraska Christian. Fullerton is 5-2 and coming off a 54-18 loss to No. 3 Archangels Catholic.

Lincoln Christian at Adams Central

Arcadia-Loup City at South Loup

at Aurora

Central City at Broken Bow

Burwell at Twin Loup

Central Valley at Chambers-Wheeler Central

St. Paul at Centura

Doniphan-Trumbull at Hastings St. Cecilia

Fullerton at

Giltner at Lawrence-Nelson

Grand Island Central Catholic at Boone Central

Bellevue East at Grand Island Senior High