SPRINGDALE — As Jon Hawes trotted out to his position on the right side of the field, he was still a little dazed.
Shiloh Christian was getting hammered. It was trailing Nashville 35-0, had completed just one pass and had one first down.
So when Saints coach Josh Floyd elected to go for it on fourth-and-7 from the Saints’ 37 with a little more than 7 minutes left in the second quarter, Hawes knew things were getting desperate.
“We really needed a spark,” Hawes said. “So I just ran my hardest and put my hands out and just got lucky, I guess.”
Lucky, fortunate ... there are a number of adjectives that would describe Hawes’ acrobatic 34-yard catch. The result was a first down, and one play later the Saints scored their first touchdown that started one of the greatest come-from-behind wins in the history of the Arkansas prep football playoffs.
Hawes (6-foot-3, 195 pounds), who Floyd said has been clocked at 4.5 seconds in the 40-yard dash, called the catch “definitely the biggest catch I’ve made this year.”
Although it was just one of two receptions Hawes had against the Scrappers in Shiloh’s 51-49 win, it proved to be a turning point, Floyd said.
“It was a huge catch,” Floyd said. “At that time we hadn’t done much, only had the one first down, so it definitely was a spark.”
Shiloh quarterback Kiehl Frazier called the grab “a game-changer.”
“If he doesn’t make that catch, they have a chance to go up on us 42-0 and we probably don’t come back from that,” Frazier said.
From the time Hawes made that first catch, the No. 1 Saints (11-1) went on to outscore Nashville 51-14, completing a remarkable turnaround that kept Shiloh’s hopes alive for a second straight Class 4A state title and extending the program’s streak of reaching the title game to four years.
Hawes ranks fourth on the team with 28 receptions for 575 yards and six touchdowns. He also starts on defense and had a key interception after the Saints tied the game at 42.
“We’d been preparing all week on defense,” Hawes said of his interception. “I saw the quarterback scrambling around and I saw the receiver coming behind me, so I went back with the receiver. I saw the quarterback throw it over the middle, so I was able to jump in front of it and intercept it.”
The Saints will host Bald Knob tonight in a Class 4A state semifinal in Champions Stadium, with the winner advancing to next week’s title game in War Memorial Stadium in Little Rock.
Bald Knob (13-0) is led by quarterback Nick Glaze, who has accounted for more than 2,000 yards passing and 1,000 rushing. This is the Bulldogs’ deepest playoff run ever.