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FOREST GROVE – A head's up defensive play by Pacific University safety
Bryan Mills (So., Imbler, Ore.) has earned Pacific University football some national notoriety.
Mills' successful 100-yard defensive two-point conversion not only gave Pacific their first score in Saturday's Northwest Conference football game against Lewis & Clark, but landed Pacific on the top of the Top Plays of the Night in the Saturday night/Sunday morning editions of ESPN's Sportscenter.
The play occurred with 12:11 left in the first quarter after Lewis & Clark scored the first touchdown of the game. Pacific defensive lineman
Devin Lagorio (So., Stockton, Calif.) blocked L&C kicker Simon Monley's extra point attempt. The ball bounces off the turf and into the hands of a Lewis & Clark player who, thinking the play was over, tosses the ball towards the referees in the end zone.
Mills, noticing that in fact no whistle has blown, picks up the ball at the goal line and starts sprinting down the Pacific sideline. By the time any Lewis & Clark player had a chance to catch up with Mills, he was at the Pioneers' 30-yard line. He proceeded to break three tackles before making his way to the opposite end zone.
Pacific play-by-play voice Matt Richert summed up the play perfectly at the end, noting that “everyone had given up the play, including this announcer.”
Pacific ended up losing the game to Lewis & Clark by a final of 61-35 in a contest that marked by big plays like the one singled out by ESPN.
