The kid from Mildred had just staged one of those hold-your-breath, game-on-the-line drives. You know the kind — Elway, Manning, Staubach drives. Those guys made last minute drives famous.
Shimonek was just saying farewell, just waving good-bye to a high school career at Mildred no one in this part of Texas will soon forget.
It was the perfect wave.
By the time it was over, Shimonek had completed 8-of-9 passes for 172 yards and had thrown for a TD (a beauty on a 69-yard pass to Whitehouse’s Dylan Cantrell that lifted the North to an 18-14 lead in the third) and he had run for a TD.
He was brilliant on the final drive — going 3-for-3 in the air for 76 yards before slipping into the end zone with a 9-yard TD run that would have made Peyton Manning proud.
It was an audible.
“It was just a read. The play was going to the running back, but I saw the end pinch in and knew that play wouldn’t work,’’ Shimonek said. “He (the running back) went left and I kept the ball and went to the right. I don’ think I scored because of my speed. It was more because of deception. I don’t think they knew I had the ball. The running back on the play asked me, ‘how did you find that hole?’ ’’
With just 2:12 left in the game, Shimonek’s missing-ball-trick sealed the win.