The outcome hung in the balance throughout a tense fourth quarter Friday night between Owen J. Roberts and Perkiomen Valley.But as time expired with the score tied at 7, the outcome was literally in doubt.
And that was when one voice rose out above the others in the PV student section, asking the question that seemed to be flowing through Thomas J. Keenan Stadium like The Wave.
“Does anyone know the rules to high school football overtime?”
PV coach Rob Heist knew the rules, but not due to a wealth of experience. “I know it’s been at least 10 years since we’ve played an overtime game,” he said after PV claimed a 13-7 victory.
He’s right. Perkiomen Valley’s last OT game was in 2011, a 33-27 loss to Pope John Paul II.
Friday night was a new experience for players, fans, and probably even some coaches. Overtime rules at all levels of football and in a state of constant change, from the NFL’s modified sudden-victory format to… whatever they’ve created in the NCAA this year.
Here the focus will stay strictly on high school football overtime rules.
Before the 1995 season, the PIAA enacted an overtime procedure in place for all sanctioned high school football games that ended in a tie following regulation.
The two sets of captains convene at midfield for a coin toss, just like the pregame coin toss. The winner of the toss was given a choice: they could pick whether to go on offense or defense first, or they could choose an end of the field where the overtime period would be played.
From there, football is played in a baseball format to the point that some people refer to overtime “innings.” The team who plays defense first is guaranteed an opportunity to match or surpass the points scored by their opponents, who get the ball in the ‘top’ of the inning.
The team that goes on offense first has the ball at their opponent’s 10-yard line, with first-and-goal to go. There is no game clock in use, but the 40-second play clock is still in effect. All rules regarding penalties and the like remain in place, and each team receives one timeout per overtime period.
On Friday night, OJR was unable to score on their possession, meaning any Perkiomen Valley score would end the game. That’s exactly what happened, via Pat MacDonald’s one-yard touchdown run.
But what if PV also went scoreless? What if OJR’s field goal attempt was good?
- If the team who has the ball first kicks a field goal, the opponent gets their chance with the ball. A touchdown ends the game, while a field goal sends the game into a second overtime.
- If the offense scores in the ‘top’ of the OT period, then holds their opponent scoreless in the ‘bottom’ of the period, the game ends.
- If the team who has the ball first scores a touchdown, the opponent has a chance to match.
Conversions play a role as well – a team could choose to “go for two” after a touchdown, changing the number of points required to extend or end the contest. This happened in a Reading/Penn Manor contest in District 3 this past Friday night, as Penn Manor stopped Reading’s two-point attempt and won, 28-27 in the first overtime.
If the two teams remain tied, the game continues with a second overtime period. There is no second coin flip, just an alternating choice (meaning the team who lost the OT coin flip gets first choice of offense, defense, or end of field).
This procedure continues until one team outscores the other at the conclusion of an overtime period.
This has, in some cases, led to some extraordinarily long games. Memorably in this slice of the universe, Boyertown outlasted Pottsgrove in four overtimes in 2021. Record keeping isn’t entirely accurate nationwide, but one Florida high school game was reported to play a dozen overtimes back in 2010.
Just this season, Roman Catholic of District 12 played a five-overtime contest with DeMatha Catholic (Md.) but the game in Maryland was played under a slightly different set of rules.
How Do Other States Handle Overtime?
The main difference is some states begin overtime at the 25-yard line, similar to college football overtime, with a first down and 10 yards to go as opposed to a first-and-goal.
Likewise, a couple states have started using the college football rule where two-point conversions must be attempted following touchdowns in subsequent overtime periods (usually, the third overtime or later).
The aforementioned Roman vs. DeMatha game earlier this year used Maryland’s rule, where from the third overtime onward teams simply alternate two-point conversion attempts from the opponent’s three-yard line. This is another adoption from college football – some local fans may recall Penn State’s nine-overtime ending with Illinois in 2021.
For my money, they all pale in comparison to the now-defunct “California Tiebreaker.”
It’s been described as “tug o’ war without a rope.” Beginning in the late 1960s, the California Interscholastic Federation decided to settle tie football games thusly:
- The ball was placed at the 50-yard line, and a coin toss determined which team had the ball first.
- From there, the two teams alternated plays for eight downs – four apiece. Wherever one play ended, the next began.
- Field goals were not allowed, and any touchdown ends the game.
- If no one scores after eight plays, the winner was the team in its’ opponent’s territory.
Confused? Can’t blame you. A hypothetical California Tiebreaker might go like this:
Team A (Play 1): 3-yard run to Team B’s 47-yard line.
Team B (Play 1): 10-yard pass to Team A’s 43-yard line.
Team A (Play 2): 15-yard run to Team B’s 42-yard line.
Team B (Play 2): Incomplete pass, ball remains at Team B’s 42-yard line.
Team A (Play 3): 5-yard run to Team B’s 37-yard line.
Team B (Play 3): Incomplete pass, ball remains at Team B’s 37-yard line.
Team A (Play 4): Incomplete pass, ball remains at Team B’s 37-yard line.
At this point, Team B has one final play to run a play that crosses the 50-yard line for the win. It doesn’t matter if they score a touchdown or get to the Team A 49-yard line – cross the 50, win the game.
(No idea what happens if a California tiebreaker ends with the ball right on the 50. I assume each team gets one more play. For the sake of the officials and everyone involved, let’s hope this never occurred.)
Was it perfect? Of course not. Innovative? Sure. And historic, too, as one quarterback recalled winning a 1977 state playoff game as a 17-year-old in the California tiebreaker. His name? John Elway.
Alas, by the end of the 1980s the California Tiebreaker was no more, and today the state uses a format similar to the one here in Pennsylvania. No one’s really sure why the format changed, but it’s safe to assume that, like the NFL, someone was unsatisfied with a particular game’s ending and proposed a change to the rules.
Chances are that high school overtime, like all rules in all sports, will continue to evolve. But yes, it does exist – they won’t just leave the game a tie, as they did for so many years before 1995 – and hopefully, now you’ll know what to expect.
Coaches like Rob Heist, however, would probably be perfectly happy if it took another 12 years to find out.
