'Let's finish this for Chris.' Yorktown honors teammate Chris Wilson Jr. on emotional night
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PENDLETON – The game was out of reach. Yorktown trailed by two touchdowns, just one timeout remaining, and under a minute left in the game.
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But quarterback Sam Tokar had a message for his team as the offense took the field for the final time on Friday night.
“Before that final drive started, I told the team, ‘Let’s finish this for Chris,’” Tokar said. “It would be a dishonor to him to go out bad there.”
On the final play of the game, a 42-33 Pendleton Heights win, Tokar escaped pressure and lofted a pass to the end zone and into the hands of a guarded Kaden Crumes for a Yorktown touchdown. On a night full of emotions, fighting to the finish was one way the Tigers could honor their senior teammate, Chris Wilson Jr., who was killed early Monday morning in a shooting in Muncie.
“We were brothers,” Tokar said of Wilson, who was committed to West Virginia as a defensive end. “We were always playing football together. That’s a guy that I laughed and joked with and that I knew had my back. That’s the biggest thing that stands out to me – Chris was a guy that always had your back.”
Four days after Wilson’s tragic death, it was a night when everyone seemed to have each other’s back. Before the game, Yorktown’s seniors Diezel Walker and Grayson Diaz carried Wilson’s No. 79 jersey as they walked behind coach Mike Wilhelm to the field. Behind them walked junior Dave Bond, carrying Wilson’s helmet.
Pendleton Heights honored Wilson and Yorktown with a moment of silence before the game. The Tigers played the first defensive play with 10 players, leaving Wilson’s spot empty. From the front row of the Yorktown bleachers, Wilson’s parents, mother Tywanna Price and stepfather Derrick Price, watched the scene in front of them surrounded by family and friends.
“I haven’t been wanting to get out of the house,” Tywanna Price said. “But I know that he would want us to be here.”
Derrick Price said seeing his jersey and feeling the energy from the Yorktown team, “made it feel like he’s around you right now.” Wilson Jr., at 6-5 and 235 pounds, had the world in front of him. He was ranked as the No. 5 prospect in the state and was already committed to West Virginia, where he was planning to be in January.
Football meant a lot to him. But it was not just the sport itself.
“It was about the people that he met and the people he was around,” Derrick Price said. “He was dedicated because he didn’t want to let his team down. All of these kids were over at the house, even before this happened.”
His mother described Wilson “as a light to everybody.” There was no doubt that the family wanted Friday’s game to happen.
“We love those players out there just like we love our son,” Derrick Price said. “Of course there’s a difference, but we love watching them play. (My wife) loses her voice every game. She’s not just cheering our son; she’s cheering the team.”
Wilson’s parents, who also have a 12-year-old son and 8-year-old daughter, say they plan to be there for all of the remaining Yorktown games, including next week’s regular-season finale at home against Mt. Vernon.
Wilhelm admitted he did not know how Friday’s game would go considering the emotions of the week. But Tokar, an Indiana baseball recruit, set the tone with a brilliant 43-yard run on third-and-18 for the first score to set the tone.
“Our guys never gave in,” Wilhelm said. “And that’s what we said. We wanted to honor Chris by playing not for him, but in him. And we feel like we did that tonight.”
Yorktown (5-3), which defeated Pendleton Heights last year in the sectional championship, led 17-14 at halftime. But after a fumble to start the third quarter and a quick touchdown on a 3-yard run by Joel Weaver, the 5A No. 6 Arabians (7-1) took the lead and flipped the momentum.
A fourth-down stop in the end zone was immediately followed by a 91-yard run by Weaver to give Pendleton Heights a 35-20 lead with 27 seconds left in the third quarter.
“We ran out of gas,” Wilhelm said. “Literally, you could just tell after the first half was over. We came out in the third quarter and emotionally we were just done. That’s when Pendleton started doing stuff against us.”
Yorktown could not stop Pendleton Heights as the game wore on. But they also never quit. The seniors told Wilhelm on Tuesday that they wanted to play – and they played like it, right through the final pass from Tokar to Crumes.
“I told our kids we need treat this like the shoe is on the other foot,” Pendleton Heights coach Jed Richman said. “Let’s show him the grace and respect that we would want. It was senior night and a lot of emotions. Man, a unique night. But I told the kids and (Wilhelm) that I had a ton of respect for them before, but after tonight the way their community showed out – just first class.”
Call Star reporter Kyle Neddenriep at (317) 444-6649.Get IndyStar's high school coverage sent directly to your inbox with the High School Sports newsletter.
This article originally appeared on Indianapolis Star: 'Let's finish this for Chris.' Yorktown honors teammate Chris Wilson Jr. on emotional night