Ramstein waited until the last second Saturday to claim the Division I conference championship with an improbable 26-20 victory at Heidelberg.

With the score tied at 20, one second to go and no timeouts left, the Royals had the ball on the Heidelberg 41, according to Ramstein coach Glenn Porter.

It was fourth down for Ramstein, but Heidelberg, apparently thinking the Lions had held on downs, called time, Porter said.

That move gave the Royals one last play, and quarterback Jackson Knox and All-Europe receiver Scott Soublousky made it count. The duo connected on a 41-yard touchdown pass that won the game and league title for the Royals (6-1 overall, 5-1 D-I).

“That was the most exciting high school game I’ve ever seen," Porter wrote in an e-mail to Stars and Stripes.

“Our come-from-behind win in our German-American game against (six-time German youth champion) Düsseldorf (in which Ramstein trailed 21-3 in the third quarter before winning 25-21 on Sept. 22) was a good one, but this was even better."

The winning score was set up when Ramstein’s Jake Garcia blocked a Heidelberg field goal and Ramstein recovered the ball. Heidelberg’s Kyle Ulsef had kicked field goals of 25 and 37 yards earlier in the game.

and the Royals recovered on their own 40 . They drove to the Heidelberg 41in three plays prior to the fateful timeout.

The TD pass was the third of game for Knox. Two — one covering 81 yards, the other the game-winner — went to Soublousky, who also intercepted two Heidelberg passes. The third as a 7-yard scoring toss to Matt Burns.

Knox also ran for a TD.

Heidelberg (5-2, 4-2) got two TD runs of 3 yards each from Thonda Taylor to along with Ulsef’s field goals.

Both teams had already clinched berths in the D-I championship game this Saturday at Baumholder.

In the other D-I game:

Lakenheath 13, Kaiserslautern 8: At Lakenheath, Nate Allison tossed first-half TD passes to Eddie Alford and Chuck Pope to lead the Lancers (2-5, 1-5 D-I).

For the day, Allison completed 13-of-24 passes for 187 yards. Pope rolled up 150 all-purpose yards, according to Lakenheath coach Matt Martinez.

Demetrious Johnson ran for Kaiserslautern’s lone TD with four minutes left in the game. Thomas Bolton passed for 115 yards for Kaiserslautern (3-4, 2-4). Cornelius Jackson receptions accounted for 71 yards of Bolton’s total.

Tyler Parmenter had two sacks and forced a fumble for Lakenheath. K-town’s defense was led by Marcos Velazquez and Jolion Portellio. Each was credited with 16 tackles.

Migrated