The late fourth-quarter play gave Barrie's St. Joan of Arc Knights a four-point lead and the win in the quarterfinal game of the GBSSA playoffs.
The final was 17-13.
Barrie's Dustin Begley made the catch that gave St. Joan the right to move on to the semifinals.
It was a tough game made even rougher by a couple of inches of snow on the field and a strong cross field wind that made kicking difficult and kept a lot of spectators watching from their cars.
The Banting squad took an early lead in the first quarter when running back Bobby Troop landed on the 10-yard line, then followed up on the next play to cross the goal.
Mike Palazzolo made good on the kick for the extra point to give the Marauders a seven-point lead.
The Barrie squad had trouble moving the ball in the first half thanks to a strong Alliston defence.
Cameron Waslenko, Connor Murphy, and Mike Palazzolo figured into some hard hits to stop the Knights advance.
Receiver Shane Robinson got the Marauder's second TD when QB Colin Hutterer rifled a long pass into the end zone.
With the Knights in control of the ball in the second half, a 35-yard gain and a first down brought St. Joan into scoring position.
Defensive squad members Ryan Cassar and Travis Szylick made some solid hits to keep the Knights from gaining any yards.
With a minute left in the half, Banting found themselves out of downs and deep in their own. The Marauders dropped back to give the Knights a two-point safety. The move allowed Banting to restart play with a kick off rather than risk a short punt into a strong wind that would give St. Joan a good field position.
The second half saw the St. Joan squad come out hard with a strong drive down the field.
Craig Hepditch got a TD to put the Knights on the scoreboard followed up by a successful kick for the extra point by Ryan Aucoin.
The Knights picked up two singles on attempted field goals when they missed the uprights but made good on the rouge kicking the ball out of bounds.
The field goal attempts came when the Knights were getting close but the Banting defence stopped them from getting past the 25-yard line.
Defensemen Alex Dulder, Mark Warren, and Mike Lake managed to crash the line for hard-hitting stops on the play.
The Knights took the lead late in the fourth quarter and managed to hold on for the rest of the game despite a last ditch effort by the Banting squad in the last few seconds to use their throwing game in a final attempt to take a lead.
The Marauders went into the playoffs with a 4-2 regular season record.
The senior squad may be done for the season but the Banting Junior squad is still alive after winning their quarterfinal game 27-14 over Innisdale.
