STANDISH — Minutes after a play that could have defined its season in all the wrong ways, the Noble football team made a play that’ll be talked about for years.

Late in the third quarter, while trailing Bonny Eagle by four points and facing fourth-and-goal inside the Scots’ 1, Noble quarterback Jamier Rose threw an interception to Bonny Eagle sophomore Ben Noe as he tried to squeeze a slant pass into Hayden Davis.

But the Knights forced a punt, and senior Taivian Brown returned it 50 yards for the go-ahead touchdown, sparking Noble to a 28-24 win in a Class A South semifinal.

“Everyone was telling me to fair catch it, but I just felt something different about it. I just caught it, looked at my blockers, and I saw a lane to cut back. I just had to beat the punter, and I stiff-armed him,” Brown said.

No. 3 Noble (8-2) advances to the regional final for the first time since 1997 – the year the Knights won their only state championship. They’ll face defending champion Thornton Academy (8-2).

No. 2 Bonny Eagle, which took a 21-14 win at Noble late in the regular season, ends the season 7-3.

“(Brown’s) a senior. He broke his pinkie. We didn’t have him on offense until week eight. I’m super proud of him,” Noble Coach Keenon Blindow said. “The best thing about our team is, we never got down on ourselves. We always believed we were in the game.”

Bonny Eagle took the first drive of the second half 68 yards in six plays, grabbing an 18-14 lead on a 2-yard run by quarterback Colin Moran with 9:27 left in the third.

The Knights looked like they would answer with a scoring drive of their own, but Rose was stopped just short of the goal line on third down, and Blindow took the blame for what happened on fourth down, saying there was a miscommunication between him and Rose on the play call.

“We really should’ve run the ball there. It’s on me,” Blindow said

Rose also owned the mistake, and just wanted a chance at redemption.

“The main thing going through my head was, I’ve got to flush it. I understand I made a mistake throwing it. I should’ve ran it. But we flushed it, we moved on, and we won the game,” Rose said.

After Brown’s return gave the Knights the lead, they got a stop, then mounted a long scoring drive to push their advantage to 28-18 with 4:34 to play on Tommy Gagnon’s 5-yard run.

Bonny Eagle got a touchdown with 2:40 left – a 21-yard reception by Ben Augustino – but the Knights ran out the clock to set off a victory celebration 27 years in the making.

“To go from that elation of (Noe) making that play as a first-time starter in a football game, and then to watch them return that punt and kind of flip the game around, man, that’s a tough one to take for sure. But that’s football. You’ve got to keep battling no matter what your situation is. Our kids kept battling,” Bonny Eagle Coach Kevin Cooper said.

“Give credit to Noble. They did the things they needed to do to change it. A great punt return, and a great last drive. Obviously (Rose) is an elite player and he made the plays they needed him to to win the game.”

The Scots took a 6-0 lead with 9:02 left in the first quarter when Moran connected with Augustino on a 24-yard touchdown pass. Noble answered with a pair of touchdown passes from Rose to Davis – 52 and 18 yards – to take a 14-6 lead into the second quarter. On the first Rose-Davis connection, Rose changed the call at the line after seeing Davis uncovered wide right. He got off a quick pass, and Davis eluded tacklers as he scampered down the sideline.

“We had a run play called, but they had nobody on him, so I just threw the ball. Hayden Davis is a good player that makes plays. He got the ball and he did what he does,” Rose said.

The Scot cut the deficit to 14-12 when Moran scored on a 5-yard run with 28 seconds left in the first half.