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Today we continue the countdown of the Top 10 sports stories of the 2016-2017 school year at Pella High School, and we’ve finally reached number one.

For most of the football world, “The Catch” is Joe Montana’s game winning touchdown pass to Dwight Clark in the 1981 NFC Championship game.

But in the Tulip City, “The Catch” refers to arguably the greatest play in the history of Pella High athletics.

Ryan Van Wyk’s 21-yard touchdown reception with no time left on the clock sent two-time defending champion Pella back to the title game with a 34-30 win over Cedar Rapids Xavier in a game heard live on November 10th on 92.1 KRLS.

It was a back-and-forth affair in which neither team led by more than a touchdown. The Saints’ Shane Scott had booted his third field goal of the game with just 3:34 to play to give Xavier a 30-28 lead.

On the ensuing drive, Little Dutch quarterback Nick Finnney threw his third interception of the game, but the Pella defense forced a three-and-out to give them the ball back with less than a minute remaining.

Out of timeouts, Finney hit a short pass to Drew Pringle, then a 27-yard yarder to Van Wyk with just seven seconds remaining. With first-and-ten at the 21, Finney made the decision on the fly to go for the win rather than clock the ball.

“I first ran over to Ryan (Van Wyk) because I knew I wanted to get the ball to Ryan. So I ran over to Ryan and told him to run a post corner, then I ran over to my other wide receivers to tell them what to run, but I knew I was going to Ryan.”

Number 4 threw it, and 26 was there to grab the winner.

“I knew that Nick would give me an opportunity to go make a play. He threw a great ball, and I couldn’t be any happier.”

Finney finished 19-of-32 for 342 yards and three touchdowns passing, and he added 96 yards rushing with a pair of scores.

Both Van Wyk and Holterhaus went over 150 yards receiving. Holterhaus caught seven balls for 156 and a score, and Van Wyk caught 7 for 164, including the biggest play in Pella history.

The Little Dutch would take advantage of their chance at history a week later, beating Webster City 28-18 for their third consecutive class 3-A state championship. They’ll take a 41-game winning streak into the 2017 season, which kicks off three weeks from tonight.

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