By Don Ketchum

A group of Phoenix Thunderbird football players held up the Class 4A Division II state championship trophy and approached coach Brent Wittenwyler.

“It’s waiting, waiting for a smooch,’’ said one of the players.

Finally, Wittenwyler relented and planted his lips on the golden football.

The long, improbable journey was complete.

Thunderbird had emerged from the shadows as the No. 13 seed to win the first football title since the school opened in 1972, a 25-22 heart-stopping victory in overtime over unbeaten, second-seeded Gilbert Williams Field on Saturday at Arizona State University’s Sun Devil Stadium.

Thunderbird finished 10-4, Williams Field 13-1.

After the two teams missed potential game-winning field-goal attempts in the final seconds of regulation, Williams Field got the ball first in overtime.

On the second play, the Black Hawks’ Alex Howard coughed up the football and Thunderbird linebacker Justin Ganados recovered the fumble at the 4-yard-line.

Wittenwyler wasn’t going to try anything fancy. He just put the ball in the hands of top running back Connor Hustead and kept it between the hash marks to set up place-kicker Eric Wagner for a field-goal attempt.

Wagner, a sophomore, had missed two PATs earlier as well as a 37-yard field-goal attempt near the end of regulation. He also booted a 36-yard field goal in the third quarter.

Wagner came through this time, putting the ball straight between the uprights. Game over.

“I knew my teammates would give me another chance,’’ said Wagner, who also had 12 tackles as a defensive back. “This game was huge for our fans and for our school.’’

The moment was even more special for Wagner because his snapper (Johnny Donaldson) and holder (Jake Stiak) have been with him since their Pop Warner days.

“Games like this reveal character, not build it,’’ Wittenwyler said.

He acknowledged that Williams Field was the favorite, “but after the first couple of plays, we were saying, “We can handle these guys.’ We’re not a 13 seed in our minds.’’

The Chiefs took that to heart from the beginning.

Hustead ripped off an 80-yard scoring run on his team’s first play from scrimmage. In the second quarter, just 15 seconds after Williams Field pulled to within 12-7 on a 5-yard scoring run by Howard, Hustead returned a kickoff 99 yards for a touchdown.

Hustead finished with 153 yards on 22 carries. Howard had 136 yards on 26 carries. Both are juniors and will be back next season.

“We came into this game wanting to do something special, and we were able to do it,’’ Hustead said.

He said he knew that Williams Field would key on him, “but I just had to go out there and give it my all.’’

After Howard’s 26-yard scoring run and a two-point conversion pass tied it at 22 with 6:58 left in the game, Thunderbird got the ball and attempted to control the clock while setting itself up for the field-goal attempt. Wagner’s kick fell a few feet short of the crossbar.

“If bad things happen, do we feel sorry for ourselves and think more bad things are going to happen, or are we going out and make something good happen?’’ Wittenwyler said.

Something good finally did happen in overtime.

Coach Steve Campbell and his Williams Field team were left to reflect on what might have been and where the program goes from here.

“We have to take care of the football,’’ said Campbell, whose team had four turnovers (Thunderbird had none).

“How do our kids handle it? Do we learn a lesson from it, keep moving forward? What kind of class do we have?’’

As for what might happen for Thunderbird in the future, Wittenwyler wasn’t going to worry about that right away. He and his players wanted to enjoy this one for a bit.

“Coming into this stadium and being able to do what they did on a great day like this, it is something they will never forget,’’ he said.