The Warriors converted a fourth-and-16 with a pass to Brown to get the ball to the Commerce 35 and eventually drove to the 9. On a fourth-and-8 play, Brown momentarily came open in the back of the end zone.

But Kay didn’t immediately see Brown, and Pilkinton recovered, stepping in front of Brown and deflecting the ball out the back of the end zone.

“I saw him pop open for a second, then I just broke up on it,” Pilkinton said.

Commerce, which hadn’t had the ball in 11:45, sealed the victory with Sullivan’s 48-yard run up the sideline, ending a night filled with attrition.

During one first-half sequence, the teams combined for three turnovers in 27 seconds. When the dust settled, Commerce had the ball and cashed in on a 36-yard field goal from Zach Barnes for a 24-19 halftime lead.

“You’ve just got to forget about what happens and go to the next play,” Sullivan said. “We finally held them out at the very end when it counted.”