Carter Daniels may remember this touchdown for a long, long time.

Daniels fielded a fourth-quarter punt and ran it back 54 yards for a touchdown to break a 20-20 tie against Ingraham as the Spartans capped a come-from-behind win in Metro football against the Rams last week.

And to think, Daniels said he thought briefly about calling for a fair catch on the game’s biggest play.

Thankfully for Bainbridge, the thought was fleeting.

“There was a guy was coming down pretty fast,” Daniels said as he recalled the Rams heading his way. “I got the ball; Max Wickline made a great block for me and then I just took it to the edge.”

“I finally got back up in traffic at like the 40-yard line, and the next thing I see is Ben DeVries flying in and then squaring things up for me. And I just ran right into the end zone.

“It was just great blocking,” Daniels said.

The big play was the junior running back’s second touchdown of his high school career, and the only return for a touchdown he’s had since he was in Pee Wee football.

“It was pretty cool,” Daniels said.

Spartan Head Coach Andy Grimm said the fourth-quarter turnaround for the Spartans wasn’t the first of the contest.

“It was a very hard fought game,” Grimm said of the back-and-forth battle. “We basically had three comebacks within that game.”

Daniel’s returns was something special, though.

“It was a ‘tweener,” Grimm said of the dying punt that looked like it was going to drop and bounce around.

Daniels instead caught it on the fly. And flew.

He broke to the left sideline and it was off to the races.

“Once he got to the sideline he got a great couple of blocks downfield and then just went to the house,” Grimm said.

“Once he passed me, at the 30-yard line, I knew he was going to score because they had bad angles,” the coach said of the Ram defenders.

Up 27-20, it looked like the Spartans would put the nail in the coffin after recovering a Rams turnover that put Bainbridge in a prime position for another fourth-quarter score.

A Bainbridge fumble finished that scoring opportunity.

“Instead of going up by 14, and the game’s probably over, we gave them another shot,” Grimm recalled.

Ingraham failed to score on the possession, however, and Bainbridge marched downfield and scored again. The final points came on a 1-yard scamper into the end zone by Sam Wysong and a point-after kick by senior Cal Barash-David (the 10th point the senior kicker put on the board during the game).

The Spartans fell behind at the start. Ingraham scored first, on a 51-yard touchdown run in the first quarter.

Bainbridge answered with a field goal, a 32-yarder by Barash-David, that cut the score to 7-3, Ingraham.

The Spartans went up 10-7 in the second quarter after a 7-yard touchdown run by Sam Wysong.

At halftime, Grimm said, it was becoming clear who was going to end up winning the game.

“It was really going to come down to who wanted it more,” he said, “because we were fairly evenly matched teams.”

The Rams had some good athletes who were able to get outside and score on the Spartans, and the prospects for the Rams airing it out in the second half were real.

“There was always that fear that they could go up top and we just didn’t have the speed to match it. But I think the kids came out and had a helluva second half,” Grimm said.

The Spartans also had to play without Oskar Dieterich, the Spartans’ 6-foot-8, 220-pound tight end and defensive lineman.

The two-side starter sat out the second half with a dislocated thumb.

“We were scrambling a little bit, but the kids stepped up.

“Perseverance is key,” Grimm added. “Just believing and not panicking. I credit the kids on that but I also credit the coaching staff. If the kids see you panic, and you’re losing it … the kids really feed on that,” Grimm explained.

“But if you can stay controlled, ‘Hey, we’re all right,’” he continued, the calm composure of the coaching staff can be contagious.

It was needed in the third quarter, as the Rams regained the lead after a 6-yard touchdown run that put Ingraham up, 13-10.

The Spartans retook the lead after Ben Fisher pierced the end zone on a 17-yard carry, and Barash-David tacked on the point after for a 17-13 Bainbridge advantage.

But the Rams rallied at the start of the fourth, and took the lead back, 20-17, after a 15-yard touchdown run.

The momentum swung back in the Spartans’ favor for good after Daniels’ touchdown, and Bainbridge scored 17 unanswered points.

Spartan quarterback Kyle Jackson finished the game with five completions for 18 yards. He also had 11 carries for 48 yards.

Wysong rushed for 137 yards on 21 carries, while Fisher had 12 carries for 55 yards.

Wickline finished with two receptions for 21 yards, while Dieterich had two catches for 17 yards across two quarters.

Glodi Kingombe led the Spartan defense with 10 tackles (three assisted), while Alex Pickett had six (three assisted) and Sam Roth had six (two assisted).

The win improved the Spartans’ record to 2-2.

The team travels to Seattle Saturday to face Lakeside, and the Spartans have their work cut out for them. It will be homecoming for the Lions.

“They are a good team. They’ve got speed,” Grimm said of Lakeside.

He noted that the Lions’ sole loss this season came against third-ranked Eastside Catholic.

“If we can stay focused … and just do our job, do what we’re supposed to do. Not turn it over, get some turnovers, then we’re going to have a chance to win it,” Grimm said.