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SAVANNAH, Mo. — Faced with an impossible conundrum, Savannah coach Mark Cole turned the hardest decision of the season over to his exhausted players.

Trailing by two points, the Savages took a knee on the final two plays during Thursday’s 8-6 loss to Cameron at Savage Field. The bitter loss was hard to swallow but handed Savannah its second district title in program history on point differential in a three-way tiebreaker.

“Coach asked us the question. He asked us if we wanted to win the district or if we wanted to win the game,” Savannah senior lineman Derek Yost said. “We said we wanted to win the district so we took a knee.

“That was a hard one to take. I didn’t really know how to do that.”

To compound the situation, Savannah had to make the drastic decision before the conclusion of the additional Class 3 District 16 contest between Chillicothe and Smithville. The Hornets won the match 29-22 — a result that left Cameron out of the playoffs with a third-place district finish.

Cole received the positive news well after his team had dispersed from his dejected post-game huddle.

“We play to win, and our kids have worked hard enough to earn that right to play to win. But we also felt they earned that right to go to the playoffs, too,” Cole said. “Call it what you want. We’re living to fight another day.”

The Savages appeared ready to win outright after taking possession of the ball down two at midfield thanks to a fumble recovery with 2 minutes, 37 seconds remaining. In a game dominated by running games, quarterback Justin Roach completed his first pass for positive yardage to Chandler Hanna for 17 yards and followed with a 10-yard run that put the Savages on the door step of the red zone.

But the drive stalled and forced the Savages into a passing situation on fourth down. As Roach looked for Hanna once again, Cameron defensive back Alex Tharp stepped up from his safety position and nearly made a play that vaulted the Dragons (8-2, 5-2 MEC) into the postseason.

With nothing but green grass in front of him, Tharp raced down his own sideline untouched for 65 yards until a group of Savages caught up with him. He nearly cut back against the grain but could not elude the combination tackle of Chris Jimenez and Kaiser Haag. That set Cameron up at Savannah’s 25-yard line, needing another touchdown to earn a postseason berth.

“I’m real proud of our players,” said Cameron coach Dave Rash, who was unsure of his team’s fate as he broke the huddle. “They did a great job of coming out and winning the game. That was our No. 1 goal — to win the game.

“Even if we don’t make it to the playoffs, it’ll be a good season.”

After a 7-yard gain on first down and an incompletion into the end zone, Cameron running back Lincoln Greene fumbled the ball on an exchange with quarterback Zach Way — Cameron’s sixth fumble. Yost took full advantage of the miscue and pounced on the ball inside his own 20-yard line.

Savannah’s defense held strong all night, limiting the Dragons to an average of 2.0 yards a carry on 25 attempts to go with three sacks.

“We rely on our defense and preach that defense wins championship,” Cole said. “We felt like that’s what happened tonight. Our defense played phenomenal tonight.”

Following the change of possession, Cole called a timeout to discuss the scenario with his players. Everyone assembled looked past the loss and viewed the big picture as the logical option. As a stunned Savannah crowd fell strangely silent, Roach took a knee on three of the final four plays that took gave Savannah its first district title since 1996.

Cole learned of the Chillicothe’s victory sitting on a hill overlooking his home field, confident in his team’s gut-wrenching decision.

“If we do something there, and they score and knock us out, then shame on all of us,” Cole said. “This is exactly the reason we did what we did, to fight another day. The way it stood, that was the right decision to make.”

In the losing effort, Savannah’s rushing game consistently won the battle at the line of scrimmage but struggled to consistently string together first downs. Running back Quinton Peak led the team with 107 yards on 25 carries in deplorable conditions, while Roach racked up 64 of his own on the ground. Roach also scored the game’s opening touchdown in the third quarter before Greene helped Cameron take the lead on a 65-yard screen pass that provided the final score.

Savannah missed the extra point, while Way dove in for a 2-point conversion to provide the winning margin.

As conflicting as the situation was, many of Savannah’s player kept the final result in perspective.

“A trip to the playoffs means more than anything right now,” Jimenez said. “It sucks that we didn’t win that game, but the playoffs matter more. It’s the second time in school history. It’s our dream.”