Although it has been 27 years, Joe Becker remembers 1981 a lot better than he recalls 1998.

Becker also has fonder memories of 1981, when he was head coach of the Dike Bobcats who defeated Greenfield in the Class 1A Iowa high school state championship football game.

However, it's the one that got away in 1998 that remains the talk of communities like Dike and New Hartford, and for that matter, the entire state. In what is widely considered one of the greatest high school state championship games played, West Lyon of Inwood edged Dike-New Hartford, 41-40, for the Class 2A state title.

"That was a great game. I just like the '81 game a little better," quipped Becker.

In the '98 game, 12 championship game records were broken as West Lyon used a last-second touchdown to pull out a see-saw victory that saw more twists and turns than can be imagined.

One of the main participants in that game, Lane Danielsen, later a standout wide receiver at Iowa State, has only seen the highlights. Danielsen can't bring himself to watch all 48 minutes.

"It would be tough for me to watch," said Danielsen, now a salesman for Stryker Medical in Ankeny. "I don't like losing that much, and we were so close to a state championship. It was neat to play in it, but tough because we came so close to winning and lost."

Danielsen set championship records with 10 catches for 227 yards and three touchdowns, while his quarterback - Gabe Bakker - set title game records with 338 yards passing and four touchdowns.

On the other side of the field, West Lyon set championship records with 444 rushing yards, 76 rushing attempts, 24 first downs and 520 total yards.

Additionally, the Wildcats held the ball for 33 minutes, 27 seconds compared to Dike-New Hartford's 14:33 time of possession.

"What I honestly remember most about that game is how good it really was," said Bakker, now an assistant coach at West Des Moines Valley. "We got down, battled back and just about pulled it off. We were never able to make that big defensive stop that we needed, however."

The game started with West Lyon jumping to a quick 21-0 lead, before Gabe Bakker hit Danielsen with touchdown passes of 35 and 42 yards in the final five minutes of the second quarter.

Then on the second play of the third quarter, Bakker hit Danielsen on a 74-yard scoring strike to make it 21-20, West Lyon.

"We kind of got knocked around a little bit in the first quarter, but once we came to our senses, we played the way we could," Bakker said. "As we got going in the second half, I felt there was no doubt we were going to win."

From there, it continued to be a whale of a ballgame with neither team able to stop the other's offense.

With 4:45 left in the fourth quarter, Bakker hit Beau Gibbs with a 35-yard touchdown pass to put Dike-New Hartford up, 40-34.

But the Wildcats' smash-mouth offense went back to work, marching 73 yards in 15 plays, converting three third-down plays along the way, and ending the drive with a 1-yard touchdown dive by Josh Childress to tie it at 40-all.

West Lyon placekicker Steve Hawf, who had already missed two extra points and a 43-yard field goal, was on target.

Then, with less than 10 seconds to go, Wildcat Mark Rentschler intercepted a Bakker Hail Mary pass to clinch the victory.

"It was exhausting playing both ways," said Danielsen. "Looking back on it, it was almost a surreal moment. It was hard to even keep track of what was going on because everything was happening so fast. The ups and downs of that game were nerve-racking."

Although on the victorious side, West Lyon head coach Jeff Rozeboom remembers how exhausted he felt.

"It was an emotional rollercoaster on the sidelines," Rozeboom said. "Both teams left everything they had out on the field of play. I was tired after it was all over.

"The game was played the way it was supposed to be played. There was a lot of respect between both teams. I thought Dike-New Hartford had a bunch of classy kids," continued Rozeboom.

"It was a tremendous amount of fun," added Dike-New Hartford coach Tom Wilson. "Looking back at it, I remember how we got behind by a fairly big margin, but when we started coming back the feeling inside the Dome … you could feel the crowd on both sides going crazy … you could feel it, literally."

The way the game played out actually was a little surprising to both coaches.

"I thought it was going to be a fairly low-scoring game," Wilson said. "They were much bigger than us. I thought we were going to be in trouble running the football, although we had a very good running back in Chad Eberhart.

"But at the same time I thought our defense would do well against their smash-mouth style of offensive football."

Rozeboom said he and his staff were taken back about how good the Wolverines' passing attack was.

"Their quarterback was hot and they had two receivers that were way better than what we thought they were," Rozeboom said. "The week before in the semifinals against Iowa Falls we had recorded nine sacks as they were dropping back five, seven steps.

"Dike was going with a three-step drop and then letting it fly. We didn't adjust to that well or to their speed."

After that game, Danielsen described it this way:

"They had the safety over the top. If he lined up to the inside of our quarterback, we'd audible to the fade, and if he lined up to the outside, we'd audible to the slant. There was nothing they really could do."

The Wildcats agree.

"When they got momentum going with the passing game, it felt like there was nothing we could do about it … it was a helpless feeling," added Rozeboom.

As it turned out, that game wouldn't be the last time many of the participants would cross paths.

In fact, many of them see each other on a regular basis.

Bakker and Danielsen played football with Luke Vander Sanden at Iowa State.

Gibbs played football with Wildcat running back Mike Fiech at Northern Iowa, while Darin Naatjes, who played football and baseball at Stanford before being drafted by the Philadelphia Phillies, lives in West Des Moines.

"It is crazy," said Danielsen. "To this day, Luke Vander Sanden is one of my best friends. I'm getting married (Saturday), and he is getting married the following Saturday.

"We were roommates in college, and throughout the years I got to know all of his West Lyon buddies."

Additionally, Wilson lives within two blocks of Bakker in West Des Moines where the two coach against each other. Wilson is head coach at Dowling and Bakker is an assistant to Gary Swenson at Valley.

And, Wilson is going to be part of Danielsen's wedding.

Do the Dike-New Hartford boys still get ribbed about the loss from the West Lyon gang?

"There is a mutual respect for that game," Danielsen said. "I think there is a respect there that it was a heck of a game that either team could've easily won it."

Bakker recalled a story from his freshman season at Iowa State where he returned to Inwood with Vander Sanden and was forced to watch the championship game on film.

"I got a good ribbing about it than, but they were all pretty good about it," Bakker said. "I think most of us feel it was an honor and a blessing to play in that game."

In addition to the game, Wilson said there are a lot of other things he remembers vividly.

"I think the journey it took to get there is definitely one," he noted. "It was my second year at Dike-New Hartford, and we had gone through a lot of change in those two seasons.

"Losing was very heartbreaking, but yet I was still so proud of those kids. I was honored to be a part of the communities of Dike and New Hartford. And I think that season did as much as that game to bring those two communities together as anything."

Contact Jim Nelson at (319) 291-1521 or jim.nelson@wcfcourier.com