An 18-year-old driver whose car plunged into a Delaware canal over the weekend saved his girlfriend before dying in a heroic bid to help his cousin and younger brothers, according to a new reports.

Willis Lindsey and the others were heading to a football game Sunday when his SUV suddenly plunged into the Chesapeake & Delaware Canal, local station KKTV 11 reported.

The Chevy HHR was completely submerged after the 9:40 a.m. incident, Master Cpl. Michael Austin of the Delaware State Police said, according to the Delaware News Journal.

The sole survivor of the plunge — Lindsey’s 16-year-old girlfriend, whom first responders found sitting on the bank of the canal — told authorities that her boyfriend had helped bring her to shore, according to the reports. Then, she said, he jumped back into the water in an attempt to rescue his brothers, 16 and 6, and his cousin, 12, according to the reports.

Neither Lindsey nor the other boys emerged alive.

Lindsey’s body was recovered in the water nearby, and hours later, authorities recovered the vehicle from the water, where the 16- and 12-year-old boys were also found dead, the News Journal reported.

The 6-year-old boy remains unaccounted for, according to the report.

“He was a hero,” Austin told the paper of Lindsey. “He tried to do everything he could to help the remaining passengers in that vehicle.”

The cause of the crash remains under investigation, but relatives told CBS Philadelphia that the boys were never supposed to be on that road. They probably got lost and tried turning around before the fatal crash, according to the report. They were headed to the 6-year-old victim’s football game at the time.

“He loved his family, like, unbelievable,” Larry Simpson, who coached the brothers in youth football, told the outlet. “I can really see him rather stay down there with them than come up without them. I really believe that. That was Willis.”