http://www.texasfoot...ews/view/179675 Small-school recap.
By Travis Stewart // TexasFootball.com . 2A scores:Division IMuleshoe 43, Eastland 36Surprised at this outcome? We here at DCTF were, a little bit. Muleshoe and Eastland battled out to a 15-all tie at halftime, with Muleshoe's points coming via two touchdown catches from Saul Elizalde (who also had a 95-yard KO return for a TD for the second week in a row.) But the third and fourth quarters belonged to Muleshoe; Issac Baca ran for three touchdowns (59, 20 and 24 yards) to put the Mules way out in front, and Eastland couldn't catch up until the dying minutes. The Mavericks did make things interesting in a hurry, though — QB Trent Brittain threw a touchdown pass with 51 seconds to get within 14, then Eastland recovered an onside kick and got a second scoring toss to Brittain to close within seven. The Mavs actually recovered a second onside kick, too, only to have it wiped away due to a penalty — Muleshoe snagged the second effort, and that was the ball game.
Melissa 42, Daingerfield 14The three-time champs were unceremoniously swept out of the postseason by unheralded Melissa, primarily because the Melissa defense was content to bend, but not break. Daingerfield came away empty-handed on three drives past the Melissa 20-yard line, the most painful coming near the end of the third quarter when, trailing 20-14, Daingerfield QB Alex Allen's fourth-down pass fell incomplete. Melissa drove a dagger into the Tigers' chances on the next drive with an 87-yard possession that ended in a 27-yard touchdown run by QB Wes McQueen. Daingerfield kept that drive alive with a 15-yard penalty on a Melissa punt, too. Now trailing by double-digits, Daingerfield sealed its fate with an interception of its next drive. Melissa eventually turned that into points, and that was that.
Tatum 34, Crockett 33Wasn't this supposed to be a fairly low-scoring affair? Not so much — Tatum won a classic of a shootout, but not without some drama. The two teams traded scores into the second quarter before Tatum snagged the lead on an interception return for a touchdown, its first of three picks on the night. Crockett scored once more before the end of the half, but the PAT went begging, and Tatum ended up heading to the break with a 24-20 advantage. But that's when the game turned; Crockett scored late in the third to take a 27-24 lead, and then looked to have things wrapped up when it took over with about six minutes to play. But turnovers tore Crockett apart; Tatum's second INT of the night set up a tying field goal, and then it returned a third for a score on the next possession to take the lead. With just 2:34 to play, Crockett started its final, bittersweet drive — sweet when QB A.D. Smith scored to draw Crockett within one, and bitter when the Bulldogs missed their second PAT of the evening to lose by one
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Hempstead 35, Blanco 12Blanco has been a pretty good defensive squad all year long, but Hempstead looked every bit like the offense it was supposed to be — explosive in the extreme. Hempstead scored four times on drives that took less than two total minutes, and two of those were one-play efforts. The funny thing is that Blanco dominated time of possession — it's first drive of the game, which ended in a touchdown, gobbled up more than 10 minutes from the first quarter clock. But the Panthers, designed to win with defense and a grinding offense, had to play behind against a quick-strike attack. In many ways, it was a nightmare matchup on paper. Now Hempstead is a win away from its first-ever state title game.
Division IICisco 34, Holliday 0Cisco is starting to look more and more like last year's Idalou squad, isn't it? The defense, like it was last week against Idalou, was absolutely stifling against the Holliday offense, and the run game, which got 402 rushing yards out of QB Colton Gayle and RBs Mason Reed and Hayden Lewis, never really ran into obstacles. Holliday, which only mustered 115 total yards, managed just one true scoring chance before the Loboes snuffed it out. Now Cisco is back to the state semifinals for the fourth time since 2006 — an incredible number, and one made slightly painful by the fact that the program is 0-3 in the past ten years alone in title games. Now it only has to beat Corsicana Mildred and it'll get a fourth shot at the primetime.
Corsicana Mildred 49, Gunter 0Speaking of Mildred, the Eagles surely played their best game of the year this weekend against Gunter — Mildred got 283 passing yards and three total touchdowns out of QB Nic Shimonek, three total touchdowns out of Draylon Sterling, and a two-punt, turnover-free performance out of the offense, while holding Gunter to just 274 yards and four turnovers defensively. You're not going to do a whole lot better than that!
Lexington 47, Arp 20Boy, was Lexington QB Kogan Garrett on another level this week — four touchdowns rushing and two touchdowns passing, plus some hard-hitting runs that left Arp defenders grasping at air. His only mistake? Saying in the postgame that no one thought they would win! Lexington was favored by both DCTF writers this weekend. But it was truly Garrett that delivered — he threw for 178 yards on 12-of-15 passing and ran for 111 yards, even knocking off Arp safety Michael Roberson's helmet three separate times in the ground game (which means that Garrett runs hard and that Roberson really needs to buckle that thing on a little tighter). Arp scored first, but Garrett's torrid pace had run-centric Arp playing from behind. That forced QB Kyle Copeland to the air, where Lexington was waiting.
Refugio 41, Sonora 24It may have taken the Refugio offense a little bit to get rolling, but once it did, as usual, the results were impressive. Malcolm Franklin ran for two touchdowns and Draigon Silvas tossed in a 52-yarder for good measure, all in the second half, to push past a Sonora defense that was one of the area's best. Sonora actually made this one look a lot closer than it was, scoring three times late in the fourth after a pair of onside kicks, but that was about the only time the defense let up at all. As a matter of fact, it was the defense that did the lion's share of the work, especially early on — it picked off three passes and and returned one for a score to make up for a shaky first half that saw three Refugio turnovers.
