The only thing stopping the Americas Trail Blazers on Saturday was Mother Nature on Friday. Their game against the Franklin Cougars was postponed until the next morning, and the Blazers had the offense rolling in a 61-42 shootout victory. The win gives the Blazers a share of the District 1-6A title, along with El Dorado and Montwood.
“It wasn’t the way we wanted to win tonight,” head coach Patrick Melton said, “but we’ll take it. The kids worked hard this year to overcome adversity and injuries this year and we’ll be ready for next week.”
The Blazers had two standout performances on offense from senior running back Josh Fields and junior receiver Tremaine Henderson on Saturday. Fields got the scoring going with a one-yard touchdown run early in the first quarter. On the Blazers second possession, Henderson took a screen pass from quarterback Cristian Estorga and blazed through the Cougar defense 43 yards for a 13-0 lead.
On the other side, Kaleb Hatch put up one his best performances of the year to keep pace. After a touchdown pass to Khatib Lyles late in the first quarter, Hatch came back and delivered a strike to Luis Baca for an 84-yard score to give the Cougars the lead. Baca would finish Saturday’s game with 11 catches for 199 yards and four scores.
That’s when Tremaine Henderson became a difference maker for the Blazers. He took a 47-yard screen pass from Estorga to the house and after a Cougar punt, Henderson took another 43-yard screen pass for a score to put the Blazers up 11 and helped maintain a lead that the Blazers would not give up again.
“His speed really changes things up for us,” Melton said, “And with the different ways we can get him the ball, it makes it easier for the rest of our team.”
In the second half, Josh Fields put on a show for his final regular season game at the SAC. He would have four touchdown runs in the second half and the Blazers needed every one of them to hold Kaleb Hatch and the Cougars off. Hatch finished 35 of 52 for 376 yards and six touchdowns. Those runs included a 73-yard run up the left sideline in the third quarter and a 57-yard run with 3:12 to go that finally put the game away for the Blazers.
“I thought we all stepped up when we needed to,” Henderson said, “Between me and Josh, they didn’t know which guy to stop and they had to pick their poison.”
Fields finished Saturday’s game with 273 carries and five touchdowns, which unofficially puts him second in Texas for total rushing yards behind Parkland’s Deion Hankins. For both teams, the season’s not over.
Franklin travels to San Angelo Central to play the Bobcats in bi-district play. Americas will host Wolfforth Frenship next Friday at the SAC in a top-level matchup of running backs in Josh Fields and the Tigers’ Garrison Johnson.
“The season starts now,” Melton said, “Johnson will be back for Frenship and that’s going to be an absolute test for us.”
