COLLEGE STATION — Marquez Perez scored a 1-yard touchdown in overtime to give the College Station Cougars a 26-20 win over Temple for the outright District 18-5A championship Friday night at Cougar Stadium. Both teams entered the game with unblemished records in the district.
College Station (8-2, 6-0) has a bye next week and will enter the 5A Division II playoffs the following week against a team to be determined from 17-5A, most likely either Lindale or Whitehouse. Temple (6-3, 4-1) has one more district game but will move into the 5A Division I playoffs as the top seed.
College Station took a 14-6 lead on the opening kickoff of the second half, but Temple scored two touchdowns and took its first lead of the game when junior running back De’Jon Overton rumbled 16 yards for a touchdown to put the Wildcats ahead, 20-17. Overton carried defenders on his back part of the way to paydirt in the third quarter.
Both teams slogged their way up and down the field and College Station tied the game at 20-20 with 2:51 to go in the fourth quarter.
Temple ran the ball on first down but went to the pass on second and third downs — like so many times Friday night — despite a running game that stymied the College station defense most of the night.
The teams traded three-and-outs twice in the last minute and a half to send it to overtime.
College Station didn’t have much going on offense most of the game as it took its lead on the big plays and special teams. College Station has relied on special teams in most of its big special teams wins, including Friday night with Alan Guerrieri, whose father is the Texas A&M women’s soccer coach and getting ready for the SEC Women’s Soccer Championship this weekend in Alabama.
Running back DM Anderson put College Station on the board in the first quarter when he raced 80 yards to put College Station on the board for a 7-0 lead in the first quarter.
Temple freshman Aaron Wagaman booted a pair of field goals in the second quarter to slice the lead to 7-6, which held until halftime.
Temple got the ball first in overtime but missed a field goal into the wind after three plays.
This was College Station’s second-straight district title over runner-up Temple and the team’s first-ever overtime game at Cougar Field.
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