WACO, Texas — In a hard hitting battle, the Longview Lobos defeated the Klein Collins Tigers 30-24 to advance to the 6A Division II Regional Championship. The Lobos defense proved be the difference maker at McLane Stadium, shutting down a potent Klein Collins offense, who has outscored their opponents 470-95 on the season entering Saturday.
Photo: James Ellis/TexasHSFootball.com
In what was a penalty plagued first half of football, Longview headed into the locker room with a 16-14 lead over the Tigers. Chris Kessler connected on a 42 yard field goal with 2:12 left in the second quarter to give the Lobos their first lead of the game 14-10. The two teams combined for 14 penalties in the first half.
Klein Collins was able to have success throughout the first quarter and early into the second quarter, while running an option based offensive set. The Tigers fed the ball to their star running back Isaiah Spiller and let him weave his way through the Longview defense.
“Early on, we were losing leverage in formation and our defense got adjusted to what they were trying to do and we were able to tackle better,” said Longview head coach John King on the adjustments made in slowing down Spiller.
Photo: James Ellis/TexasHSFootball.com
Spiller, who is an Oklahoma commit. attained two rushing touchdowns on runs of 2 and 13 yards, that gave the Tigers a 14-0 lead early.
Longview was finally able to get a touchdown with 6:29 in the second quarter. Hayes King used play action and Jaylin Brown was wide open in the end zone to receive a 10 yard touchdown pass from his quarterback.
Klein Collins quarterback Rhyne Carter was intercepted by Longview defensive back Jalen Carr with 37 seconds left in the first half and the Lobos took a knee into halftime. Jaylin Brown was able to pull in a 35 yard touchdown pass from King that gave the Lobos a 16-14 lead.
Longview was able to tack on two more passing touchdowns during the second half, one to Jaylin Brown for 2 yards out and the other to Daquavion Randall from 6 yards out.
Klein Collins refused to go down without a fight however and that was displayed when Rhyne Carted connected with Loftin Jackson on a 55-yard touchdown pass that pulled the Tigers within six points.
Photo: James Ellis/TexasHSFootball.com
The Lobos defense was able to hold after giving the Tigers the last possession of the game and secured their berth into the quarterfinals.
The Lobos will face arch rival Lufkin next Saturday at SFA’s Homer Bryce Stadium kickoff is set for 1:00pm.
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