Cougars can’t catch a break against Knights
Four first-half turnovers result in a 28-0 hole
SAN ANTONIO — Cinco Ranch caught a few breaks in reaching the Class 6A Division II semifinals. That luck ran out. The Cougars watched their best season in seven years end following a disastrous second quarter Saturday at the Alamodome.
Cibolo Steele, which lost to Katy three times in the semifinals in the last four years, capitalized on four Cougar first-half turnovers. The Knights scored off two and put 21 unanswered points on the board in just over three minutes to end the first half, going on to post 35-14 victory.
“They were a better team,” Cinco Ranch coach Don Clayton said. “Turnovers didn’t help, but unfortunately they were just a better football team.”
The Knights advance to a state championship for the first time since losing to Dekaney in the 2011 Division II-5A final. They won their only title the year before.
Steele (14-1) will face DeSoto (15-0) in the Div. II6A championship game at 4 p.m. Saturday at AT&T Stadium in Arlington. DeSoto rallied to beat Klein Collins 42-31.
Cinco Ranch ends its season at 11-4. Its only other trip to the semifinals was in 2009, when the Cougars lost to Austin Westlake.
They started this season 2-2 before winning nine of their next 10 games. Cinco Ranch beat Friendswood and Cypress Ridge in consecutive weeks to reach the semifinals, with each losing team missing its top offensive threat. Friendswood’s electric quarterback Tyler Page went down on the first play of scrimmage, while Cy Ridge’s 2,000-yard tailback Trelon Smith missed last week after he was injured the week prior.
That wasn’t the case against Steele, which actually got more running from quarterback Xavier Martin despite the senior playing through an ankle injury he has dealt with most of the season and took him out of Steele’s loss to Katy in the semifinals last year. After rushing for 461 yards in three games to start 2016, Martin totaled 171 yards over his next 11. That included three attempts the last two weeks.
Martin reached that midway through the first quarter and was able to extend plays in the pocket and evade pressure.
He did just that in starting Steele’s 21-0 run to end the half. Martin rolled left and found Onyx Smith for a 6-yard touchdown pass with 3:28 left in the second quarter.
“We needed him tonight to be a runner at times, and he did such a great job of it,” Steele coach Scott Lehnhoff said. “We’ve been very conservative with him all year long after last year’s situation — being in this game and not having him. We wanted to get to this game. We wanted to have him healthy, and he was tonight.”
Cinco Ranch fumbled the ensuing kickoff, setting up the Knights at the Cougars’ 26. Brenden Brady capped the short drive with a 3-yard run.
It didn’t get any better for Cinco Ranch. Caden Sterns intercepted a James Klinger pass — the Cougars’ fourth turnover of the half — to give Steele another chance to stretch its lead. Martin hit CJ Williams on a 50-yard completion on the next play and Brady scored to make it 28-0.