Buffalos advance to rematch with Manvel
SHENANDOAH — With his speed, strength and elusive moves, Fort Bend Marshall senior running back Devon Achane is a game changer. But the Buffalos, who are on a mission to get back to the state championship game a second straight year, are far from a one-man team.
Achane accounted for four touchdowns and 200 yards rushing, while the defense and special teams made big plays, lifting Marshall past Huntsville 28-14 Saturday afternoon at Woodforest Bank Stadium. It was a rematch of last year’s regional final, which Marshall won 47-43.
The Class 5A Division II Region III semifinal victory for the Buffs (12-1), a state finalist last season, sets up a District 11-5A rematch in the regional final next week against Manvel, which handed Marshall its only loss in 2019.
“The guys have a goal and are determined,” Marshall coach James Williams said. “We had a great year last year, but last year doesn’t mean anything now. These seniors are determined. They work hard, and you can tell by the way they play.
“(Playing Manvel again) will be great for us. Two great programs, we know each other well, we have a great rivalry going. We know it’s going to be a good game.”
Marshall lost to Manvel 38-34 in both teams’ district opener in
September.
“We’ve been waiting on this for a long time,” said Achane, who has 105 career touchdowns at Marshall. “Hopefully we can win.”
Saturday’s game against the Hornets (11-4) was close, knotted 14-14 at halftime. But that was before Achane, a Texas A&M commit, ran for two third-quarter touchdowns. Chris Jackson and Jahkarri Strong-White came up with interceptions for the Buffalos.
Special teams delivered two turnovers for the Buffalos, who never trailed. The defense was robust with linebacker Quincy Blair collecting two sacks, including a strip-sack, which Tristian DronesMouton recovered to set up the game’s first touchdown in the second quarter. Tackle Edward Brown added a sack of Huntsville quarterback Matthew Southern, who passed for 214 yards.
“All we do is pursue and go hard every play,” said DronesMouton said.
He later made a key fourthdown tackle on the 9-yard line with 6:28 to go to preserve the
Buffalos’ 14-point lead.
Of Achane’s 200 rushing yards on 23 carries, he had explosive runs of 53- and 32-yard touchdown runs.
“At halftime, we talked about our run game, and the offense came out and clicked,” he said.
Achane broke a 14-14 tie on his 53-yard touchdown in the third quarter, the first play of the drive after taking a handoff from Malik Hornsby, who threw his first two interceptions of the year. Achane caught four passes for 57 yards — all in the first half — including a 40-yard pass from Hornsby to open the scoring.
“He’s a heck of a player,” Williams said. “He doesn’t mind putting us on his shoulder when necessary and going to get those hard yards. He’s such an explosive player that he score at any point in the game.”
Late in the second quarter, Marshall was poised to go up by three scores. But Hornsby’s first interception of the season was returned 46 yards by Kobe Lewis to the 18-yard line.
The Hornets closed the deficit to 14-7 on Southern’s 6-yard touchdown pass to Nate Hambright with 4:51 left before halftime.
On its game-tying drive, Huntsville converted a fourth-and-7 with a 37-yard pass completion from Southern to Miles Tatum to the Marshall 8-yard line. Cameron Myers’ 3-yard run and Christian Avelar’s successful extra point tied the game.