Mustangs’ rally extends dominance
Quick take
North Shore rallied from an eight-point halftime deficit to defeat Atascocita 34-28 in a Region III-6A Division I final Saturday afternoon at Veterans Memorial Stadium.
North Shore (14-0) earned its eighth straight win against Atascocita and leads the overall series 9-2 since 2016.
Atascocita ends the season 11-3.
North Shore will play Austin Westlake in a Class 6A Division I state semifinal at 2 p.m. Saturday at The Pfield in Pflugerville. Westlake defeated Lake Travis 21-14 in its Region IV-6A Division I final.
Highlights
On North Shore’s second possession, Mustangs punter Khamani Hudson kicked a 61-yard punt that put Atascocita on its own 2-yard line.
Two plays later, Atascocita senior quarterback Zion Brown connected with Jelani Watkins for a 98-yard TD pass to open the scoring.
Atascocita led 14-0 after Cardae Mack’s 26-yard TD run with 1:38 left in the first quarter.
Kaleb Bailey scored on a 13-yard TD run for North Shore’s first points of the game. On the extra-point attempt, Jonathan Soto’s kick was blocked by Atascocita’s Braylon Conley.
Atascocita led 14-6 at halftime.
Then, North Shore woke up to start the second half.
Bailey connected with Christopher Barnes for a 55-yard TD pass to cut Atascocita’s lead to one, 14-13, with 10:52 left in the third quarter.
Atascocita went threeand-out on its first possession of the third quarter.
North Shore blocked the Eagles’ punt, and Dezmon Christian picked up the ball and scored from the 24-yard line as the Mustangs took their first lead of the game at 20-14 with 9:11 left in the third quarter.
Hudson came up with another big play for North Shore, but this time with an interception.
The Mustangs converted the turnover into points as Bailey added a 2-yard TD run to give North Shore a 27-14 lead with 2:55 left in the third quarter.
Bailey connected with Barnes for a 65-yard TD pass to stretch North Shore’s lead to 34-14 with 7:03 left in the game.
Atascocita attempted to rally late as Brown connected with Cameron Glenn for a 10-yard TD pass, cutting the deficit to 34-21 with 5:18 remaining. Brown and Glenn linked up again, this time for a 20-yard TD, for the final score with 1:56 left.
Atascocita forced North Shore to punt with 47 seconds left in the game, but the Eagles were flagged for running into the kicker.
North Shore ended the game in victory formation.
What it means
North Shore advances to the state semifinals for the sixth straight season.
Game balls
Barnes had seven receptions for 203 yards with two touchdowns for North Shore.
Glenn had seven receptions for 83 yards and two TDs for Atascocita.
Christian made the momentum-changing play with his 24-yard scoop-and-score for North Shore in the third quarter.
Quotable
“I think we did a good job of weathering the storm,” North Shore coach Willie Gaston said. “We took their best shot. That’s a talented team. We have played each other so many times that it’s going to come down to who makes more plays. It’s not going to be so much of outscheming them because we know each other so well. We knew that we had to make a play on both sides of the ball.”
“They got to the regional finals again,” Atascocita coach Craig Stump said.
“We came up a few plays short and didn’t make the plays to win. They led this group the whole way with guys playing both ways. They care about Atascocita football.”