Falcons rally past Tigers with 28 unanswered points
QB Milroe has three passing, one rushing TD
The unforgiving nature the state’s toughest playoff bracket means at least one team will have a first-round loss tougher to swallow than most.
Tompkins avoided that disappointment — narrowly. The Falcons rode 28 unanswered points to a 35-28 win over Travis in the Class 6A Division I Region III bi-district playoffs Thursday at Mercer Stadium.
Travis had its own run with 14 unanswered in the last seven minutes of the game, nearly coming back to tie.
Gabe Atkin’s 35-yard catch for a first down with a horse collar call on Travis tacked on iced the game for Tompkins.
“We tried to take some things we learned from last year,” Tompkins coach Todd McVey said. “When you get up, you can’t relax. I felt like we did a better job, and they got one on us late, but I thought our offense did a good job of finishing that last drive off to put it away.
“Good football game. People got their money’s worth.”
Travis (10-1) entered the game undefeated and riding high off a District 20-6A championship campaign in which it overcame stalwart Ridge Point. Tompkins (10-1) now has back-to-back double-digit win seasons with its only loss this year is to topranked Katy. The Falcons’ rise continues after going 0-9 in 2017.
They did it with a defense that overcame a hot start from a vaunted Travis offense and the shifty Marquis Shoulders leading the running game. Tompkins junior quarterback and University of Texas pledge Jalen Milroe didn’t let three first-half interceptions sully the game, either. He finished with three touchdown passes and a rushing score.
The last five minutes of the first half and opening five minutes of the second half saw Tompkins surge to its first lead of the night and wrestle control of what was a back-and-forth affair early on.
Milroe needed one play with his pass to Garrett Mack, who took it 28 yards to the end zone to tie the game at 14 with 7:21 left until halftime.
Tompkins took a 21-14 lead into halftime off Milroe’s 46-yard touchdown pass to Conner Kinslow with 4:29 left in the second quarter to cap a three-play drive.
Tompkins’ defense settled in between those scores. After Mack’s touchdown, the unit forced a Travis punt, its second in as many drives. Highly coveted defensive end Tunmise Adeleye sacked Travis quarterback Eric Rodriguez the drive after Kinslow’s score, which forced a third consecutive punt.
The turnaround for Tompkins’ defense was impressive considering Travis opened with touchdowns on its first two drives — K.J. Shankle’s 11-yard score and Rodriguez’s 1-yard run after a 12-play drive that included four first downs.
And then there were Milroe’s three first-half interceptions, which he shook off. He threw the third to Mason Muchaw after Adeleye’s sack. Muchaw picked Milroe off twice in the first half, and the other interception went to Mickael Oliva on game’s opening drive. It wasn’t enough prevent Tompkins from taking over, though, and Milroe got into a groove in the second half.
“Mistakes are going to come, no doubt,” Milroe said. “We’re going to have a missed block, an interception. Just keying off on the next drive and moving on from it, flushing it. That was key. We can’t linger on the mistakes we made in the past.”
He tossed his third touchdown of the night off a screen pass to Shoulders for a 35-yard score with 7:35 remaining in the third quarter. The dagger seemingly came from Milroe’s 1-yard touchdown run for a 35-14 lead with 8:17 remaining in the game. That easy run was made possible by his 39yard pass to Anthony Munoz to the Travis 1-yard line.
Travis’ offense woke up. Rodriguez, often the catalyst for the Tigers this year, scored on a 12-yard run with 7:16 remaining in the game. Travis’ defense forced a stop, and Rodriguez tossed a 51-yard bomb to Jarrell Farr with just under four minutes left in the game.
Travis suddenly trailed 35-28 and needed one more stop it couldn’t get.
“We got our offense going early in the game,” said Rodriguez, who rushed for 168 yards and two scores on 20 carries and went 15-of-26 for 182 yards and one touchdown and an interception. “We kind of slowed up third quarter. We didn’t get it going again until the fourth quarter. By then, it was too late.”
Tompkins was called for offensive holding on its final drive, which was declined. Travis coach Trey Sissom said giving Tompkins an extra down to waste the clock was a concern but Atkin’s catch sealed the win anyway.
Tompkins awaits the winner of Lamar-Cypress Falls in the area round.