San Antonio Express-News (Sunday)
Bears’ run stomped by Vipers’ strong ‘D’
Three second-half turnovers thwart comeback hopes
Austin Vandegrift’s brand of football doesn’t dazzle.
But the Vipers grind-it-out style on offense coupled with a stifling defense is proving to be a winning formula in the playoffs, particularly over the last two weeks as they’ve sent two area teams packing.
The most recent instance occurred Saturday when the Vipers posted a 20-6 victory against Brennan in a Class 6A Division II thirdround playoff at Comalander Stadium.
The Vipers methodically pieced together 252 total yards, while yielding 221 to improve to 10-2 and advance to the state quarterfinals for the first time as a Class 6A program.
Their biggest feat was limiting Brennan’s playmaking sophomore quarterback Ashton Dubose to 73 rushing yards and 108 passing yards, while intercepting him twice.
“They are a smash-mouth kind of team, andwe knew that was the case,” Brennan coach Steven Basore said. “They’re a ground control and clock control team and we just really couldn’t get the ball moving consistently. We were standing up pretty good on defense, but we just couldn’t click and that was just hurting us.”
Brennan (10-2) trailed 10-6 at halftime. Vandegrift took the ball first in the second half and drove 54 yards on 13 plays to set up a 38yard field goal try by Charlie Fournier. But Bears’ senior Caleb McGarity roared around the edge to block it, giving Brennan amuchneeded momentum shift.
It was short-lived when the Bears turned it over on downs and the Vipers responded when Graylan Spring hauled in a 55-yard pass from Ryan Back to make the score 17-6 with 3:58 left in the third quarter.
The Bears – on their next four possessions – lost a fumble, turned it over on downs and had two in-
terceptions, which prevented any comeback hopes. In that time, Fournier made a 28-yard field goal midway through the fourth quarter – his secondmake – that put the Vipers ahead 20-6.
Vandegrift scored on its first two possessions.
Fournier’s 35-yard field goal gave theVipers a 3-0leadwith 5:26 left in the first quarter.
The Vipersmade it 10-0 in the finalminute of the first quarter on a 2-yard scoring run by Ryan Sheppard. Vandegrift converted on fourth-and-2 two plays before on a 32-yard pass from Back to Taylor Dummar.
The Bears drove to the Vipers’ 20 on their next possession when Dubose’s 3-yard run fell a yard short of a first down.
Brennan forced a punt on the ensuing possession and took over on their own 31. The Bears
marched 69 yards on nine plays, capped by Dubose’s 8-yard TD run, that pulled them to within 10-6 with 1:26 left in the second quarter. Jonathan Swisher’s extra point try went wide.
The Vipers pinned a 14-7 win against Roosevelt the previous week by outgaining theRough Riders 200-168.
“Our defense was good again, and our special teams were near perfect,” Vandegrift coach Drew Sanders said. “That’s really becoming a great recipe for success for this team.”
The Bears had advanced to the third round of the first time as a 6A program. The previous time they got this far was in 2013 when they advanced to the Class 4A (now 5A) Division I state championship against Denton Guyer.
Brennan ends the season with a District 29-6A championship and most of their starters expected to return next season.
“We did great,” McGarity said. “We had so many sophomores,
and they surprised me. I’m proud of them, and I’m proud of everybody on the team.”
The Bears started seven sophomores and seven juniors on Saturday.
“I knew we had a chance to be pretty good, but I didn’t knowhow good,” Basore said. “Obviously, we wished we could play this one over, but we can’t. It’s a heck of an accomplishment to get this far. I’m proud of the seniors, proud of the team and looking forward to the future.”