San Antonio Express-News (Sunday)
Jaguars clinch share of district championship
With a district championship and an undefeated season at stake, the Johnson Jaguars called on their quarterback of the future to make a play in their showdown against Reagan.
Lined up in the slot, freshman Ty Hawkins swept to his right and took a toss from quarterback Matthew Flores-King and kept rolling. When he hit the edge, Hawkins tossed to Alejandro Tavarez in the end zone for a two-point conversion and a 43-43 tie with 40 seconds left in the fourth quarter. The No 3 Jaguars then won the game in overtime on Harrison Stone’s 43-yard field goal for a 4643 victory Friday at Heroes Stadium.
“We practice that play every single day,” Hawkins said. “We practice against our defense, and we keep running it and it finally worked.”
Hawkins, a quarterback who has played receiver all season, said he was ready when the play was called.
“Finally,” Hawkins said when he heard the play call. “We never get to run it … I like playing quarterback, and I’ve always wanted to throw the ball.”
The conversion allowed the Jaguars (9-0, 7-0) to secure at least a share of the District 28-6A championship and preserve a perfect season. Johnson is off to its best start in program history and can clinch the outright title by beating Clark on Saturday or a Reagan loss against Brandeis on Friday.
“I have total love for this team,” Johnson coach Mark Soto said. “They get after it. They practice every situation from the two-minute drill to the overtime drill. They practice it all, and they defaulted to their training.”
That all played out in the second
half when Johnson fell behind 33-14 after leading 14-13 at halftime.
Reagan junior running back Carson Green, in his second game back from injury, scored on runs of 1 and 2 yards and caught a 35yard pass within a five-minute span of the third quarter to give the Rattlers a seemingly commanding lead.
The Jaguars crawled back by going to their playmakers – senior receiver Canaan Fairley and senior running back Ben McCreary.
Fairley, who had 10 receptions for 159 yards, caught a 33-yard scoring pass from Cruz Kirwan to make it 33-21. McCreary scored on an 89-yard screen early in the fourth to pull the Jaguars to within 33-28.
“I didn’t see the ball,” McCreary said. “I went behind and caught it and then made a couple of moves and I was in the end zone.”
Reagan appeared to tally a game-securing 46-yard touchdown run by Javier Colsa on the next possession to put the Rattlers in the lead 40-28 with 7:47 left.
Johnson answered with Tavarez’s 37-yard touchdown catch to pull the Jaguars to within 40-35.
Reagan drove to Johnson’s 12 on the ensuing possession, but had to settle for Matt Velasco’s 29-yard field goal that made it 43-35 with 1:53 left.
Johnson answered by going 75 yards and scoring on Fairley’s 2yard catch. Fairly hauled in a pass from Kirwan for 44 yards to open the drive. He also had a 22-yard catch that put the Jaguars on Reagan’s 2. His 2-yard score made it 43-41, and Hawkins hit Tavarez for the 2-point conversion.
The Rattlers missed a 38-yard field goal in overtime to seal Johnson’s win.
“I had faith on my team,” Fairley said. “I knew that we were going to pull out a victory. Coach always tell us to never ring that bell and win this game.”
McCreary finished with 147 yards, which included a 79-yard touchdown in the first half, on 17 carries.
The fifth-ranked Rattlers (6-3, 6-1) entered with a six-game winning streak after opening with non-district losses against Brennan and Steele, the ExpressNews’ 1-2 ranked teams.
Green rushed 37 times for 160 yards to lead Reagan.
The Jaguars beat their Stone Oak neighbors for only the fourth time in 14 meetings.
“We had to win this,” Hawkins said. “It was bragging rights. We had to beat them.”