San Antonio Express-News (Sunday)
Unicorns credit tough district for shootout win
Pulling off a playoff stunner like New Braunfels did against Johnson on Friday wasn’t a fluke.
It was a product of a team that earned a postseason spot from a district that’s considered the toughest in South Texas.
The Unicorns, the third-place team from District 27-6A, upended previously undefeated and 28-6A champion Johnson 51-45 in a Class 6A Division II first-round playoff at Heroes Stadium.
“Coming in, we’ve already played multiple playoff games,” New Braunfels senior running back Ryker Purdy said. “That’s just how competitive our district is.”
New Braunfels (9-2) completed 27-6A’s playoff sweep of 28-6A. Smithson Valley beat Madison (3525), Steele defeated Brandeis (4214). East Central rallied late against Reagan (14-7).
“This district is really competitive and it prepared us for a game like this,” Unicorns senior quarterback Aiden Baumann said. “We’ve fought adversity this whole year and it paid off right here.”
The Unicorns (9-2) jumped to a 20-3 lead and that cushion was just enough at the end when the Jaguars (10-1) unsuccessfully tried to pass into the end zone after driving to New Braunfels’ 10-yard line with less than a minute remaining.
“We made a few plays down there inside the 10-yard-line to win the game,” said New Braunfels coach Glenn Mangold, whose program won a playoff game for the first time since 2009. “Hats off to Johnson. They played their tails off the whole game. It was the kind of game we thought it was going to be — down to the end between two good teams.”
Johnson opened the game with a 77-yard kickoff return by Keller Messer to the New Braunfels 16. The Unicorns held on and forced a 31-yard field goal by Harrison Stone.
New Braunfels sophomore Tyree Johnson returned the ensuing kickoff 92 yards for a score only 59 seconds into the game.
The Unicorns covered a fumble on the Jaguars’ 29 on the next drive, which led to Baumann’s 3yard TD pass to Lance Beeghley for a 13-3 lead.
After forcing a three-and-out, the Unicorns made it 20-3 on Purdy’s 2-yard run at the 5:32 mark of the first quarter.
“Tyree just set that tone,” Baumann said. “In the first half, we really drove it down and worked the ball well and our defense played really well.”
New Braunfels scored touchdowns on its first five possessions to take a 34-20 halftime lead. It added touchdowns on its first three drives of the second half, capped by a 7-yard scoring run by Purdy that put the Unicorns ahead 51-34 with 7:31 in the fourth quarter.
“The O-line, the quarterback, the receivers all made it easy,” said Purdy, who had 130 yards and four touchdowns on 23 carries. “We were able to spread the ball around, so the defense would adjust to that and then we could run it. We came in explosive and we knew we were going to win.”
Still, it came down to the wire. Johnson pulled to within 51-42 when Canaan Fairley caught a 26yard TD pass from Cruz Kirwan with 6:29 left. Kirwan’s 2-point run made it 51-42.
The Jaguars forced their first three-and-out of the game and that led to Stone’s 30-yard field goal with 2:17 left to make it 51-45.
Johnson forced the Unicorns to punt again and the Jaguars took it to the 10 on Ty Hawkins’ 22-yard catch. The drive stalled there with four incompletions.
Next up for New Braunfels is two-time reigning state champion Austin Westlake, which downed Hutto 51-9 on Friday for its 35th straight win.
“There’s only 32 teams left in our division and we’re one of them,” Mangold said. “We feel great about that.”