Liberty-Eylau and Pleasant Grove football results,
ROYSE CITY, Texas—Liberty-Eylau faced a 24-point deficit midway through the third quarter but never quit.
The Leopards rallied back to within a score, falling to Lorena, 51-43, Friday in the Class 4A, Division II area playoffs at Royse City ISD Stadium. The teams combined for 976 yards of total offense in what turned out to be a shootout.
The Leopards rolled up 523 yards with 280 coming on the ground on 42 rushes, and Isaiah Cross throwing for another 243 and pair of scores. He also rushed for 83 yards and a TD.
Cedric Dickerson had 100 yards rushing and three scores, and Marzavin Riles added 97 yards on the ground. Shayne Porche caught four balls for 142 yards and a touchdown, and Deshun Dickerson also had a TD reception.
“I am proud of the fact that we did come back, and we actually had all three timeouts when we were driving for a possible score,” Liberty-Eylau head coach Steve Wells said. “We threw the interception, but we were sitting in pretty good shape if we had stuck it in the end zone.
“I’m proud of this team. We fought
through a lot of adversity all season; we lost six starters and some of those were really good players.”
Liberty-Eylau closes out its season at 4-8 while Lorena (11-1) advances to next week’s regional round against the Pittsburg-Rusk winner.
Lorena had 453 yards of offense on 65 snaps, quarterback Brandon Lina throwing for 293 yards and five TDs. The winning Leopards also took advantage of two fumbles by L-E, converting them into 14 points.
A.J. Bell rushed 23 times for 139 yards and a score and also had seven catches for 100 yards and two more TDs for Lorena.
Lorena piled up 251 yards of total offense before intermission and held a 30-13 lead at the break after scoring 10 points in the second quarter.
Liberty-Eylau had 197 yards of offense—78 rushing and 119 passing—on 28 snaps.
L-E fumbled on the third snap of the game, and Daylon Bartosh recovered to set up Lorena at the Liberty-Eylau 18. Bell caught a 16-yard pass and then bulled his way in from the 2 for the touchdown.
The extra point bounced back off the crossbar.
Riles broke free on a 60-yard jaunt on the third play of the ensuing Liberty-Eylau drive, safety Todd Mitchell making a shoestring tackle at the 1 to save the score. Two plays later, Cedric Dickerson had a 1-yard bull rush for the TD, and Gregorio Aguilar’s PAT gave the Texarkana Leopards a 7-6 lead with 8:47 left in the first.
Lorena answered with a 6-play scoring drive, Bell taking a screen pass 29 yards and diving to get the ball inside the pylon. Following a three-and-out by Liberty-Eylau, Ty Moore took the punt back 34 yards for a Lorena TD with 4:09 left in the first.
It only took Liberty-Eylau three plays and 22 seconds to answer, Porche running under a bomb from Cross for a 77-yard touchdown.
Lorena put together a 13-play scoring drive, Lina booting a 23-yard field goal to make it 23-13 with 11:01 left before halftime. Lina hit Ben Craig for a 49-yard strike, Craig taking the pass in the left flat and racing down the sideline for the score on the first play of the next Lorena possession.
L-E stopped another Lorena drive at the Liberty-Eylau 33 on a fourth-down try and the next at the L-E 26 as time expired on the half.
“We made too many mistakes, especially early,” Wells said. “Three turnovers, too many penalties, and we didn’t tackle real well. Their quarterback was comfortable, he was throwing it around; we didn’t get consistent pressure on him.
“We just came up a little short in the end.”