Panthers hold off Spartans for crown
Jersey Village wears the crown once again.
The Falcons, No. 25 in the Dave Campbell’s Texas football rankings, clinched a share of the District 17-6A championship with a 28-21 road victory over Stratford in a battle of unbeaten squads Saturday afternoon at Tully Stadium.
Stratford, meanwhile, will be the top seed out of the district for the Division II bracket.
“I think No. 1, you have to give credit to both teams,” Jersey Village coach David Snokhous said. “Both teams played well, played hard. Both teams are good football teams, and we made plays when we had to. They did, too, so it was a good game. It was our day to come out on top. I’m happy for our kids.”
Jersey Village (9-0, 6-0) can earn the outright title by beating Cypress Creek on Friday in its regular-season finale. A loss, paired with a Stratford (8-1, 5-1) win over Northbrook, would result in a shared title, but the Falcons already are locked into the top seed for the 6A Division I playoffs.
“It means a lot to us,” said running back Rashon Estes, who piled up 130 yards on 27 carries. “They said we weren’t that good. Even though we beat (CyFair), they still started hating on us, so we had to show them that we were good. We had to show them that we work hard every day and we deserve this.”
Stratford, despite the loss, is still enjoying its best season since winning a district title in 2015. The Spartans are headed back to the playoffs for the first time since 2017.
“I think our kids fought hard,” Stratford coach Todd Rankin said. “At the end of the day, we just made more mistakes, and
those are things where we’re going to go back and look at the film. We’re not done. Luckily, we get to play on next week, and we get the luxury of being in the playoffs. We’re going to keep getting better. This is adversity, but this team has stood up to adversity this entire year.”
Jersey Village jumped out to a 13-0 lead in the opening half with a 3-yard touchdown run from Arbrie Carter and a 47-yard scoring strike from Adam Tran to Quinci Jones.
Stratford finally broke up the shutout with 5:33 remaining in the second quarter as Nash Rankin pushed across the goal line on a 1-yard quarterback sneak.
Jersey Village had three defensive takeaways in the first half, including a fumble recovery by C.J. Santiago and interceptions by Darius Johnson and Chris Noble. Both interceptions came deep in Falcons territory and ended promising Stratford drives. The Spartans outgained Jersey Village 204-185 in the first half.
Carter handed the Falcons a 21-7 advantage on the first drive of the third quarter, scoring on a 4-yard run. Stratford answered on the ensuing possession, however, as Rankin reached paydirt from 6 yards out.
Carter found the end zone for a third time with 50 seconds remaining in the period — this time a 6yard run — to put Jersey Village ahead by two scores.
One of the wackiest plays of the game gave the Spartans a fighting chance early in the fourth quarter. The Falcons intercepted a pass thrown by Rankin, but the ball then was fumbled into the end zone. Andrew Thomas pounced on it for the touchdown to make the score 28-21 with 7:54 to play.
Stratford had one last chance to draw even at the end of the game, but another interception by Johnson near the 5-yard line sealed the victory and the district championship for the Falcons. Johnson dropped the ball after the pick without going to the ground, and the Spartans picked up the ball and ran into the end zone. The play was signaled dead by the officials, however, so the last-ditch effort to score was thwarted.