Houston Chronicle Sunday

Big plays upend Warriors in loss

- By Robert Thomas

WACO — Cypress Christian’s quest for backto-back TAPPS Division III championsh­ips came to an end on Saturday night, dropping a 24-0 decision to Dallas Christian in the title game at Waco ISD Stadium.

Cypress Christian (8-5) used a deliberate offense and a hard-hitting defense in an attempt to keep it close, but big plays by the Dallas Christian offense enabled the Chargers to pull away.

“We knew we had to shorten the clock and control the ball and we did that in the first half,” Cypress Christian head coach Kris Hogan said. “I don’t think we wore down in the second half, but give Dallas Christian credit for making plays when they needed to against us.”

Cypress Christian, which has now played in three straight title games, trailed 3-0 early after a Dallas Christian field goal on its opening drive.

The Warriors looked to answer with a lengthy drive to the Dallas Christian 30 to open the second quarter. The drive came to a sudden end as the ball was fumbled, with Dallas Christian’s De’Mijae Lampkins returning it 70 yards for a score and a 10-0 deficit.

“That was tough to overcome because I think we’re on our way to a touchdown.” Hogan said. “But we didn’t get down and we stayed with our game plan.”

The defenses for both teams settled in for the rest of the half, with Cypress Christian trailing 10-0 despite outgaining Dallas Christian in total yards (76-75) and running 17 more plays.

The Cypress Christian defense came out strong to open the third quarter, forcing a fourth down stop at the Cypress Christian 40 thanks to a combined stop from by Jeffery Potts and Andrew Owen.

Owen had an outstandin­g game in the loss, racking up three sacks and five stops for loss while Potts added 10 stops of his own.

Dallas Christian broke through with a 76-yard touchdown catch by William Nettles to push the lead to 17-0.

The deficit stayed intact into the fourth quarter, with Dallas Christian getting a 2-yard scoring run from Zach Hernandez and an intercepti­on from Nettles to put the game away.

Standouts for Cypress Christian included a rugged game from quarterbac­k Max Landrum, who rushed for 91 yards on 26 carries and a defense that held Dallas Christian to 258 total yards on 40 plays.

“I know the season didn’t end like we wanted it to, but I can’t say enough about what these kids accomplish­ed,” Hogan said. “When the year started we had 17 kids who had never played varsity, but they bought in and fought the whole year to get us to this point.”

 ?? Jerry Larson/Contributo­r ?? Dallas Christian’s Zachariah Hernandez, left, runs for yardage during Saturday’s championsh­ip game.
Jerry Larson/Contributo­r Dallas Christian’s Zachariah Hernandez, left, runs for yardage during Saturday’s championsh­ip game.

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