College Station 31, FB Marshall 27
A costly fumble for a TD erases Buffs’ halftime lead.
PRAIRIE VIEW — Fort Bend Marshall gave unbeaten College Station a scare Friday night.
Utilizing a productive ground game, the Buffs took it to the Cougars early on in the Class 5A Division II Region III title game at Panther Stadium.
But the Buffs, who led by three points at halftime, couldn’t sustain the lead and fell 31-27 to the Cougars in a game that was played occasionally in heavy rain and swirling wind.
The Buffs’ final opportunity came to an end when they turned the ball over on downs at the College Station 27-yard line with 30 seconds left in the game.
“We were close to overcoming it,” Marshall coach James Williams said. “I’m just so proud of my guys. Such great character, such great fight. They worked hard, and they deserved the best.
“We’re tremendously disappointed, of course, not getting to the next level. We were so close. This team wanted it bad.”
Momentum switch
The turning point came with 17 seconds remaining in the third quarter, when College Station’s Anthony Flores recovered a fumble in the end zone for the goahead score, giving the Cougars a 31-27 lead.
A punt had pinned the Buffs at their 1. On the first play of the series, quarterback Jabari James couldn’t handle the snap, and Flores pounced on the ball, giving the Cougars (14-0) the lead and the momentum.
“We take pride in protecting the football, and we’ve done a great job all year,” Williams said. “On that punt, we got to let it go, and it’s going behind him (the punt returner), so we got to let it go. And it happened to roll. It’s part of the game. We had the bad snap, and it cost us.”
With 8:42 remaining in the game and Marshall still trailing by four points, Jerry Davis had a 40-yard run to the College Station 1 called back on a holding penalty.
The Buffs, who ran for 278 yards, couldn’t recover after that.
Strong season
It was still a very successful season for Marshall (11-3), which also reached the regional final in 2012, losing that year to Manor.
“We fought hard; we just couldn’t finish,” said Buffs junior receiver Henry Thomas, who had seven receptions for 53 yards. “Mistakes happen. We’ll get up and come back next year.
“It was a great season. We all worked real hard. We had the community behind us.”
James and Davis rushed for two touchdowns each for Marshall, which totaled 339 yards to College Station’s 336.
College Station quarterback Marquez Perez, who ran for two scores and threw for another, finished with 116 rushing yards on 24 carries.
Marshall, which led 2017 at halftime, was effective early running the ball, especially the end-around by wide receiver Korey King, and the inside running of Davis. James also had success running the ball against the Cougars.
James ran for 111 yards on 20 carries, King added 77 yards on 10 carries, and Davis rushed for 48 yards.
The Buffs scored on their first two possessions to take a 14-3 lead, their largest lead of the game. After falling behind 17-14, Marshall retook the lead, 20-17, on an 11-yard touchdown run by James.