Cougars to play for 5A crown
BRYAN – Three months has made all the difference for Crosby.
Following an 0-2 start, the Cougars have a shot at their first state football championship after they battled to a 62-61overtime victory over Liberty Hill in a Class 5ADivision II semifinal Friday night at Merrill Green Stadium. Crosby will face Aledo, a 55-28 victor over Wichita Falls Rider, in the championship.
Senior running back Reggie Branch rushed for a 13-yard touchdown on Crosby’s overtime possession to give the Cougars a 62-55 lead. Liberty Hill senior Blake Simpson rumbled for a 25yard touchdown on the next play, but he fumbled the ball on the two-point conversion, giving the Cougars a berth in the state title game.
It’s Crosby’s first state championship appearance since 1960.
“This community talks about it a lot,” Crosby coach Jerry Pietro said of the program’s quest for a state title. “I don’t think our high school has won a team state championship in any sport, so it would be huge for our community.”
The final play caused confusion throughout the stadium as Crosby’s sideline erupted in the aftermath of the play, only for the Liberty Hill side to return in kind when it appeared a Liberty Hill player had the ball over the goal line.
“I ran out there, and at first it was looking like he was signaling short, but then their crowd erupted,” Pietro said. “I went up to line judge, and he said, ‘On the one.’
And I said, ‘On the one?’ I made sure andwent off and started celebrating.
“That took a lot of toughness from our kids because we scored, got the extra point, and then they scored on one play. They could have laid down and let those guys in ( on the final play), but they decided to bow their necks and make a stop.”
With a 35-31 lead, the Cougars (12-3) sprung a surprise onside kick on the Panthers (12-1) to start the second half, which helped set them up with a short field after trading punts. Crosby took advantage as senior quarterback Deniquez Dunn connected with Jaylen Herman on a corner route for a 19-yard touchdown to give the Cougars a 42-31 lead.
It was Crosby’s first two-possession lead of the game, giving the Cougars just enough cushion against Liberty Hill’s grueling slot-T offense, which racked up 545 rushing yards and averaged 8.7 yards per carry.
The Panthers cut the lead to 42-39 on an 8-yard touchdown run from Simpson and two-point run from senior Trey Seward, but Crosby answered with a 17yard touchdown from Dunn to senior E’Monte Wilson on fourth-and-6 to make it 48-39. Crosby senior defensive lineman Kaden Jones recovered a fumble on the next possession, and Branch extended the lead to 5539 with 1:52 left in the third quarter.
Liberty Hill refused to go away, though, as the Panthers recovered an onside kick between touchdown runs from Simpson and Seward. Simpson converted both two-point conversions to tie the game at 55 with 8: 32 left.
“I didn’t really know what to expect going in, honestly, I felt comfortable,” Pietro said. “If we got in a shootout, I thought we could do well enough offensively, and if we got into a defensive battle, we’d be fine, too. I’m just proud of our kids for continuing to fight.”
Both defenses started strong, but the offenses got rolling after a couple drives, scoring on nine straight possessions to end a high-scoring, back-and-forth first half.
Branch gave the Cougars the lead midway through the first quarter, taking a handoff on a sweep play to the right before cutting inside and weaving through the Liberty Hill defense for a 27-yard touchdown run.
Liberty Hill knotted it back up with 3:47 left in the opening period. A play after senior running back Eric De La Cruz was carted off the field after suffering a leg injury, quarterback Charlie Calabretta hit a wide- open Hollis Brady for a 52-yard touchdown pass.
Branch, who rushed for 119 yards and caught six passes for 83 yards and scored five touchdowns, responded on the next drivewith a1-yard scoring plunge to reclaim a 14-7 lead with 19 seconds left in the quarter.
Calabretta struck again on the second play of the second quarter, finding Simpson on a wheel route for an 80-yard touchdown to tie the game again. It didn’t last long as Crosby junior Kameren Kirkwood returned the ensuing kickoff for a 74-yard touchdown for a 21-14 lead.
Seward scored rushing touchdowns, including a 51-yarder, on back-to-back possessions sandwiched around a 40-yard touchdownon a screen pass fromCrosby’s Deniquez Dunn to Branch, tying the game at 28 with 6:11 left in the half.
Crosby grabbed the lead back for the fifth time on a comparably methodical drive spanning just over two minutes as Dunn took a quarterback keeper left, juked a defender and ran through another at the goal line for a 10-yard touchdown.
Liberty Hill ran off the last four minutes of the half on its next drive, but Crosby stood strong in the red zone as the Panthers settled for a 26-yard field goal, preserving the Cougars’ 35-31 lead.