Mustangs, Titans share district title
FRIENDSWOOD — Winston Stadium was rocking on Friday night. The grandstand on the home Mustangs side was packed to capacity. Friendswood’s band was into the spirit as well, firing up their faithful time after time.
On the line was the top seed of District 9-5A Division I. Both Friendswood and visiting Port Arthur Memorial had designs on the district championship.
The excitement continued through to the final minute. Caleb Corkran scored on a 2-yard touchdown run with 41 seconds remaining in the game and ran in the ensuing two-point conversion to give Friendswood a dramatic 28-27 victory over Memorial.
“The two-point conversion was insane,” said Corkran, who scored the decisive points following his left side of the line, just as he did on the touchdown run. “I knew as soon as the play call came in, it was over, I knew we had won, we worked too hard for this to end right there.”
Friendswood will host Angleton next week in the playoffs.
Corkran ran for 147 of the Mustangs’ 301 rushing yards. Memorial, which had already clinched a share of the district title before the loss, ran for 248 yards. The Titans were 0-of-2 on pass attempts.
Friendswood’s victory gave the Mustangs (6-4, 6-1) a district co-championship with Memorial. The Mustangs trailed 14-10 at halftime. The Titans (9-2, 6-1) ran through 9-5A Division I last season and almost duplicated their success in 2021. The loss ended Memorial’s six-game win streak.
“We set a game plan to make it a slow game because we were never going to tackle No. 1 (Jah’mar Sanders),” Mustangs coach Robert Koopmann said. “An eight-minute possession in the first quarter set a tone and our kids believed in us and they played along.
“We told the kids beforehand it was going to be a 15-round fight, and we’re going to win this thing late. It was a great night for us.”
Friendswood’s game-winning drive started at its 12-yard line with 2:15 left in the game.
Sanders fueled the Titans’ offense, scoring on three touchdown runs. His 51-yard score in the final minute of the third quarter gave his team a 27-13 lead. He also had a 73-yard non-scoring run late in the game.
Friendswood got to within 2720 with 7:23 remaining in the game on a 5-yard pass from Matthew Dupuis to Hunter Smyrl.
Pietro Pasqualli kicked 31 and 20-yard field goals for Friendswood.
Memorial’s previous loss was 41-26 at Crosby in early September.
Prior to his 51-yard run, Sanders scored on runs of 6 and 1 yards. The Titans scored on their first two series.
Running back Adrian Hayward was a heavy contributor to the Titans’ offense, finishing with 148 rushing yards. Hayward’s 41-yard touchdown run in the opening minute of the third quarter increased their advantage to 20-10.
The Mustangs relied heavily on the ground game. Corkran got the majority of the carries, scoring on a 1-yard touchdown that got the Mustangs to within 14-10 with 2:57 left in the first half. Dupuis was the team’s triggerman.
Corkran had a productive game that pleased his coach.
“He’s a really large kid who goes forward,” Koopman said. “He’s a big kid, and he just wears on people. Sometimes you get tired of tackling him because it hurts when you tackle him.”
Having an all-around solid game defensively for the Titans was defensive back Devuan Davenport, who was in on a good number of tackles and picked up an interception. Kendrick Sam recovered a fumble for Memorial. Will Blok, Matthew Reyes and Braylan Shelby collected sacks for the Mustangs.
Friendswood drained the clock on the game’s opening possession, gaining yards mainly on running plays. The Mustangs burned almost eight minutes, settling on a 31-yard field goal from Pasqualli.
The Titans jumped out to a 14-3 lead, but the Mustangs battled back. Corkran’s touchdown run ignited the home crowd again, and Pasqualli’s extra point closed the gap to four points.