15-year wait ends
Greyhounds savoring first outright district title since ’05 but want more
LA VERNIA — With a playoff berth already in the bag, the Boerne Greyhounds secured their first outright district championship since 2005 with a 40-32 victory over La Vernia on Friday night at Bear Stadium.
The second-ranked Greyhounds hoisted the District 14-4A-I trophy amid a raucous celebration shortly after the final whistle.
Boerne coach Che Hendrix’s postgame message to his team was simple: “It’s been 15 years, boys.”
That sparked another celebration for the Greyhounds on their host’s field.
“I’m really proud of our senior class,” Hendrix said. “They were freshman when I got here, and they set a goal — they wanted to win a district champion
ship. The other goal is to play December football. We crossed off one of those, and we’ve put ourselves in great position to hopefully go on a playoff run.”
Boerne (7-2, 4-0) is finished for the regular season. Third-ranked La Vernia (6-3, 2-1) plays its regular-season finale at Pleasanton next week.
The Greyhounds jumped out to a 21-0 lead before the Bears crawled to within 27-25 early in the third quarter. Boerne responded by scoring the next 13 points to seal it.
“(La Vernia) is a really good football team,” Hendrix said. “We’ve played them the last cou
ple of years, and it’s come down to the last possession, so we knew it was going to be fourquarter battle.”
Greyhounds quarterback Rashawn Galloway threw for 265 yards and two touchdowns on 24-of-36 passing. Versatile senior Scott Hettie caught a 29-yard pass, booted field goals of 34 and 27 yards and rushed 14 times for 43 yards.
Those field goals came during the Greyhounds’ second-half scoring surge that helped put it away.
La Vernia cut into Boerne’s 2719 halftime lead on a 16-yard TD catch by Ruben Rivera early in the third quarter. The score was set up by a Greyhounds fumble. The Bears threw an incomplete pass on a two-point try, and
Boerne led 27-25.
Hettie made his 34-yarder on the next series. JP Castro zipped up the middle for a 19-yard scoring run late in the third quarter to give the Greyhounds a 37-25 lead.
Hettie made it 40-25 midway through the fourth quarter with his 27-yard field goal.
Rivera hauled in an 11-yard TD pass from Gage Lowry on the game’s final play.
Lowry finished with 247 yards and five touchdowns on 20-of-41 passing.
The game clock on the scoreboard malfunctioned before kickoff, and officials kept time on the field. Coaches and fans were notified when there was less than two minutes remaining in each quarter.
The Greyhounds scored a pair of touchdowns in the first quarter and raced to a 21-0 lead.
Boerne opened things with a 56-yard scoring run on a sweep by Riley Pechacek.
They made it 14-0 on the next drive when Cam Johnson caught a 15-yard TD pass from Galloway with less than two minutes remaining in the first quarter. That score was set up by a fumble.
Boerne tallied another touchdown on its next possession when running back Scott Hettie tracked down a 29-yard pass from Galloway in the end zone to make it 21-0.
La Vernia got on the scoreboard on the ensuing possession with a 37-yard TD catch by Kolban Mills, who reached over a Boerne defender who was flagged for pass interference, to catch Gage Lowry’s pass in the end zone. The Bears missed the extra point and trailed 21-6.
The Bears recovered a fumble on Boerne’s 31 on the next series and that led to Daryl Dulak’s 14yard scoring catch.
The teams traded touchdowns over the next two drives with Galloway racing for a 36-yard score on a keeper for Boerne. Koy Carpenter’s 4-yard touchdown catch with less than two minutes left in the second quarter pulled the Bears to within 2719.