Calhoun 38, Canyon Lake 13

Quick take: Port Lavaca Calhoun’s dominant rushing attack led to a 38-13 area victory over Canyon Lake on Thursday evening at Floresville Stadium, advancing the Sandcrabs to the regional round of the Class 4A Division I playoffs.

The Sandcrabs (5-7) came into the game with a worse record than the Hawks (7-4), but they peaked at the right time to advance to the third round of the playoffs.

“We went through a lot of adversity early on. I lost my mom in the middle of preseason. … The kids never missed practice, never gave up, kept fighting, kept believing,” Calhoun coach Richard Whitaker said.

Highlights: Canyon Lake struck early with a 16-play drive. The drive consisted of all rushes and finished with Hunter Anderson running 4 yards into the end zone and sucked up over seven minutes of the first quarter.

Calhoun quarterback Alex Parker threw a pass to Tony Hensley, who took the ball 50 yards to even the score at 7-7 late in the first quarter. Hensley scored his second touchdown of the game late in the second quarter to give the Sandcrabs a 13-7 lead.

Hensley broke free for a 73-yard touchdown run on the second play of the second half to increase the lead to 21-7 after a successful two-point conversion after missing a PAT earlier in the game.

The Hawks were able to force and recover a fumble inside Sandcrabs territory midway through the fourth quarter. Anderson then got his second touchdown of the night off a quarterback sneak to pull within 21-13. Calhoun had its own rush-only drive late in the fourth quarter, and Hensley scored his third touchdown of the night off a 40-yard run to cap off the scoring.

What it means:

Calhoun started the year with a seven-game losing streak. Now, it has won five in a row and advances to the regional round in the Division I bracket.

Quotable: “We just want to play a good 48-minutes of football. We knew it was going to be a hard-fought game. … I told the kids to ‘stay the course, do what you do,’ and they did a great job of that.” Whitaker said.