EARLY – A lot of adjectives were thrown around Friday night to describe the Early Longhorns’ 24-14 win over the perennial powerful Wall Hawks.
“It’s just an unbelievable feeling we have right now,” second-year Early head football coach Daniel Price said. “During halftime, we decided to believe in ourselves, and we came out and made some unbelievably big plays in the second half. You could feel the momentum come to our sideline.
“This is a program-changing win.”
The Longhorns (8-2 overall) rallied with two long touchdown passes only 43 seconds apart in the fourth quarter and beat the Hawks, who lost four crucial fumbles during the regular-season finale. It was Early’s first over Wall since 2008.
Friday’s outcome left Early, Wall and Breckenridge tied for second place in District 3-3A Division I with 3-2 records. Using the district’s tie-breaking formula, Breckenridge emerged as the No. 2 playoff seed from District 3-3A DI, Early as the 3 seed and Wall as the 4 seed.
By finishing in as the 3 seed, Early will avoid Brock, the No. 2-ranked team in the state, in next week’s bidistrict round of the playoffs. The Longhorns will open the playoffs with Pilot Point – which is no slouch with a 7-3 record – at 7:30 p.m. Friday at Saginaw High School.
Wall (5-4 overall) lost four fumbles Friday and all proved costly. After the last two fumbles, the Longhorns took advantage with two long touchdown passes to rally from a 14-10 deficit.
Early’s Casey Moseley recovered a fumble that ended a Wall drive at the Longhorns’ 23-yard line with 7:19 remaining. On the following play, Early quarterback Jaxyn Price lateraled to Tucker Hale, who then threw deep for John-Stewart Gordon. The “double pass” as Coach Price called it went for a 77-yard touchdown and gave Early a 17-14 lead with 7:08 left.
Early needed to win by 10 or more points to jump from the No. 4 spot to the No. 3 seed for the playoffs.
On Wall’s second offensive play after ensuing kickoff, a hit in the backfield caused a fumble that Chris Fernandez recovered at the Wall 44. On the next play, Jaxyn Price threw a 44-yard touchdown pass to Jeremy Brown and Early extended its lead to 24-14 with 6:25 to play.
“We wanted to throw deep on first down after both of those fumbles because we had the momentum,” Coach Price said. “I didn’t expect a touchdown, but we wanted to take the momentum from the turnovers and not let them have it back.”
Down 24-14, Wall couldn’t move the ball, and Early took possession, picked up three first downs and ran out the clock.
“This win means everything to us as a family,” Gordon said. “Our team is built around family. We call each other brothers. There had to be a reason for playing this season. This is what our seniors wanted.”
Jaxyn Price finished 17-of-26 passing for 185 yards and the score to Brown. Senior Tre Beam rushed for 126 yards and also caught six passes for 57 yards.
“A win like this is what this team needs so we can move forward with some momentum into the playoffs,” Beam said. “Our defense worked extremely hard this week on each player’s responsibility against their option. Everybody did their job, and that’s what we had to have to succeed.”
A third Wall fumble came in the third quarter as fullback Dominic Garcia lost possession at the goal line on what would have been a 1-yard touchdown run that could have extended the Hawks’ 14-10 lead.
In the first half, Wall began with a 13-play drive that reached the Early 20 before Franky Villarreal’s fumble recovery ended the Hawks’ threat.
The Hawks scored twice in the second quarter, including a 28-yard touchdown pass from Gabe Haskins to Jacob Richardson. Later in the second quarter, Haskins scored on a 1-yard run that finished a long drive and gave the Hawks a 14-10 lead with 3:18 left.
Early 24, Wall 14
Score by Quarters:
Wall 0 14 0 0 — 14
Early 3 7 0 14 — 24
First Quarter
EAR — Franky Villarreal 22 FG, 1:02
Second Quarter
WAL — Jacob Richardson 28 pass from Gabe Haskins (Pierce Jameson kick), 9:48
EAR — Villarreal 9 run (Villarreal kick), 6:39
WAL — Haskins 1 run (Jameson kick), 3:18
Fourth Quarter
EAR — John-Stewart Gordon 77 pass from Tucker Hale (Villarreal kick), 7:08
EAR — Jeremy Brown 44 pass from Jaxyn Price (Villarreal kick), 6:25
Wal Ear
First Downs 20 14
Rushes-Yards 48-204 29-128
Passing Yards 102 262
Total Yards 307 390
Comp-Att-Int 9-14-0 19-28-1
Punts 2-47 2-39
Fumbles-Lost 4-4 0-0
Penalties-Yards 4-30 4-40
Individual Statistics
RUSHING: Wall – Dominic Garcia 20-89, Gabe Haskins 17-68, Ryan Quinney 6-20, Andrew Russell 3-28, Dane Reynolds 2-(-)1. Early – Tre Beam 17-126, Franky Villarreal 3-16, Kaleb Ozuna 2-3, Jaxyn Price 7-(-)17.
PASSING: Wall – Haskins 9-14-0 for 103. Early – Price 18-27-1 for 185, Tucker Hale 1-1-0 for 77.
RECEIVING: Wall – Jacob Richardson 7-100, Weston Sims 1-7, Quinney 1-0, Garcia 1-(-)4. Early – Beam 6-57, John-Stewart Gordon 5-115, Jeremy Brown 4-61, Ki Houston 3-29, Villarreal 1-0.
