ARLINGTON – For the May Tigers, the wait for their first state championship since 1977 – and second overall – must continue.
The Tigers rallied from one two-touchdown deficit during Wednesday’s Class A Division I state championship game at AT&T Stadium, but were unable to duplicate the feat as the Westbrook Wildcats held on late to clinch their first state title, 72-66.
The loss was the second in a row in the state final for May (14-1) and the fourth since 2013 under 18th-year head coach Craig Steele.
“These kids worked really hard and they made it their mission to get back and change the outcome and they came literally within an inch of doing that,” an emotional Steele said during his postgame press conference. “It’s a hard pill to swallow, but I’m extremely proud of them and their effort. We lost nine seniors from last year’s team and still found a way to get back.”
The game was decided with 2 seconds remaining on a play that was initially thought to be a game-tying touchdown for the Tigers. Facing a fourth-and-5 from the Westbrook 8, Blake Harrell scrambled and lobbed a pass to end zone, where Kaysen King made a leaping grab. On the way to the ground, however, the ball was stripped from King’s grasp by Westbrook’s Jimmy Roberts Jr. and – after a review of the play – the Wildcats (11-4) took position and ran out the clock.
“I probably had 120 plays to choose from in that moment and don’t have the opportunity to make that decision very often,” Steele said. “The original play wasn’t there. The original play was to go to Kaden (Halk) in the corner and the safety picked him up. The kids have an internal clock and know how long these plays are supposed to last. When that play went too long, that’s when Kaysen leaped out to the back of the end zone and he was open. The kid just came down real hard on his arms and made it incomplete. I’m not going to put it on one play. In a game this close there’s a million plays that could have changed it one way or another.”
Two other critical plays that went against May occurred in the closing seconds of the first half, and midway through the third period.
The Tigers grabbed a 44-38 lead with 16 seconds left before halftime on a 41-yard scoring strike from Harrell to King, which followed May’s second defensive stop of the contest at their own 21 with 1:07 to go. With May receiving the second-half kickoff, the opportunity existed for the Tigers to potentially open a two-possession advantage.
Instead, Westbrook’s Shammah Stark hurled a 56-yard touchdown pass to a wide-open Aiden Sullivan with 4 seconds left in the second half, then Jeremiah Ramirez booted the two-point kick to give the Wildcats a 46-44 halftime edge.
A 21-yard touchdown run by Avery Williford with 7:03 left in the third period staked the Tigers to a 60-52 advantage after King’s two-point kick. Westbrook responded with a 7-yard touchdown run by Cedric Ware and two-point kick from Ramirez to knot the score at 60 at the 5:55 mark.
On the ensuing onside kick for Westbrook – its ninth onside effort of the contest to that point – the Wildcats finally got the hop they were hoping for, high over the head and fingertips of Halk as Brannon Larson pounced on the ball at the May 21 for Westbrook.
Two plays later, Ware was back in the end zone on a 10-yard carry, and Westbrook owned a 66-60 lead with 5:02 left in the third period.
“That was huge because then they didn’t have to get a defensive stop,” Steele said of the onside kick. “Both teams were having a hard time stopping each other, and when they can get an onside and don’t have to stop us, that was huge.”
May’s next possession stalled at the its own 35 on a fourth-and-22 sack, and the Wildcats needed six plays before Ware scored on a 1-yard plunge to put the Tigers in a 72-60 hole with 38 seconds left in the third.
But just as May had done in come-from-behind wins against Jonesboro, Water Valley and Abbott the three previous outings, the Tigers displayed their resiliency and began one final comeback bid.
First, the Tigers closed the gap to 72-66 an 8-yard carry from Halk with 8:32 remaining, capping a six-play, 39-yard drive. Then, the May defense stuffed Westbrook on the Tiger 9 with 5:04 to go.
May then marched 75 yards in 10 plays, chewing 5:02 off the clock, but the fairy tale ending was not to be.
“It was one of those games that comes down to getting stops, where one key stop changes the whole thing, and I thought we got it,” Steele said. “We moved down the field and had options to either use timeouts and save time in case we didn’t score or take it down to the end. I thought we were exhausted, I thought Westbrook was exhausted and I thought the right move was to take it down and hopefully score.”
May finished with 489 yards of total offense – 343 rushing and 146 passing. Halk racked up 171 yards and three touchdowns on the ground and Williford chipped in 170 yards and three scores. Braden Steele added 10 yards and Harrell and Luke McKenzie were limited to -8 yards on 10 combined carries.
Through the air, Harrell connected on 4 of 9 passes for 146 yards and three touchdowns. King caught two passes for 80 yards and scored once, Halk added a 48-yard touchdown reception and Williford hauled in an 18-yard scoring toss.
Westbrook compiled 579 yards – 395 on the ground and 184 through the air. Ware rushed for 304 yards and seven touchdowns, completed a 9-yard touchdown pass and hauled in a 35-yard reception.
Stark was 5 of 10 for 175 yards through the air with two scoring tosses. Sullivan led the Wildcats with two catches for 65 yards, Hadley White added two for 29 yards and scored once and Walters hauled in a 55-yard scoring reception. Roberts added 68 yards on the ground and Ramirez rushed for 24.
Defensively for May, Halk tallied 8.5 tackles followed by Williford with 7, Harrell with 5.5, Damian Salinas with 5, King with 4, McKenzie with 3.5, Kross Kenyon with 1.5 and Bryson Guerrero with 1.
The Tigers found themselves in an early 22-8 hole as, after pulling even at 8 on a 50-yard sprint by Williford, May yielded a 55-yard scoring toss from Stark to Walters and 13-yard gallop by Ware.
May crept within 22-16 on a 57-yard sprint by Halk on a third-and-13 play with 3:29 left in the first quarter. Then, after the Tiger defense made its first stop of the day, Harrell connected with Williford on an 8-yard scoring toss and King booted the two-point kick to give May its first lead, 24-22, with 9:52 left in the first half.
The two teams traded scores over the next four possession as Westbrook scored on a 9-yard toss from Ware to White and a 60-yard sprint by Ware, while May reached the end zone on a 31-yard Williford carry and 48-yard pitch and catch from Harrell to Halk, which evened the score at 38 with 4:44 left before halftime.
Though the season finished in heartbreaking fashion, the Tigers will attempt to reload again in 2022 and make another push toward a trip to Arlington – an accomplishment many didn’t anticipate with the amount of players lost to graduation a year ago.
“When you lose nine seniors and then you get back and then we’re going to lose seven this year, that’s 16 in two years, but we can tell the underclassmen we’ve done this before, we’ve been here before, we’ve lost a lot of seniors and still came back strong,” Steele said. “It’s doable. We’re still going to be a good team and I think this will give them confidence knowing that we’ve done it before.”
