Gruver stuns No. 4 Sunray behind furious second half comeback, 42-41

In a true tale of two halves where all 48 minutes counted, Gruver made a furious second half rally to erase a 26-point first half deficit leaving No. 4 Sunray in shock by taking a thrilling 42-41 victory in a game that won’t soon be forgotten in front of a packed house at Bobcat Stadium on Friday night.

Gruver had found itself down 34-8 with two minutes to play in the first half, but with under two minutes to play in the game, the Greyhounds took over on their final drive inside the Sunray 50-yard line trailing by only seven, 41-34, with just under five minutes remaining.

The Greyhound offense that clicked in the second half went to work on this clutch game-winning drive highlighted by a fourth down and nine conversion on a 15-yard catch by Sutton Ward from quarterback Briggs Satterfield to put the Greyhounds inside the Bobcat 20-yard line with under two minutes to play.

A few plays later it was running back Pratt McLain punching his way in from one-yard out and Gruver trailed by a 41-40 count.

Being on the road and without hesitation, head coach Kurt Haberthur called for the two-point conversion. Satterfield took the snap did a jump pass to find McLain who made a shoestring catch in the middle of the endzone giving Gruver its first lead at 42-41 since the early stages of the first quarter. That two-point was the difference as the Greyhounds held on for the epic victory.

“You’re on the road and you are trying to complete a comeback, so you go for the two-point conversion, and you go for the win,” Haberthur said. “There was no doubt about it. I said it to the team in a timeout before we scored. We’re going for the two-point conversion no matter what.”

McLain loved Haberthur’s gutsy call.

“There never was a doubt about going for two,” McLain said. “We trust the coaches and we loved the call. In the timeout, coach Haberthur said we’re here to win it.”

This was a very emotional win for Haberthur, who is in his first season as the Greyhounds head coach. Not only was Gruver a massive underdog in this District 1-2A Division II clash, but Haberthur had spent 10 years coaching in the Sunray community.

“I love Sunray,” Haberthur said. “I love a lot of people in Sunray, and I thank them for everything they did for me in my life. But I also love Gruver and I love everything we got going on right now here. God put us here for a reason. Hats off to Sunray and their players and hats off to our team. This is what high school football is all about.”

Sunray had one final chance. After standout quarterback Armando Lujan had left for two plays due to a beat-up ankle, backup quarterback Luke Grajeda did an admirable job hitting two straight completions to Kagan Davis and Damian Barragan putting the Bobcats inside the Gruver 40-yard line with 45 seconds to play.

Lujan checked back in, but there wasn’t any magic for the Bobcats as Lujan threw four straight incompletions to turn the ball over on downs to end the game.

“We had the ball last and had a chance,” Sunray head coach Wes Boatmun said. “We didn’t catch the ball well. We had a lot of drops and didn’t finish plays. We have to be able to make Gruver pay for playing man coverage and we weren’t able to. It was a good football game but unfortunately we were on the wrong side of it.”

Sunray completely dominated the first 24 minutes with the prolific Lujan using his feet more than his high-profile arm. While the passing game wasn’t on point for the Bobcats with Lujan going 12-of-31 for 190 yards for two touchdowns, Lujan showed his versatility showing his speed that led to 27 unanswered points and a 34-8 lead.

Behind a strong offensive line, Lujan thwarted the Gruver defense in the first half with over 100 yards rushing and TD scampers of 35, 22 and four yards. Lujan finished with four rushing scores on the night and 192 yards on the ground but again most of that damage was in the first half.

“We tightened up our defensive ends and were able to get pressure in the second half,” Haberthur said. “We started making tackles. We weren’t tackling in the first half. The coverage guys played great and did a good job on those really good receivers. They are not an easy team to defend.”

Lujan came up limping in the early stages of the fourth quarter. He did finish the game but wasn’t the same down the stretch.

Gruver gained much needed momentum on a six-yard pass from Satterfield to McLain connection on the last play of the second quarter that put the Greyhounds down 34-14 at half.

The Greyhounds got an onside kick to open the second and scored closing the gap at 34-20 early in the third. After Lujan scored to put Sunray back up 41-20 to open the fourth, it was all Gruver from that point forward with 22 unanswered points. Satterfield found Walker Maupin for a 21-yard touchdown pass. Satterfield found a wide-open Michael McCloy who beat his defender down the sideline for a huge 98-yard score midway in the fourth that made things real at 41-34, then eventually the game-winning score and legendary two-point conversion.

“Right before halftime we gained momentum,” Haberthur said. “I told the guys at halftime you will never forget the comeback you are about to make. The guys believed and went out and pulled it off.”

Satterfield out-dueled Lujan through the air as the sophomore stamped his name as a Texas Panhandle quarterback to keep an eye on by going 21-of-32 for 352 yards with four touchdown passes. McCloy benefitted with eight catches for 210 yards receiving with that 98-yard TD reception.

“We never gave up,” Satterfield said. “We loved the feeling of that second half. We just dug deep and started to figure it out.”

Gruver (7-2 overall) is now in the driver’s seat of District 1-2A Division II at 2-0. Sunray drops to 7-2 overall and 1-1 in the league.