They were the first two teams to start the opening week of District 2-5A Division I, and they were the last two to finish it Saturday afternoon at Dick Bivins Stadium.
For the Tascosa Rebels the wait was worth it, but barely.
After a two and a half hour lightning delay at halftime Thursday night forced the postponement of the second half to Saturday afternoon, it should have been no surprise that Tascosa and Frenship strung things out as far as they could. For the second time this season, the Rebels stopped a two-point conversion in the final minute to preserve the win, producing an identical score to the first game they won, 28-27.
The difference this time is that the Rebels got a district win, whereas their only other win this season against Canyon seemed like it was for fun.
It may have seemed like the drama was manufactured for public consumption considering the dramatic finish. When a Frenship pass on the conversion attempt was stopped by the Rebels (2-2, 1-0 in district) well short of the goal line, it ended a highly interesting 48 hours.
“No one would believe a movie like that with a 39 hour halftime,” Tascosa coach Ken Plunk said. “We’re 1-0 in district against a good football team and it took three days to do it. We made some huge critical errors toward the end. I thought overall we played well.”
Tascosa led 28-21 with under three minutes left and seemed to be on the way to salting the game away, but the Rebels were having surprsing trouble with the center snap. With the ball at the Frenship 19-yard line, the Robels botched their fourth straight snap, and this time the Tigers (1-3, 0-1) recovered at their own 11 and had a genuine chance to win.
Frenship converted two fourth down passes though, the biggest one being a 23-yarder from James Ordonez to Isaiah Gillian which ;put the ball near midfield. A bigger completion came with 47 seconds left in the game, when Ordonez hooked up with a wide open Gillian again for a 45-yard score to make it 28-27.
Instead of opting for an extra point kick to tie it and string the game out further, the Tigers opted to go for two and the win. On the converstion try, Ordonez rolled to his right but was forced to get rid of the ball sooner than he liked by blitzing Tascosa senior defensive back Da’Mari Moore. Ordonez floated the ball to Gillian, but he was gang tackled for what would have been a loss to keep the game in Tascosa’s favor.
“We prepared for that all week and the coaches told me to just blitz off the edge,” Moore said. “I had to get ready for it and I knew as a leader I had to step up and run at it. I think we’re used to adversity at this ppint. With all we’ve been through as a team I think we’re ready for anything at this point.”
Frenship had no timeouts left so the decision to go for the win was instantaneous. Coach Jay Northcutt said it nonetheless wasn’t easy.
“Believe it or not for me, it’s not an automatic decision,” Northcutt said. “The rule of thumb is when you’re on the road you go for two, but I’m a guy who hates it coming down to one play. I felt it was the right thing to do in the moment. It didn’t work, but hindsight’s 20/20.”
It still wasn’t decided as Frenship lined up for an onside kick after having already recovered one in the fourth quarter. This one took hop off a Tascosa player, but quarterback Brayden Lineman, in the game as part of the “hands” unit. recovered it.
The Rebels then negotiated the center snap successfully in victory formation to seal the win.
This concluded a game which had started 41 hours earlier under the threat of rain. After a wait of 2 ½ hours at halftime due to lightning sitings, with Tascosa holding a 13-7 lead, it was decided that the remainder of the game would take place starting late Saturday morning.
That made for a rather unusual Friday. That’s a night teams are usually playing, but if not they’re generally enjoying a bye, not getting ready for a game the next day. What it instead became for the Rebels and Tigers was an extended halftime which was equivalent of several homecomings, giving far more time for a first half analysis.
“We made some long halftime adjustments and talked to the kids about getting to bed early.” Plunk said. “It was unprecedented and we didn’t know how to handle it. I think we handled it OK. I just hope we never have to handle it again.”
The Rebels appeared to have handled it quite well when they came out for the second half as they took the kickoff and marched to a touchdown. Zaryan Malone finished the drive with his second 1-yard scoring run of the game, and more importantly, J;Kavien Moore scored on a two-point conversion run which made it 21-7, which loomed huge at the end of the game.
Frenship responded with a scoring drive as Ordonez scored on the first of two runs, this one from 26 yards to make it 21-14 late in the third quarter.
Although the Rebels struggled with center snaps, the botched ones didn’t turn out all bad. Lineman chased down a loose ball in the backfield and found David Gordon over the middle for a 43-yard touchdown pass 17 seconds into the fourth quarter to boost Tascosa’s lead to 28-14.
Just over two minutes later, Ordonez scored on an 11-yard run to cut it to 28-21.
“We had a lot of things which didn’t go our way but we fought right through them and we some that did because we did fight through them,” Northcutt said. “I’m proud of that. What we did on Friday was watch then first half so we came up with some adjustments we needed to make but not too many because you can’t really practice. It was kind of a chess match.”
The defenses were in control for much of the half before Frenship finally cracked the scoreboard with a touchdown drive. However, Tascosa responded with two touchdowns in the final 3 ½ minutes of the half to take a 13-7 lead into the lockerroom.
Tascosa actually had the best chance to score by driving the ball deep into Frenship territory before the drive stalled. Creed Backus came out to try a 29-yard field goal, but never got a chance as a bad snap forced holder Gordon to run with the ball and he was stopped well short of a first down.
Frenship then responded with a long scoring drive, predicated on a 38-yard completion from Ordonez to Weston Humphries which got the ball past midfield. Ordonez later hit Noah Gonzales on a 7-yard scoring pass to give the Tigers a 7-0 lead.
That seemed to wake up Tascosa’s offense. The Rebels put together a patented ground-oriented drive led by J’Kavien Moore, who got outside for 45 yards on three carries, including taking a pitch in from 16 yards out to tie it 7-7 with 3:24 left in the half.
Tascosa then forced a three-and-out and took over at its own 45-yard line. The Rebels took advantage of good field position as on third down, Brayden Lineman recorded his only completion of the half, hitting Gordon for a 30-yard gain down to Frenship’s 11. Three plays later, Malone carried it in from a yard out to give the Rebels a 13-7 lead with 24 seconds left in the half.
Tascosa almost had a pair of 100-yard rushers, as J’Kavien Moore had a game-high 104 yards on nine carries and Cameron Vallejo had 98 yards on nine carries. Ordonez completed 19-of-29 passes for 211 yards.
Photo gallery by Roy Wheeler:
