Redskins lasso Longhorns for district win

This Friday, the Kingston Redskins finally had a home game in their own stadium, as the new LED lights were finally installed. Looking for their first district win after the shutout at Plainview, the Redskins welcomed the Lone Grove Longhorns, who opened their district season with a home win the week before over Pauls Valley. Not only did the Redskins avoid their third straight shutout, but they came away with a victory over Lone Grove to open the month of October.

Lone Grove’s offense looked great early. The Longhorns took over at their own 37 after the opening kickoff and rode down the field on the legs of junior running back Braxton Sparks and the arm of junior quarterback Caden Gilmore. Gilmore hit junior Jackson Grace for a 36-yard gain to the Kingston 3, and Lone Grove looked ready to score the game’s opening touchdown. However, Kingston’s defense stiffened, and three more plays lost three yards, with sophomore Rafe Patterson stopping Sparks on third down. Instead of a touchdown, junior kicker Jaxon Lee kicked a short field goal, and Lone Grove led early 3-0.

Kingston’s offense continued its early-season struggles on the Redskins’ first drive. Although the Redskins converted a third-and-fifteen when junior quarterback Klete Finley hit senior wideout Braden Matchen for a sixteen-yard gain, Kingston could not maintain the momentum, and punted the ball back to Lone Grove three plays later.

Lone Grove took over at its own 25 and looked to add more points. Sparks took advantage of a huge hole and shot through the defense untouched for 60 yards until Matchen caught him from behind at the Kingston 9, and the Longhorns were back in business. However, on second-and-goal from the Kingston 8, Gilmore’s short pass to senior Shawn Johnson bounced off Johnson’s hands and into the hands of Kingston junior Devin Tipton, who gathered the ball in at the 9 and took it to the house for a 91-yard interception return and Kingston’s first defensive score of the season. After the extra point, Kingston led for the first time 7-3 late in the first quarter.

The Longhorns went back to work on offense, driving the ball again, helped this time by an untimely roughing the passer penalty on Kingston. Lone Grove needed seven plays to cover 72 yards, and Sparks opened the second quarter running the ball in from 11 yards out to put the Longhorns back on top, 10-7.

Kingston’s next drive looked a little more like the offense the Redskins faithful have been used to. On the second play of the drive, senior running back Brandon Watson shook off a hit in the backfield and took a handoff 40 yards to the Lone Grove 29. Another Watson carry for another ten yards two plays later put Kingston into the red zone at the Lone Grove 14. However, junior Christian Lemons sacked Finley on first down, and Kingston could not recover. Finley’s fourth-down pass was just too high for senior wideout Hayden McKinney, and Kingston turned it over on downs at the Lone Grove 11.

Lone Grove’s offense finally slowed on the Longhorns’ next drive. While Gilmore picked up a first down with an 18-yard run early, three plays later his pass to junior Cale McLean fell incomplete, and the Longhorns were forced to punt.

Kingston started the ensuing drive off on the right foot with a quick pass by Finley to McKinney in the right flat, which he carried 22 yards to the Kingston 42. However, three plays later, the drive stalled, and Kingston lined up in punt formation on fourth-and-three at the Kingston 49. The punt turned out to be a fake, and Finley took the snap and pitched to sophomore Delton O’Steen on an option, but he was tackled for a two-yard loss, and Kingston turned the ball over on downs again, this time at the Redskins’ 47.

With great field position, Lone Grove started the next drive off with a 13-yard run by Sparks to the Redskins’ 34. However, Kingston’s defense stiffened again, and three plays later Gilmore was sacked on fourth-and-eight by Kingston junior Damon Rowe and sophomore Aiden Donnell to force the Longhorns to turn it over on downs at the Kingston 41.

With three minutes left, Finley hit Watson for a first-down pass that Watson carried to the Lone Grove 37. Three plays later, on third-and-eight, senior wideout Cole Morgan caught Finley’s pass over the middle and carried two defenders into the end zone for a 35-yard touchdown. Lone Grove was unable to move the ball in their two-minute offense, and so Morgan’s score gave Kingston a 14-10 halftime lead.

Kingston started off the third quarter with a handoff to Watson, who found a huge hole for a 54-yard gain to the Longhorns’ 20. Six more pounding runs by Watson gave the Redskins fourth -and-goal at the Lone Grove 1. Finley faked the handoff and then took a bootleg wide to the right side for the final yard to pay dirt. Scoring the two-point conversion on the exact same play, Finley put the Redskins up 22-10.

Lone Grove came back out down two scores for the first time and went back to work. The Longhorns converted one third down but faced a fourth-and-one at the Kingston 35. Sparks tried to pick up the yard, but Patterson and senior Grant Holmes met him in the hole and stopped him short, and Lone Grove turned it over on downs.

Up two scores, Kingston’s offense put the game out of reach. On the fifth play of the ensuring drive, on second-and-eight from the Redskins’ 47, Lone Groves’ pass coverage broke down and Finley found Matchen down the right sideline for a 53-yard score. After the extra point, Kingston led 29-10 late in the third quarter.

Now in deep trouble, Lone Grove’s offense continued its second-half struggles. While the Longhorns picked up a first down on another roughing the passer penalty, four plays later Gilmore’s fourth-down pass to senior J.J. Miller fell incomplete, and Lone Grove turned it over on downs again near midfield.

Kingston’s next drive went three-and-out. Gilmore came out and promptly completed a long pass to McLean for 38 yards to the Kingston 33, but two plays later the drive fizzled, as a bad snap was recovered by Donnell at the Kingston 38 for a turnover.

Kingston was unable to do anything with the turnover, however, and then a high snap caused O’Steen, back to punt, to be unable to get the ball off, and Lone Grove took over on the Kingston 24 with 8:37 left. Four plays later, Gilmore took a quarterback keeper into the end zone from the 1, and Kingston’s lead was trimmed to 29-17.

Lone Grove attempted an onside kick, but Kingston junior Josh Ellis recovered it for the Redskins at the Lone Grove 49. Five plays moved the ball to the Lone Grove 3, but from there the Redskins self-destructed. Finley was sacked on first down by Lone Grove’s Zayne Bond and Adrian Becker. Kingston then got a holding penalty and an illegal block penalty back-to-back on second down, backing Kingston up to second-and-goal at the Lone Grove 32. A short run and two incomplete passes turned the ball over on downs at the Lone Grove 30.

Lone Grove came out firing, as Gilmore hit Miller for a 38-yard gain on their first play of the ensuing drive. However, three plays later, after a penalty and a near-disastrous option pitch lost the Longhorns 5 yards, Gilmore’s fourth-down pass fell incomplete, and the Redskins took over again after a turnover on downs. After Kingston went three-and-out, the Longhorns’ final desperation drive ended when Kingston sophomore Rhett Coble tipped Gilmore’s final pass, and Holmes picked it off to seal the Redskins’ 29- 17 victory.

Finley had what was by far his best game passing, completing 9 of his 16 passes for 146 yards and two scores. Watson led all rushers with 174 yards on 29 carries, while Kingston’s leading receivers were Matchen, with 63 yards on 2 catches, and Morgan with 40 yards on his two catches, each with a score.

Defensively, O’Steen led the Redskins with 11 tackles, while Rowe had 10 with half a sack. Tipton and Holmes each had an interception in the game, and Donnell recovered a fumble along with a half-sack. While Kingston’s defense yielded a season high 249 passing yards, the Redskins won the turnover margin 3-0, which turned out to be a key to the game.

Kingston Head Coach Tommy Bare called it a “solid team victory over a good Lone Grove squad.”

Kingston (1-1 in district play, 3-2 overall) goes back on the road this Friday, looking to beat up winless Little Axe (0-2, 0-5). Kickoff in Little Axe is scheduled for 7:00 p.m.

EXTRA POINTS

Around the district, Plainview (2-0, 3-2) stayed undefeated with a 42-8 road win at winless Dickson (0-2, 0-5). Sulphur (2-0, 3-2) also kept its district record spotless, beating Madill (1-1, 4-1) 42-27, handing the Wildcats their first loss of the season. Pauls Valley (1-1, 2-3) picked up its first district win of the season with a 43-0 shutout of Little Axe. For the way-too-early If the Playoffs Began Today standings, it would be Plainview, Sulphur, Pauls Valley and Kingston going to the playoffs, with Madill, Lone Grove, Dickson and Little Axe on the outside looking in.

In case you were like this humble writer and wondering why Kingston was throwing the football with a 12-point lead and less than a minute left in the game, the secret is the tiebreaker system for district standings (which affects who gets into the playoffs). After head-to-head record, the first tiebreaker is total net points. However, to keep teams from running up the score, the most points you can get or lose from a particular game is capped at 15. Had Kingston been able to score again, they could have claimed a +15 for this win, instead of the +12 of their actual margin. According to Coach Bare, that’s the reason they ran those plays at the end of the game, as this tiebreaker “could come into play for the playoffs.” Using the eyeball test,

Coach Bare is absolutely right when he called Lone Grove a good team. The Longhorns clearly have talent on offense, with Gilmore and Sparks, and Lemons seemingly spent the entire game in Kingston’s backfield anytime the Redskins were on offense. Clearly, the Longhorns are not a team that can be dismissed as the district race heats up as we move deeper into October.

Finally, in case you needed another example, this game showed why teams that win the opening coin toss defer their choice to take the ball to the second half. The theory is that your team can score late in the second quarter, then come out after the half and score again, and now your opponent is in a hole.

That’s exactly how it turned out this week. Kingston’s last real drive of the first half ended with Morgan’s touchdown catch, and Kingston came back out in the third quarter and scored on Finley’s bootleg. This sequence was the turning point of the game, changing a 10-7 deficit to a 22-10 lead for the Redskins. It doesn’t always work, but it clearly does often enough for coaches at every level to keep using this strategy.