Published: October 11, 2008 02:19 am            

Hornets make a stand

Huntsville defense stops Waller on goal line; Hornets hold on to 10-6 win

With time running short, the Hornets knew exactly what was at stake. Waller had the ball inside the Huntsville 1-yard line, and it was fourth down.

A Bulldogs’ score would give them the lead and likely hang the first district loss on a Huntsville team that was riding high coming into Friday’s game. Stop the Dogs and the Hornets could run out the clock and celebrate their third straight district victory.

Like they did last week, the big boys fronting the Huntsville defense did the dirty work. They dug deep and tackled Bulldogs running back Jacobie White short of the end zone to preserve a 10-6 Huntsville victory.

Huntsville improved to 3-0 in District 18-4A play and 3-1 overall. Waller dropped to 1-2 in district and 2-4 overall.

“I told my teammates we’ve got to let it all hang out,” Huntsville defensive end Kirby Ennis said. “If we let them get in there, we would’ve been in trouble. So I told them in the huddle, ‘We’re not fixing to let them get it in.’

“We all swarmed to the ball. That close to the goal line we knew it was going to come straight down the middle. We all stayed low and pushed them back.”

Friday’s win won’t go down as a thing of beauty, but it did go down as a win. That’s all the Hornets and their coaches seemed to care about after the game.

Huntsville overcame six turnovers by playing a stingy brand of defense that is starting to become a trend in these parts. A week after holding Brenham to four first downs and 116 yards total offense, the Hornets kept Waller under the 200-yard mark for total offense Friday. The Bulldogs, who rushed for 186 yards and threw for 10 more, did manage eight first downs.

Still, it took one memorable goal-line stand for the Hornets to hold off a pesky Waller team bent on upsetting the new frontrunners in District 18-4A.

“That’s the sign of a championship team,” Hornets coach Mitchell Coey said. “Their backs were against the wall, but the good Lord blessed us. We made the plays at the end.

“We made a lot of mistakes, but to overcome all the mistakes we had and still win shows the character of this team.”

The biggest mistake the Hornets made Friday came on a Waller punt midway through the fourth quarter. After Hunsville’s defense held the Bulldogs without a first down, Waller’s Ruben Velazquez unloaded a high punt that hit one of the Hornet blockers on the way down. The ball bounced back five yards and the Bulldogs fell on it to restart their drive on the Huntsville 30.

Coach Jason Morley’s Bulldogs deliberately started grinding toward the end zone, picking up a clutch first down on fourth-and-7, then getting a 9-yard gain from White to put the ball inside the 10.

Three plays netted Waller only six yards, but the Bulldogs needed only one more to take the lead with 1:44 left on the clock. After a timeout, White took a handoff from quarterback Mitchell Kapalske and was quickly met by a slew of Hornets determined to keep him out of the end zone.

“I was just praying, ‘Please give me the speed to get around to the football,’” Huntsville’s Travis Rex said. “We all just blew him up. We did what we had to do.”

It took that kind of defensive effort for Huntsville to pull out its third consecutive victory. After senior Lonny Lipscomb scored on their opening drive of the game, the Hornets struggled mightily on offense. Quarterback Justin Gilbert threw two interceptions and Huntsville lost three fumbles prior to the punt that hit one of the Hornets in the fourth quarter.

Fortunately for the home team, Waller botched its only extra-point try. The Bulldogs failed on a fake kick after Kapalske scored on a 42-yard run seconds after Lipscomb’s first-quarter score.

Waller also missed a pair of field goals, and the Hornets made their only field goal attempt. Martin Juarez split the uprights with a 21-yard kick in the third quarter.

“We’ve got some things we’ve got to work on,” Coey said. “I think the kids understand now that everybody is after them. We’re going to take everybody’s best shot.

“Offensively, we’ve got to get to work on that a little bit. We’ve got to execute better. Our defense is playing well, but our offense needs to catch up.”

The Hornets head to Montgomery next week for another big district game. Montgomery upset Magnolia 24-21 on Friday, which knocked the Bulldogs out of a first-place tie with Huntsville.



Huntsville 10, Waller 6



Waller 6 0 0 0 — 6

Huntsville 7 0 3 0 — 10



First quarter

Huntsville — Lonny Lipscomb 6 run (Martin Juarez kick), 10:30.

Waller — Mitchell Kapalske 42 run (run failed), 10:11.

Third quarter

Huntsville — Juarez 21 field goal, 5:17



TEAM STATISTICS

Waller Huntsville

First downs 8 14

Rushes-yards 38-186 41-154

Passing yards 10 47

Comp-Att-Int 3-4-0 4-14-2

Punts 4-30.5 1-29

Fumbles-Lost 2-2 6-4

Penalties-Yards 10-58 1-10

———

INDIVIDUAL STATISTICS

RUSHING — Waller, Jacobie White 6-67, Chris Weigand 13-57, Mitchell Kapalske 13-42, Jermaine Davis 5-22, Chris Carroll 1-(-2); Huntsville, Joseph Maxey 10-48, Kevin Butcher 6-42, Justin Gilbert 15-30, Lonny Lipscomb 7-27, Mark Wheeler 2-6, Shaquille Ross 1-1.

PASSING— Waller, Kapalske 3-4-0 for 10 yards; Huntsville, Gilbert 3-8-2 for 30 yards, George Perry 1-6-0 for 17 yards.

RECEIVING — Waller, Austin Tilton 2-10, Robert Loewe 1-0; Huntsville, Butcher 2-32, Perry 1-9, Wheeler 1-6.

        

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