BY NOLAN RUTH
X – @RealNolanRuth
ALEDO— Isaac Newton once said “What goes up, must come down.” When he came up with that theory, he clearly was not thinking about the Aledo Bearcats. It has been 17 years since Aledo last lost a district game and despite a first half scare, the 12-time state champions extended their historic streak to 123 consecutive district wins by defeating the Denton Ryan Raiders 42-27, erasing a 19-point deficit in the process.
“It’s going to be a tough football game when we play these guys,” Aledo head coach Robby Jones said after the game. “We fully expect to play these guys again in December. We felt that way the last two times we played them. We’ll be able to learn things from tonight’s game and be ready to do better the second time.”
Ryan gave Aledo plenty of problems in the first half. The Raiders received the opening kickoff and got to around midfield before facing a fourth down. Uzziah Warmate came onto the field in the heavy package and took the fullback dive 53 yards for the opening score to put Ryan up 6-0 after a missed extra point.
Aledo almost had a response, but threw an interception at the goal line to give the Raiders the ball back. Two plays later junior defensive end Carson Dempsey came up with a safety to get on the board.
The Bearcats took the ensuing drive to the 19 yard line before having to settle for a 36-yard field goal from Cole Crawford to give the game the unique score of 6-5 at the end of the first quarter.
The Raiders opened the second half in explosive fashion as Quin Henigan found Tre’Vaughn Reynolds on a swing pass for a 39-yard score. Aledo got another light response with a 33 yarder from Crawford to pull the score to 13-8. On the next play from scrimmage Henigan threw to Lorenzo Hill on another screen for a 44 yard score.
The Raiders doubled down with a deep pass to Braeden Mussett to make the score 27-8, but the Bearcats got one more counter blow before the half when Adrian Fuller took the ensuing kickoff back 100 yards to make it a 27-14 game at the break.
“I think we had momentum going into the half,” Dempsy said after the comeback. “They got way too high in the locker room at the break and we were just working on our craft, so I think that worked in our favor.”
The Bearcats came out in the second half like a team possessed. The offense drove down field and pulled within one possession on a pass over the middle from Gavin Beard to Kaydon Finley. The Aledo defense did even better than the offense in the second half, not allowing another point and forcing the Raiders into several fourth down situations.
The Bearcats finally took the lead for good when Ray Guillory scored from six yards out on the next Aledo drive. After a three-and-out, Guillory added to the lead out of the wildcat with a six-yard score to make it 35-27 after three quarters of play.
The game was far from over and both teams struggled for every yard, and the Raiders turned the ball over twice, including an interception by Owen Henderson in the third quarter.
With Ryan at bay, the Bearcats were able to deliver a final blow when Beard had to improvise and ended up flipping a shovel pass to Guillory who cut across field and scored to bring the final score to 42-27.
“Never give up,” Henderson said with pride after the game. “No matter how much we’re down, we can always come back and win it.”
Aledo (5-1, 4-0) will go on the road to look for district win number 124 against Granbury (1-4, 0-3) while Denton Ryan (4-1, 2-1) will look to bounce back against a tough opponent in Richland (6-0, 4-0) next week.
