BY NOLAN RUTH
X – @RealNolanRuth
STEPHENVILLE— In just its first season in Class 4A, the Brock Eagles are regional champions and heading to the state semifinals next week. The feat was achieved on Friday night with a 12-10 win over their district rival Graham Steers in triple overtime.
“This was a first for me in triple overtime,” head coach Billy Mathis said afterwards. “What a great battle. It’s a shame that one of these teams has a season that has to end. You get down to this time and you’ve just got to stay with it.”
Just a month prior, Graham defeated the Eagles 38-0 to take the district title in dominating fashion. This time around, Brock was motivated to make its name known.
“That first game we were 8-0,” Mathis commented. “I think we were feeling ourselves and I think we weren’t prepared and ready. They came out and chopped us up. That was six weeks ago. This is a new week. What a game.”
The Eagles got a big bounce on the opening kickoff as the Steers could not handle it and Brock’s offense took the field first. Quarterback Brody Woods scored six plays later on a keeper from the five yard line to put the Eagles up 7-0.
Graham immediately responded with an eight play, 73 yard drive that was capped off with an 11 yard bubble screen from Ty Thompson to Rylan Monsey to tie it up. From there the defenses dominated. It was not until with just over a minute to go in the first half that the Steers took the lead on a 45-yard field goal by Ozzy Trejo to take a 10-7 lead into the locker room.
The offensive struggles continued in the third quarter as Brock turned the ball over twice, and Graham was unable to capitalize on either one. On their only drive of the fourth quarter, the Eagles methodically drove 84 yards down the field in 16 plays, taking almost nine minutes off of the clock. At one point of the drive, Woods completed a pass on fourth down to Mason Riddle to keep the drive alive.
“There was no way I was going to punt the ball back to Thompson,” Mathis said with a confident smirk. “He’s just too dang good. I just about threw up when [Blake] Christenson made the call, but what a ball and what a catch.”
Despite not reaching the end zone, Brayden Hamel came on and nailed a 29-yard field goal to tie the game at 10 with less than three minutes to go.
The Steers were unable to respond in time and the game was sent to overtime. Graham won the coin toss and elected to play defense first. On the first play, Woods was intercepted in the end zone and it appeared the Steers were on their way to victory. However the Brock defense held its ground.
Trejo came on for the potential game winning field goal, but a low snap messed up the rhythm and the kick was no good. In the second overtime period, again Trejo was called upon after the Eagle defense stood tall. This time Brock broke through the line and blocked the kick.
Then, in similar fashion, Brock was held to attempt a potential game winning field goal. The kick fell just short off the foot of Hamel to send the game to a third overtime.
By rule, at the beginning of the third overtime both teams would alternate two point conversions until a winner was decided. Brock’s conversion was successful with a run behind the big fellas with Bryer McDonald to make the score 12-10.
Graham came out for its conversion with five wide receivers and tried to set up the quick pass over the middle, but the pass was off line and the Eagles secured the win to avenge their only loss of the season and win the regional title.
Graham’s season comes to an end with a 12-2 record. Brock improves to 13-1 and will face the Carthage Bulldogs next week for the right to play at the state championship in Arlington on December 20.
