By Nolan Ruth
X – @RealNolanRuth
DENTON— If Aledo’s district win streak were a person, it would be celebrating its 18th birthday this coming Sunday, planning on senior photos, and probably thinking about a prom date. Like most 18 year olds, the life of this streak has been filled with some lessons, and even some close calls with danger.
However, it appears this district winning streak will live to see graduation as the Bearcats pulled off a comeback to take down rival Denton Ryan 15-14 in an instant classic.
It was known that both defenses were very stellar coming into this game, and that played out as expected. The game was very defensive from the word ‘go.’
Aledo got on the board first. The Bearcats were forced to punt on the opening drive of the game, but downed the punt at the one yard line. Three plays later, Cooper Cyphers got to Ryan quarterback Quin Henigan in the endzone. Henigan let the ball go but was called for intentional grounding to give Aledo a 2-0 lead.
That was the only scoring of the opening quarter. After several drives of defensive struggles, the Raiders finally got on the board and took the lead when Henigan connected with Tre’Vaughn Reynolds on a perfectly thrown ball from 52 yards out, giving Ryan a 7-2 lead.
The Bearcats were handed a golden opportunity later in the second quarter with first and goal from the five yard line. However, a few bad snaps pushed them back quite a bit and they were forced to settle for a field goal that was blocked. That kept the score at 7-2 at halftime in favor of Ryan.
The Raiders got another big play fairly early in the third quarter. After Aledo created the first Ryan turnover of the season, Arizona-commit Xaier Hiler returned the favor and raised the bet with a pick-six to put the Raiders up 14-2.
It appeared that the Bearcats were in deep trouble, and the famed streak would come to an end. However, this time Aledo was able to respond as running back Brady Powell made multiple extra efforts and found his way into the end zone on pure will to pull the Bearcats back into the game.
With just 30 seconds left in the third quarter, the deficit was cut to 14-9.
After forcing an early stop in the fourth quarter, Aledo quarterback Lincoln Tubbs put the game on his shoulders with option-after-option. He was finally able to give the Bearcats the lead back with under eight minutes to go on a keeper from a yard out. Head coach Robby Jones opted to go for two, but it was unsuccessful, leaving the score at 15-14.
Ryan got two more offensive possessions, but failed to cross the Aledo 40-yard line each time. The Bearcats were ultimately able to run the clock out between the two defensive stops, extending the 18-year old district win streak to 131 games.
Aledo will look to continue to extend the streak when it hosts Granbury next Friday, while Ryan will look to bounce back from its first loss of the season when it goes on the road to face Richland next week.
