Photo: Brian McLean
BY BRIAN GOSSET
ARLINGTON – Grandview had an incredible playoff run to the state championship at AT&T Stadium on Friday. Three of the Zebras’ five postseason wins came by 1, 3 and 7 points – beating Peaster 21-18 in the semis to clinch a champ game berth for the first time in six years.
But they had to run into Yoakum’s speedy and dynamic running back duo of Jace Morales and X’Zavier Barnett, who combined for 390 yards on the ground as Grandview fell short 45-29 in the Class 3A D1 title game.
Grandview ends the season with a 13-3 record.
The Zebras’ other two appearances came when they won titles in 2018 and 2019.
Grandview’s power athlete Bleu Hubbard finished with 71 yards rushing, 76 yards receiving, one touchdown, eight total tackles, one tackle for a loss, one sack and two recovered fumbles. Elijah Dominguez rushed for 83 yards, caught two passes for 40 yards and made a team-high 11 tackles.
Brady Slinkard caught three TD passes to tie a 3A champ game record with three other players, the most recent coming 11 years ago.
“Obviously, I didn’t like the way it ended,” head coach Ryan Ebner said. “They have a heck of a club. They have a lot of great players and they’ve been tough to stop all year long.”
Barnett tied a 3A champ game record with five touchdown runs. He signed his letter of intent with SMU earlier this month.
Morales opened the game with back-to-back runs of 40 and 27 yards to get the Bulldogs to the Grandview 8. Then Barnett rushed to the 1 before a false start and loss of 3 set Yoakum back. The Bulldogs settled for a field goal and 3-0 lead.
Yoakum then capped a 7-play 81-yard drive with a 44-yard TD run by Barnett to go up 10-0 with three minutes left in the opening period. Morales added a 38-yard scoring run for a 17-0 lead just under eight minutes in the second.
After a three-and-out by Grandview, Yoakum went right back to work as Barnett scored again – from 59 yards as the lead grew to 24-0.
The Zebras got on the board on the ensuing drive – which lasted 14 plays, 75 yards and 4 1/2 minutes. Hubbard opened the drive with four straight runs to get to the 50. Later in the drive, QB Mason Landers rushed up the middle for 22 yards to the Yoakum 14. Three more runs by Hubbard was capped with his 1-yard TD run to cut the lead to 24-7 with 25 seconds on the clock.
Two more TDs from Barnett and Yoakum had its biggest lead at 38-7.
Then Grandview battled back.
Hubbard picked up 29 yards on a catch from Landers to the Yoakum 41 and then the two hooked up again for 22 more yards to the 5. Two plays later, Landers threw a touchdown pass to Slinkard to cut the deficit to 38-15 with 31 seconds to go in the third quarter. Yoakum muffed the ensuing kickoff and Grandview recovered.
The Zebras pulled within 17 when Slinkard caught a 5-yard TD.
However, the Bulldogs got Barnett’s fifth TD run and led 45-21 with 1:56 in the fourth. Yoakum ran 11 plays for 45 yards and ate up nearly seven minutes.
Grandview got one more TD in with Slinkard’s third at the 19-second mark. Landers was 19 of 25 for 192 yards and three touchdowns. Morales and Barnett rushed for 197 and 193 yards, respectively for the Bulldogs.
“For me and my group, it was about how hard we played to the very end,” Ebner said. “As a coach, that’s all you’re asking your guys to do – play hard and not look at the scoreboard. As upset as they could have got, they kept banging away and made it respectable. I’m proud of our effort throughout the game.”
