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| LONGVIEW - It was everything a district shootout should be. Exciting offense, crucial defensive plays, costly penalties, drained emotions...and when it came down to the deciding factor, strength proved the difference. Longview's strength.
Employing a gutsy stop-me-if-you-can fourth-down play late in the game, the run-oriented Lobos went to the pass and made it work to perfection. No, Pine Tree couldn't stop it and a 28-yard strike from Eric Harris to Charles Smith put the game out of reach. Longview's execution in critical situations enabled it to post a hard-earned 27-16 triumph over Pine Tree here Friday night and lay sole claim to the District 13-AAAAA crown, halting the Pirates' six-week Cinderella march. Both teams, however, are bound for the state playoffs. Longview is 9-1 and will take a nine game winning streak and its first loop title in three years to Waco next Saturday night to face Killeen Ellison, a 31-15 winner over Bryan in a 14-AAAAA second-place encounter, at Baylor Stadium in Waco. Pine Tree, 7-3 and making its first Class AAAAA postseason appearance, will face fifth-ranked Temple, the 14-AAAAA champ, at TCU's Amon Carter Stadium, also next Saturday night. Back to Longview's version of the Super Bowl. Facing a fourth-and-10 at the Pine Tree 28, head coach Doug Cox probably went against the grain with his call, but who can argue with success. Holding a slim 20-16 lead, a field goal may had been the safe call, but the pass play left the Pirates holding the short end of the stick with only 2:02 remaining. Harris, a transfer from Hallsville, streaked down the right sideline and cut inside where a picture-perfect pass from Harris awaited him. It was a race to the goal. Harris won. His second straight scoring reception put the game away. The win is the Lobos' sixth in the short seven-year series and avenged the Bucs' 22-20 win a year ago. Although the pass play accounted for the margin of victory, Longview utilized its patented ball-control offense to eat up 5:19 of the clock and move from its own 22, for Smith's final tally. Nine consecutive running plays put the ball at the Pine Tree 23, but the Lobos faced a fourth-and-five. Cox called a pass - Harris to tight end Marlin Myers - which was converted, but a five-yard motion penalty moved the ball back five yards. Still, Cox stuck with the pass. Enough said. The game was dotted with stars. The celebrated running backs did everything they were supposed to. Pine Tree's Rodney Jones rushed for 120 yards, scoring a touchdown, returned a kickoff 73 yards and hurled a 40-yard scoring strike to split end Jimmy McMullen to narrow the margin to 20-16 midway through the final period. Joe Johnson, Jones' counterpart for the Lobos, picked up 113 yards and scored once. Harris was six-of-eight for 105 yards, his third straight 100-yard passing game. Defensively, Pine Tree linebacker Kelvin Lee and Joe Dent each recorded eight solo tackles and registered key tackles for losses in the comeback try. Smith was a defensive standout too. A 52-yard interception return turned away a Pine Tree bid and set up his 10-yard scoring reception early in the fourth stanza. Pine Tree missed a golden opportunity near the close of the first half when Rodney Jones bobbled a Jeff Hays pitch and Leon Hendrix thwarted the bid at his own nine-yard line with the fumble recovery. There war sonly 33 seconds left and Pine Tree had to settle for a 10-7 halftime lead. The Longview strength began to show in the second half. Four consecutive possessions resulted in scores. A Hendrix interception led to an 11-play march and a subsequent 42-yard game-tying field goal by Steve Blaschke with 4:41 left in the third quarter. Then Smith - again - recovered a Kenny Jones fumble at the Pirates' 33 just two plays later and Blaschke capped a six-play move with a 31-yard three pointer and Longview's first lead, 13-10, since the opening period. Rodney Jones returned the ensuing kickoff 73 yards, but three plays later, Smith turned the game around with his 52-yard return, which set up a seven-play drive and a 20-10 lead with 9:51 left. Jones has 1,123 and Johnson has 1,055 going into playoff action. |