In yet another chaotic come-from-behind victory, the Rockdale Tigers defeated the Hyde Park Panthers 41-36, during a contest that was marred by rain and game delays at the Quarries Sports Complex in Austin.
“Weather only bothers you when it gets in your mind,” said Jeff Miller, head coach and athletic director for the Rockdale High School Tigers. “I just think Hyde Park was a good football team, and we didn’t give them enough credit for how good they were. They came out and took it to us, and could’ve easily won that game. Weather didn’t have anything to with that. It was just that we kind of got it handed to us.”
The Tigers were up 35-30 with a little over three minutes left on the game clock when the light drizzle turned into a steady shower. Moments later, official’s saw lightning strike in the distance and stopped the game.
After almost thirty minutes of strong rain and no lightning, momentum shifted in favor of Hyde Park.
First, the Panthers made a long play on fourth down to put them in scoring position. Quarterback Ben Ballard ended the drive with a one-yard touchdown run, but the two-point conversion failed, which put the Panthers ahead 36-35, with just over a minute left.
“We knew that there was three and a half minutes left in the game and that we were fixing to punt the ball to them. Hopefully, we didn’t motivate them,” Miller said. “Basically, what we did is go in there and change our punt protection, because they came close to blocking a couple.
“We made sure Doss Hasselbach, our deep snapper, was ready. He’s such a good snapper, but it’s different in the rain,” he said. “Offensively, Coach (Ethan) Noel came up with a play. We didn’t have a lot of luck, but we saw a weakness in their defense and we came up with it during the thirty minutes. We basically took advantage of the thirty minutes.”
The Tigers got the ball back, deep in Panther territory. After making their way up the field, junior wide receiver Ross Loth caught a nine-yard pass from sophomore quarterback Jace Robinson with five seconds left in the game. The Panthers blocked the extra point by senior Luis Iruegas.
Hyde Park’s seven backward lateral passes weren’t enough to get them on the scoreboard.
“I always try to be honest with my guys about what kind of team they’re going up against.” said Miller. “I apologized to our team, because I didn’t give them enough credit. (Hyde Park) is a really good football team.”
Although not as chaotic, the first half of the game was close. After two Tiger touchdowns in the first quarter, the Panthers took the lead in the second quarter with two touchdowns and a field goal, 14-10.
RHS went back up before the end of the second half, on an eight-yard run from Loth, putting the Tigers ahead 17-14 at halftime.
Rockdale added to their lead early in the third quarter after Loth threw a seven-yard touchdown pass to junior running back Kesean Raven.
The Panthers responded with 30-yard touchdown pass from Ballard to senior wide receiver Cullen Burns, making the score 28-24.
Cam’Ron Valdez answered with a 33-yard touchdown run and the Iruegas kick was good.
Ballard scored again on a 30-yard run a couple of minutes before officials delayed the game due to rain.
The Tigers are off for the rest of the week. They open their district schedule against the Manor New Tech Titans. See story on page one.
RHS 41, HPB 36
RHS HPB
23 First Downs 20 30-203 Rushing 35-145 16-29-4 Passing 10-22-1 226 Passing yards 214 429 Total yards 359 0-0 Fumbles 1-1 5-39 Punts 3-45 8-85 Penalities 3-35
Score by quarters
RHS 14 7 7 13 — 41 HPB 7 10 7 12 — 36
Scoring summary
First quarter
Rockdale-Ross Loth 44 pass from Jace Robinson (Luis Iruegas kick) Rockdale-Landon Towns 7 pass from Robinson (Iruegas kick) Hyde Park Baptist-John Nelson 17 run (Cole Sayre kick)
Second quarter
HPB-Sayre 27 FG HPB-Cullin Burns 1 run (Sayre kick) Rockdale-Loth 8 run (Iruegas kick)
Third quarter
Rockdale-Kesean Raven 7 pass from Robinson (Iruegas kick) HPB-Burns 30 pass from Ben Ballard (Sayre kick)
Fourth quarter Rockdale-Cam’Ron Valdez 33 run (Iruegas kick) HPB-Ballard 30 run (run failed) HPB-Ballard 2 run (run failed) Rockdale-Loth 4 pass from Robinson (run failed)
RHS individual leaders Rushing: Valdez 14-108; Loth 5-45; Robinson 4-39; Raven 3-19; Trevor Everedge 5-9. Passing: Robinson 9-13-0, 131 yards, 2 TD; Loth 2-6-0, 4 yards. Receiving: Storey 1-67; Raven 3-27; Quentin Hughes 4-27; Loth 2-14; Landon Towns 1-0.
10-3A-1 STANDINGS
Team Season District
W-L W-L Rockdale 3-1 0-0 Troy 3-1 0-0 Yoe 2-1 0-0 Jarrell 2-2 0-0 Lago Vista 1-3 0-0 Academy 1-3 0-0 New Tech 1-3 0-0
Last week: Jarrell 40, Rosebud-Lott 19; Giddings 22, C.H. Yoe 21; Troy 33, Hillsboro 14; Academy 46, Florence 7; Llano 38, Lago Vista 7; Bur-net 46, New Tech 0. This week: Yoe at Troy; Jarrell at Lago Vista; Academy at New Tech.
- Log in or Subscribe to post comments.