Thursday, April 25, 2024
It took an incredible play to put the Mineral Wells football squad in position for a comeback win over Gatesville on Friday night.
It took an even better play to stop that from becoming a reality.
Gatesville’s Kason Herbelin and Sean Aguilar combined to stop Payton Light’s two-point conversion effort at the goal-line with 20 seconds left in the game, securing a thrilling 30-29 Hornet win in Mineral Wells.
Gatesville controlled much of the game, leading 30-13 at the half and 30-16 after three quarters but the Rams took possession of the ball down 30-23 with 6:23 left in the game. They drove into the Hornet red zone where quarterback Mason Facteau found Preztynn Harrison on a 16-yard touchdown pass with 25 seconds left to cut the lead to 30-29.
Harrison, who stands 6 feet, 5 inches tall, was blanketed by the smaller Herbelin, who simply fell victim to a great play by a larger player.
“The kid made an amazing play and I’m not going to take that away from him,” Herbelin said, “But he’s 6-5, 210 he should be making those kinds of plays.”
Down by a point, the run-heavy Rams opted to go for the win with a two-point conversion and sent in their “heavy set” — with no wide receivers, a pair of tight ends, and fullback Kayden Montalvo. That seemed to indicate they would try to run through the middle of the Hornet defense. Instead, Facteau faked a handoff to Montalvo up the middle and handed to Light, who was moving left on the snap.
Light appeared to have a clear path to a game-winning score when he was met inside the one-yard line by Herbelin. Reinforcements arrived in the form of Aguilar and Light, and the Rams were denied.
“I saw everyone else go full flow away and I knew there was no possible way I could take the tackle over there, so I stayed home and sure enough the kid started running right to me, I was in the right place at the right time,” Herbelin said. “As soon as he started running my way, I knew that I had to stay on his back side hip because he wasn’t going to outrun me and that the only way he was scoring was the cut back. I closed the gap and made the stop just like we practice all the time.
“During the play, I’m not going lie, I was nervous because I’m not the best tackler, but I just did what I’m coached to do every day and sure enough it worked out and everyone went crazy.”
GHS ead coach Aaron Hunter lauded the attempt from the Mineral Wells staff.
“That was a heck of play call. You tell your guys to stay home, trust your keys, and stop what you see,” he said.
According to Herbelin, the Hornet defenders were ready for anything that came their way.
“They were telling us something tricky was going to happen and to be ready. Lawson (Mooney) even looked at me right before the play and told me it was coming to the weak side,” he said. “If you watch the film, I bolted toward the sideline, so I didn’t get a celebratory plenty because everyone was going crazy.”
Mineral Wells had one final shot at a miracle, but the Rams’ onside kick attempt was smothered by Mooney. A few seconds later, Jacob Newkirk took a knee and wrapped up the Hornets fifth win in six tries this season.
At the half, a nail-biter finish seemed unlikely as the Hornet offense continued its recent torrid streak en route to a 17-point halftime lead.
In the first quarter, the Hornets got a four-yard scoring run from Rayshon Smith, and a 16-yard pitch and catch from Newkirk to Tyler Shea. In the second quarter, a 32-yard strike from Newkirk to Trevor Smith pushed the GHS lead to 20-13. Smith later added his second touchdown, this time an eight-yard run to make it 27-13. Javier Bonilla knocked home a 20-yard field goal to make it 30-13 just before the half.
“I loved how we came out. Offensively, we were firing on all cylinders,” Hunter said.
But the Hornets could not maintain the offensive momentum in the second half as they went scoreless over the final two quarters. It ended a streak dating back to the Mexia game in which the Hornets had scored 129 points over 10 quarters.
The scoreless half was a product of uncharacteristic mistakes and limited opportunity. Mineral Wells’ offense kept the Hornets off the field in the second half, limiting them to just three possessions — which ended in a turnover, a punt, and a turnover on downs.
Over both halves of play, Hornet wide receiver Trevor Smith was a problem with no answer for Mineral Wells. The senior had 12 catches for 109 yards, setting a career-high in receptions and missing out on tying his career-high in yards by one. He had 110 yard receiving in the Hornets’ lone loss, to Glen Rose.
Hunter attributed Smith’s production to continually evolving chemistry with Newkirk as well as Smith’s practice habits.
“He is probably our best practice guy. He runs routes in practice like it’s a game. He does not take a single route off,” Hunter said, “Trevor earns his Friday nights by how he practices.”
Newkirk completed 15 of 27 passes on the night — 12 to Smith — for 162 yards and two touchdowns. In addition to the scoring strike to Shea, he also hit Adrian Smith once, and found Kyle Shafer for a 32-yard catch that Shafer reached up and snagged over the out-stretched arms of two defenders.
Rayshon Smith ran for 88 yards on 12 carries and two scores, while Adrian Smith had a pair of rushes for 21 yards.
Defensively, the Hornets had six players with double digits in tackles in the game. Lawson Mooney led with 20 and he also forced one fumble and recovered another. He was followed by Ashtyn Culley and Mason Mooney, who had 16 tackles each, Thiele Alvarado (15), Aguilar (13), and Ayden Necessary (10).
