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The Defense Rests
BY JUSTIN THOMAS, JThomas@acnpapers.com
In a game that featured more than 100 points, it’s hard to focus on one play, especially one that didn’t result in a score.
But in Friday’s District 8-5A shootout between Lewisville and Plano West at Clark Stadium, one play — and one call in particular — stands out.
Trailing 55-49 with 5:52 remaining, West’s defense finally got the three-and-out stop it had been looking for all night. The Wolves were about to receive the ball, most likely with solid field position, as the Farmers were punting out of their own end zone with the ball on their own 5-yard line.
West would never see the ball again following Lewisville’s second fake punt conversion of the night, as the Farmers closed the game with a 17-play drive ending with Grimes taking a knee deep in West territory and time expiring for a 55-49 Lewisville victory.
“If they rushed it and blocked it we’re in trouble,” said Dick Olin, Lewisville coach, of his gutsy call. “And we had just missed an extra point and we didn’t want that to come back and be a factor in whether we won or lost. We’ve worked on that play and we watched on tape that their corners turn their backs and take off and run on a punt. We sprinted to it and their corner kind of sank and came down a little and DeAndre just threw it over him. We were gonna do it, it didn’t matter where we were at.”
“We work on (covering against a fake) in practice and it looked like to me they just executed,” said Mike Hughes, West coach. “He just threw it right over our guy and made the completion. It didn’t catch us by surprise; they just executed it.”
It was a key play for Lewisville on a night when its special teams weren’t so special.
While the Farmers converted two fake punts, they also had a bad snap on a punt early in the first quarter setting up West with a short field — which the Wolves took advantage of for a 7-0 lead — as well as a missed extra point, and allowed a 95-yard kickoff return for a touchdown by West’s Carlos Wiggins.
But while the Wolves had the upper hand in special teams, they didn’t win the turnover battle.
Three times West fumbled inside Lewisville’s 10-yard line. The latter, which occurred because of a poor exchange between the running back and quarterback, was returned 94 yards by Lewisville’s Dorian Luster to give the Farmers their first lead of the game at 42-35.
The first fumble gave Lewisville the ball at the 1-yard line when West was driving with a 14-7 lead and the Farmers carried the momentum to a 99-yard scoring drive to knot the game, 14-14.
In the final minute of the second quarter, with the game knotted, 21-21, West squandered a chance to take the lead and momentum into halftime fumbling at the 1-yard line.
“Obviously those are plays that stand out,” Hughes said, “but we didn’t play defense as well tonight as we have been playing. Give Lewisville credit, they did a good job tonight.”
Statistically, the game couldn’t have been closer until Lewisville’s final 17-play, 89-yard drive.
The Farmers finished the game with 652 yards while the Wolves racked up 561.
Lewisville had 34 first downs (five on the final drive) with West posting 24.
The Farmer offense was led by their do-everything quarterback.
Grimes completed 32-of-39 passes for 344 yards and three touchdowns to go with 30 rushes for 134 yards and two scores. The junior missed on his first two attempts of the night but quickly found his rhythm, completing his next 21 passes between the first and third quarters.
“DeAndre was extremely efficient,” Olin said. “He’s learned and knows the offense. We had a great gameplan and he executed it.”
Recieiver Josh Turner got in the act as well, completing a 73-yard pass off a reverse to receiver Carl Lee that set up a Farmer score. Turner added eight catches for 136 yards and a touchdown while Lee finished with eight grabs and 138 yards. Brandon Udechukwu added eight catches for Lewisville.
West quarterback Carson Smith got it done on both the ground and through the air as well, completing 9-of-16 passes for 211 yards and a score with 17 carries for 128 yards. Ryan Doyle led the Wolves’ receivers with six catches for 115 yards and a touchdown.
West raced out to a 14-0 lead, the largest lead for either team on the night, following a 26-yard touchdown run by Jarret Horan. Horan finished with 261 total yards, including 207 rushing with three touchdowns.
But Lewisville responded to tie the game, 14-14, before the teams traded scores — and lots of them — for virtually the rest of the game.
“We just told the guys to keep going,” Olin said. “Keep playing. Stay together, play hard and good things will happen.”
West had touchdown drives of three plays, three plays, four plays, two plays, six plays and six plays to go with the kickoff return touchdown.
Lewisville’s, meanwhile, had scoring drives of nine plays, 11 plays, three plays, six plays, 12 plays, nine plays and seven plays.
“We couldn’t stop them, they couldn’t stop us,” Hughes said. “It was going to come down to whoever had the ball last. Plus we fumbled the ball inside the five twice. You can’t do that in this district. You have to take care of the ball and we had a few and I don’t think they had any. We had been forcing turnovers but we didn’t get them tonight.”
West looks to bounce back at 7:30 p.m. Friday when it faces Plano East at Clark.
“You have to handle adversity and this loss,” Hughes said. “We’ve shown we can handle a couple wins. It hurts tonight but we have to go in and watch video tomorrow and get better. We have to eliminate mistakes and go back to playing good defense.”
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