Dawgs Win Back-and-Forth Affair over Tigers

Crockett Defeats Trinity, 30-22

By Will Johnson
Messenger Reporter

CROCKETT – The Crockett Bulldogs and Trinity Tigers kicked off their seasons on Saturday afternoon at Monte Jack Driskell Stadium with a back-and-forth contest that wasn’t decided until the final 90 seconds.

The game was originally scheduled for Friday night in Trinity but because of the field conditions cretaed by Hurricane Harvey, the game was moved to Saturday in Crockett.

Trinity won the opening coin flip but elected to defer until the second half. The Dawgs took possession at their 32 and kept the ball on the ground using a trio of backs. Derrick Sherman, AJ Owens and Victor Simon all ripped off big chunks of yardage as Crockett moved into the Tigers’ red zone.

Following a 22 yard run by Simon, Sherman picked up five yards down to the six. A two yard loss by Simon pushed the ball back to the eight and from there Sherman did the rest as he broke the plane of the goal with a spectacular run. Sherman connected with Malik Johnson on the try for two and with 8:01 remaining in the quarter, the Dawgs led 8-0.

The remainder of the first quarter saw the two teams exchange possessions as neither offense could crack the opponent’s defense. The Tigers finally managed to break into the scoring column at the 7:53 mark of the second quarter when Trinity QB Grisham Vaught found Brayden Greer over the middle for a 26 yard TD pass. The try for two was no good but Trinity now only trailed 8-6.

After the kickoff, a turnover by the Dawgs led to more points for the Tigers. A fumble after a reception by Tyress Anderson was snatched out of the air and put Trinity in business at the Crockett 43. Two plays later, Vaught connected with Dejuan Hall on a 41 yard scoring strike. Vaught and Hall connected again on the try for two and with 4:06 remaining in the half, Trinity now led 14-8.

The Dawgs and Tigers traded possession before Crockett got the ball back with under two minutes left in the half. A pair of incompletions from AJ Owens were followed by runs of 24 and 17 yards, to move the ball just outside the Trinity 20 yard line.

With 28 seconds left in the quarter, Owens saw Allen Horace had a step on his defender and lofted a pass towards the back of the end zone that Horace was able to haul in for a TD and after Owens connected with Cristian Brice for two, the Dawgs had retaken the lead, 16-14.

Following halftime, the Tigers regained the lead on a four yard TD run from Treyvaun Crawford and a two point conversion from Vaught to Gio Garcia.

The lead didn’t last long as the Dawgs scored the next time they had the ball. On first down Keyshaun Decorian picked up a yard and then Sherman added another five. On third down, Sherman found Owens had gotten behind the Trinity defense and Owens was able to snag a 68-yard TD. Sherman converted the two point conversion and the Bulldogs were back in the lead with seven minutes left in the third quarter.

The Crockett defense held the Tigers in check the rest of the way and a late third quarter Sherman to Owens scoring strike made the final score 30-22.

After the game, Crockett AD/Head Coach Jimmy Thompson discussed his team’s performance. “I thought we played like I thought we would. We had a lot of kids out here who had never played varsity. We made a ton of mistakes, but we made them going full speed. We kept fighting the whole game,” he said.

“Our team ran out of gas in the first half but it looked like they got their second wind after halftime and played really, really hard,” Thompson said.

Will Johnson may be contacted via e-mail at [email protected].