Arlington Martin special teams fuels Warriors past Grand Prairie for district lead
Arlington Martin took advantage of every Grand Prairie miscue and ran away from the Gophers 66-20 in a showdown for the District 8-6A title on Friday night at the Gopher-Warrior Bowl.
Martin (7-2 overall, 5-0 district), ranked No. 15 in Class 6A state rankings, can win the outright District 8-6A title next week with a win over Arlington Sam Houston. The Warriors will be the top seed out of 8-6A in the Division 1 bracket of the playoffs.
Grand Prairie (6-4, 5-1) has finished its regular season and will likely be the top seed from 8-6A in the Division 2 bracket, but could move up and be the runner up in D1 if Arlington and Arlington Lamar make the playoffs over South Grand Prairie.
Following its bye week, Martin was more than prepared for the Gophers and jumped on Grand Prairie from the start. The Warriors built a 21-0 lead on a 3-yard touchdown run from Tristan Bittle, a 5-yard scoring run from Javien Toviano and a 2-yard TD run from Sergio Snider.
Snider’s touchdown, with 8:29 left in the second quarter, was set up following an onside kick by Martin that was recovered by Cadynce Hall at midfield. The Warriors recovered three of four onside kick attempts in a game that Martin dominated on special teams.
“We practice our special teams night and day,” said Snider, who led Martin with 80 rushing yards on 12 carries, They showed us that they couldn’t cover it so we got the ball back. We had two weeks off and we knew that they were going to give us their best and we knew we had to give them our best.”
Grand Prairie pulled to within 24-14 just before halftime on a 1-yard scoring run by quarterback Savion Red and a Red-to-Adrian Wilson 69-yard touchdown pass.
Martin, however, blitzed the Gophers with 28 points in a 2:24 span of the third quarter to pull away. Chris Johnson started the spree picking up a fumble and returning it 48 yards to the GP 10. Bittle scored on a 4-yard run two plays later to make it 30-14 with 8:15 left in the third.
Two consecutive onside kicks were recovered by Martin’s Gage Wager and both set up quick Martin scores. The first on an 8-yard run by Snider and the second on a 30-yard pass from quarterback Cydd Ford to Trey Cochran.
The Warriors kicked deep after that, but Grand Prairie fumbled the kickoff and Johnson picked it up at the 13-yard line and took it to the house to put Martin up 52-14 at the 5:51 mark of the third period.
Martin coach Bob Wager said that he takes special teams very seriously and that the change to the fair catch rule on kickoffs has him looking for ways to put the ball in play. Short squib kicks and onside kick are just part of that search for ways to do that.
“We have a number of guys in our program that all they get to do as seniors is run down the field and cover a kickoff,” said Bob Wager. “And if they’re waving for a fair catch every time then how am I going to keep those guys in our program.”
The Martin defense, led by Stanford bound defensive lineman Ernest Cooper IV, did a good job of containing Red who is a threat every time he touches the ball. Red rushed 10 times for 63 yards and had 125 passing yards completing five of eight with a second TD pass to Wilson from 36 yards out late in the third quarter.
“It’s definitely a challenge when you’re going up against a dual threat quarterback,” said Cooper about Red. “I know initially that he was a wide receiver, but that still makes him a threat. It’s really just trying to contain him and box him in with the other 10 guys on the field.”
Snider blocked a punt for Martin with 46 seconds left in the game that was scooped up by Zavien Abercrombie and returned 14 yards to cap the scoring for the Warriors.
Ford was an efficient 12 of 16 for 144 yards passing while eight different rushers piled up 278 rushing yards for Martin on 37 carries.
“I think you think as a young person that you’re going to go through life and have moments like this all the time and the truth of the matter is that you don’t,” said Bob Wager. “I urged them to be mature enough to appreciate how special that is.
“Week 10, two undefeated teams in district with a chance to play in an awesome venue. I love the Gopher-Warrior Bowl, just love it and to play against a really good football team for the district championship, we’d better be ready to play.”
This story was originally published October 30, 2021 at 2:27 AM.