Azle survives second-half rally to spoil Northwest’s night and capture district title
The Azle Hornets knew what they had to do Friday night at Northwest ISD Stadium.
Win and you clinch a share of the District 3-5A Division 1 title.
Running back Mason Wyble rushed for 177 yards and a pair of touchdowns, and Azle withstood a second-half rally to spoil Justin Northwest’s senior night, 39-36 in the regular season finale.
Northwest (7-3, 6-1) missed a 47-yard field goal as time expired. The Texans, Azle and Brewer (win over Fort Worth Arlington Heights) share the district championship.
However, Northwest owns the tiebreaker via points and enters next week’s playoffs as the No. 1 seed out of this district and will host Burleson Centennial. Brewer is second and will host Midlothian.
Azle (8-2, 6-1) needed to win by 18 points for a shot at the top seed.
Instead, the Hornets finish third and will travel to Mansfield to take on Summit.
But the margin of victory doesn’t take away Azle’s triumphant win. The Hornets only led 17-14 at intermission on touchdowns from Wyble and Bernock Iya, but less than five minutes into the third quarter, the lead increased to 25.
It took just 50 seconds for the Hornets to score on a 30-yard run from Wyble. Chris Lee hit Wyble in the back of the end zone on the 2-point try and Azle led 25-14 early in the third quarter.
Iya picked off his second Northwest pass of the game on the ensuing drive and returned it 34 yards to the Northwest 1. Lee found the end zone on the next play to make it 32-14 with 10:20 left in the third.
Azle scored on a third straight possession on Lee’s 20-yard touchdown to Gavin Green as the Hornets were rolling, 39-14 at the 7:10 mark of the period.
But Northwest wasn’t out. The Texans were looking for an outright championship.
Kyle Cummings scored two touchdowns for Northwest, one late in the third quarter and one midway through the fourth to pull the Texans within 39-28. Jackson Steormann intercepted an Azle pass to help set up Cummings second score.
Northwest then recovered the ensuing onside attempt and scored two plays later. First, Jake Strong threw a 34-yard pass to Kenan Reil to the 2 and Ricardo Dyer punched it in.
Strong hit Shannon Danicki for two and the lead was 39-36 with under six minutes to play.
Azle got down inside the Northwest 30, but couldn’t convert on a fourth-and-long to give the ball back to Northwest. The Texans drove to the Azle 30 before the missed field goal.
Lee threw for 174 yards and two touchdowns for the Hornets. Tyler Landon, Tyler Akers and Green combined for 11 catches, 159 yards and one score.
Cummings led Northwest with 33 carries for 180 yards and two touchdowns. Strong threw for 169 yards and two scores, including one to Reil that gave the Texans a 7-3 lead. Joseph Rivas had seven grabs for 71 yards and a touchdown just before halftime.
This story was originally published November 5, 2021 at 10:17 PM.
