Fort Worth Western Hills finishes regular season third in district after win over Dunbar

Coming into the final week of District 6-4A D1 play, the four playoff spots were already locked up.

Fort Worth Western Hills (6-4, 5-2) and Fort Worth Dunbar (6-4, 4-3) came into Friday night’s game at Clark Stadium battling for a third-place finish and a better playoff seed.

Western Hills took home the third-place ranking with is 26-20 win over Dunbar.

“This win gives us a 6-4 record, the best record we’ve had in a long time,” Western Hills head coach Blake Moilan said. “Our kids came out and played hard.”

The Cougars will get a chance to play again next week as they face Waco La Vega in the first round of the playoffs in Joshua. As the fourth-place team, Dunbar will take on Stephenville next week.

“It was a hard-fought game,” Dunbar head coach Todd Lawson said. “Blake had Western Hills well prepared to play and we had some opportunity to win the game and we just didn’t take advantage of the plays.”

Western Hills came out strong scoring 14 points in the first quarter and holding Dunbar scoreless.

The first big play of the night for the Cougars was a 35-yard pass from Keyon Butler to Johnavon Polk with 9:55 left in the opening quarter. Western Hills kept the momentum going when it recovered an onside kick to give the Cougars offense the ball.

After forcing another turnover on the Dunbar 1-yard line, Tyreke Lewis rushed it in to put the Cougars up 14-0 with 8:31 left in the period.

Dunbar’s Murry Moore scored with 4:40 left in the second to make it 14-6 going into intermission.

Dunbar started off the second half with a big play on defense to force a safety and made the score 14-8 with 11:50 in the third. The Wildcats had the ball again with 6:05 left as Jerod Braziel rushed in a score to make it 14-14.

The Cougars responded right back with a 78-yard touchdown pass to Polk with 5:39 left in the third to make it 20-14. With 11:49 in the fourth, Butler hurdled a Dunbar defender and rushed it in on a 7-yard carry to make it 26-14.

After a series of power runs by Dunbar, Braziel scored on a 4-yard carry to make the score 26-20 with 7:59 left in the fourth for the final score of the night.