Keller Fossil Ridge wins wild shootout over Arlington High; QB Cundiff accounts for 5 TDs
With two of the Star-Telegram’s Top 100 players being from Keller Fossil Ridge and both on offense, one would think that the Panthers would capitalize on that.
Fossil Ridge did get their rushing yards from Landen Chambers (No. 11), but Panthers’ quarterback Logan Cundiff benefited the most.
Cundiff, unranked, accounted for five scores and was sharp as a tack, dissecting the Arlington High secondary in a wild, back-and-forth, 39-34 victory over the Colts in a non-district game on Thursday night at Keller ISD Stadium.
“It was just a great game,” said Cundiff, who was near perfect completing 12 of 13 passes for 221 yards and four touchdowns through the air while rushing 10 times for 110 yards and another score. “We had a good week of practice and we came out and executed and did our jobs.”
The running game of Fossil Ridge (2-1) allowed Cundiff to go over the top on both of the Panthers’ first two drives and take an early 14-0 lead.
Chambers, a BYU commit, and Cundiff ran the ball on seven out of eight plays leading up to Cundiff hitting a wide open Isaac Smith for a 54-yard score. Smith was 15 yards past any Colt defender when he made the catch.
Following an Arlington punt, Chambers ran off left tackle behind Tulane commit Lajuan Owens (No. 74) for 38 yards down to the Arlington 15.
Two plays later Cundiff scrambled from the pocket and found Cooper Leonard across the middle for a 20-yard score. After a Cundiff to Kayvon Evans two-point pass on the conversion, Fossil Ridge led 14-0 at the 2:20 mark of the first quarter.
Chambers rushed 11 times for 113 yards in the first half and finished the game with 197 yards on 21 carries behind Owens and offensive line mates Dominic Ederson, Riley Hicks, Senon Chapple, and Dreyton Nelson.
“Our run game opens up our passing game so it’s a big compliment to that,” said Fossil Ridge coach Derek Ramsey, whose team piled up 529 yards of total offense with 308 coming on the ground.. “Chambers is one of the toughest runners and you have to load the box on him or he’s going to wear you out.”
But Arlington (1-2) never quit and two Fossil Ridge fumbles gave the Colts life in the second quarter.
On Arlington’s ensuing drive after the Leonard TD, Fossil Ridge forced a punt, but the kick was muffed at the Ridge 35 where it was recovered by Ryan Ott for the Colts.
A 16-yard pass from quarterback Sam Semi to Carson Pierce gave Arlington a first-and-goal at the Ridge 5. Four plays later, on fourth down, running back Drelon Burton darted in from the 1 to cut the lead to 14-7 with 10:26 left in the half.
A big hit by Arlington’s Rowan Hamilton on Cundiff on the Panthers’ next series forced a fumble that was recovered by Jarvis Austin at the Arlington 34. Semi capitalized on the turnover when he found a wide open Tristen Garcia across the middle from 35 yards out to tie the score at 14 with 7:20 left before intermission.
The stadium lights went out twice during the game. The first time resulted in an 18-minute delay at the 2:53 mark of the second quarter with the score knotted at 14. Four plays after the game resumed, Cundiff hit Evans in the left flat and Evans juked his way around a defender for a 16-yard score to up the lead to 20-14 with 1:19 left in the second quarter.
The second outage during halftime lasted 23 minutes, but the Arlington band just kept marching with only the lights from cell phones from the crowd. The video board came back on so the Ridge band marched to the light of it right after.
The game went back and forth after the half with Arlington taking its first lead of the game on a 41-yard scoring pass from Semi to Garcia. The play gave the Colts a 21-20 with 7:10 left in the third. Following a short Ridge punt, Semi ran a perfect zone read and split two defenders on a 29-yard scoring run to make it 27-20.
But Cundiff and the Panthers roared back. Two plays after the Semi TD, Cundiff ran a perfect zone read of his own that resulted in a 78-yard TD to knot the score at 27.
After an interception by Ridge’s Kye’rele Payne on Arlington’s next drive, Cundiff hit Evans again for a 51-yard scoring pass to retake the lead, 33-27, with 11:50 left in the fourth quarter.
The Colts answered with a 12-play, 51-yard drive that culminated in Semi tossing a perfect deep fade to Isaiah Roberston from 21 yards out to give Arlington a 34-33 lead with 6:50 left in the game.
During the drive the game had to be delayed for about 15 minutes as Colts’ junior offensive lineman Nick Alvarez suffered a severe injury to his left leg and had to be taken off on a stretcher.
Chambers put Ridge on his back during the Panthers go-ahead drive carrying six times for 58 yards including the game-winning 7-yard score with 2:26 left.
“Fossil Ridge is a bunch of grown men on offense,” said Arlington coach Scott Peach. “I’m so impressed with their tailback, the offensive line and the quarterback, but I thought that we fought really, really well against them. We just can’t give up the three big plays.”
“Everybody went out and did their thing and we came out with the dub,” said Chambers. “Arlington never quit. They have a lot of heart, I’ll give them that.”
Arlington had one last chance, but lost the ball on downs near midfield when Ridge defensive back X’Zavion Branch broke up a pass play that would have been a first down for the Colts with 51 seconds remaining.
Semi finished with 194 passing yards completing 14 of 26, four to Garcia for 96 yards, and rushed 13 times for 65 yards. Barton led Arlington with 108 rushing yards on 21 carries. The Colts had 194 yards rushing and 194 yards through the air.
“It was a good, hard-fought game,” said Ramsey. “We know Arlington and they’re a good program. Peach does a really good job with them and even when we got them down they just kept on fighting and made a game of it.”
This story was originally published September 8, 2022 at 11:18 PM.