Arlington Heights loses a heart breaker in the final minute to Canutillo in the area round

Since 1990 the Fort Worth Arlington Heights football team has played in the area round five times, the last in 2014, but hasn’t advanced past that.

On Friday night at a frigid Ratliff Stadium, the Yellow Jackets had a chance to do just that.

Heights battled against Canutillo until the end, but the Eagles scored with 22 seconds left in the game to walk away with a 21-14 win over the Jackets in a Class 5A Division 2 playoff.

“10-and-2 is a phenomenal season coming from a 2-and-8,” said Arlington Heights coach Phil Young after giving players, parents, cheerleaders and anyone else that came up to him hugs of condolence. “I’m so proud of these boys. They thing they did I asked them to do and it’s exactly what they did.

“They fought, loved each other, believed, and gave us their best effort every single night, including tonight. They never turned on each other and I just couldn’t be prouder.

“It’s so much fun to coach these guys with this staff...so much fun. It’s just a blessing from God to be able to coach this team this year and win games doing it.”

Canutillo (10-2) instead will advance to the regional round and play either Heights’ district foe Colleyville Heritage (8-3), who AH defeated 41-31 on October 14, or face Abilene Wylie (8-3) next week at a site and date to be determined.

After a scoreless third quarter, Arlington Heights (10-2) tied the game at 14 at the 10:34 mark of the final period on the back of star running back Brian Furch. A 37-yard scamper by Furch from the Canutillo 48 to the 11 started the drive. Then runs of 1 and 4 yards set up a 6-yard TD run by the senior.

From that point the teams traded six punts. The Eagles however, punting with the wind, were able to pin Heights at the 7 then the 28 and finally the 9 yard line.

When the Yellow Jackets punted for the last time, into the wind from the 3 yard line, the ball wound up at the Heights 19 with 2:38 left. After five rushing attempts by Canutillo’s star running back L.J. Martin moved the ball to the 3, quarterback Jeremiah Knox carried it in from there for the final margin with 22 ticks left.

“Being playoff football that’s what you do,” said Young. “I’ve been in enough playoff games, I’ve probably coach in 35 playoff games, to know that everybody is as good as everybody.

“Teams get stops. They got stops, we got stops, you punt and wait for the momentum for a minute and you get it. You can’t really blame it on a punt, we should have moved the ball out of there, but our defense overall played great.”

The game was billed as a duel between the star running backs for each team in Furch for Arlington Heights and Martin for Canutillo, but, in fact, the teams turned out to be mirror images of each other.

Both teams, of course, possess strong running backs. Furch finished with 169 yards on 26 carries and Martin had 131 yards on 23 totes. Both teams have solid quarterbacks and both have formidable, swarming defenses.

“They’re the real deal and we’re the real deal,” said Young when asked about the comparison between the two squads. “I call both of our teams well coached, over achievers and underdogs. That’s us.

“I told our guys that we’re kind of looking in the mirror a little bit. They’re coming out from where they are and no one respects them too much. We’re coming out from where we are and nobody really respects us too much.

“We’re underdogs that have over achieved and played our butts off all year and that’s who we were playing against tonight. They’re the same kind of team we were and it came down to the last 20 seconds.”

The teams were only separated by 8 yards total on offense. Canutillo picked up 143 on the ground and 153 through the air for 296 total. Arlington Heights had 199 yards rushing and threw for 105 for a total of 304.

The teams traded possessions until late in the first quarter when Martin ripped off a 30-yard run to start a Canutillo drive. Two plays later quarterback Jeremiah Knox tossed a ball in the left flat to Rene Huerta who out raced the Yellow Jackets’ defense to the end zone for a 34-yard score.

The point after attempt was partially blocked by AH’s Keith Guidry and the Eagles led 6-0 with 2:19 left in the first.

Arlington Heights answered on its next series driving 82 yards in 11 plays. The Jackets got a spark from running back Brandin Monroe who picked up back to back first downs on two 10-yard runs.

Heights quarterback Eric Orozco capped the drive with a perfect pass from 30 yards out to Anthony Lara who made an equally good catch in the back, left corner of the end zone to give the Yellow Jackets a 7-6 lead with 9:45 left in the first half.

That lead lasted only 48 seconds, however. Martin took a pitch on a sweep then tosses a halfback pass to a wide open Huerta for a 66-yard TD. Knox ran in the two-point conversion and the Eagles took a 14-7 lead into the intermission.

“It hurts for the boys because I know how hard it stings right now and it stings like crazy,” said Young. “You’ll never forget it. But what’s covered up right now is the great time that they had and the great season.

“They had a playoff run, they won 10 games, they put Heights football on the map and just set the standard high. That stuff will slowly creep back in and push the sting out.”