All Saints downs Fort Worth Christian for a second time to reach the TAPPS Division II title game
The Fort Worth All Saints football team is on a roll.
The Saints lost three of four games mid season, but since then All Saints has gotten healthy and players back that had missed games.
The Saints continued that roll against district foe Fort Worth Christian on Friday afternoon using a strong defensive effort to subdue the Cardinals 35-8 in a TAPPS Division II state semifinal at the Birdville Fine Arts/Athletics Complex
All Saints (7-5) will play for the Division II state title at noon next Friday at Waco ISD Stadium against the winner of the Sugar Land Fort Bend Christian (8-4)-Houston Second Baptist (8-4) game that is scheduled for Saturday.
“We have hit our stride,” said All Saints coach Aaron Beck. “We had some adversity early on. We had somebody we couldn’t play early and we had injuries during the regular season, but we timed it right for the playoffs.
“I’m very proud of our kids and our coaches. The last four weeks we’ve just gotten into a groove, getting a little bit better every week.”
“Once we started clicking it really started rolling,” said linebacker and team captain Cavin Chumley. “This week we still have to stay focused up because we still have a game to win, but we’ve figured out how we work together on not only defense but on offense as well.”
All Saints started quickly and seemed to be in control of the game from the start.
Following a short, 3-yard punt on the first series for Fort Worth Christian (8-4), the Saints took two plays to cover the 31 yards needed. A running play lost a yard, then Jaylen Spriggs hit a wide open Jayvont Williams on a deep flag pattern to give the Saints a 7-0 lead with 9:30 left in the first quarter.
The first of three first-half interceptions by All Saints set up the Saints second score. D.J. Johnson’s pick at the Saints’ 40 was returned to the 44. The Saints scored on the 10th play of the ensuing drive when Chumley lined up in the Wildcat and darted in from 2 yards out to up the lead to 14-0 with 4:00 left in the opening frame.
If there was one glaring down side for the Saints it came on center snaps. It only happened four times, but All Saints lost 54 yards on three of them. A high snap lost 20 yards and the Saints were forced to punt from their own one yard line.
The Saints then gifted Fort Worth Christian a safety when a punt snap sailed high and over the punters head to cut the lead to 14-2 with 2 seconds left in the first quarter.
After the free kick, Griffin Rader picked off the Cardinals again. The ball went of the hands of a FWC receiver, was tipped in the air by Williams, who doubles at defensive back, then hauled in by Rader who returned it to the Saints’ 48.
All Saints capitalized when Williams, on a reverse, tossed a 41-yard strike to Thomas Wright to up the lead to 21-2 with 9:27 left before the intermission.
Fort Worth Christian finally put together one of its few sustained drives against the Saints’ stingy defense. Jordan Green made a nice catch, in traffic, from Hogan Nelson from 11 yards out. The play cut the lead to 21-8, after a two-point conversion pass failed, with 2:44 left before halftime.
Nelson faced a ferocious rush from the All Saints front and linebackers and was never able to get into a rhythm on offense. The Saints also stymied the run allowing 40 rushing yards on 27 carries by the Cardinals.
“We schemed really well and had a great week of practice,” said defensive end and Princeton commit Robert Sanders. “We executed our schemes that our coaches put in place and had a really great game.
“We knew inside that we were better that what we were showing. We have the talent with 10 division one players and we’ve finally put it all together making plays and executing and it’s awesome to see. I’ve been thinking about going to state since my freshman year.”
Spriggs scored on a 5-yard run and tossed a 15-yard scoring pass to Chris Palfreeman, a Texas Tech commit, on a nice crossing route to put the game out of reach with 1:38 left in the third quarter.
“It’s hard to beat a team twice, but we came in and were focused all week in practice and came out and executed,” said Spriggs, who completed 9 of 15 passes for 139 yards and rushed 7 times for 35 more. “Every time I would come to the sideline coach would tell me to keep everybody composed so I did that the whole game and we came out on top.”
One of the three games All Saints lost during the four-game span was to Division II District 1 champion Argyle Liberty 31-0 in a district game on November 28. The Saints followed that with a 45-42 squeaker over FWC the next week.
The Saints defeated Liberty Christian 37-20 in last week’s regional round. This will be All Saints’ first title appearance since the Saints won back-to-back titles in the Southwestern Preparatory Conference in 2015 and 2016.
This story was originally published November 25, 2022 at 7:10 PM.