Arlington Seguin football comes up short, fails to hand Midlothian Heritage first loss

ARLINGTON — Joe Gordon’s young squad nearly pulled off the biggest win in years at Juan Seguin High School.

Arlington Seguin (5-4, 3-3 District 5-5A D2) was a tough matchup for Midlothian Heritage, the No. 3 ranked Class 5A D2 team. A second turnover in the end zone provided the opening the Jaguars needed to escape with a 21-14 win on Thursday at Wilemon Field to improve to 9-0 overall.

“We had two red zone turnovers and we lost the turnover battle,” Gordon said. “Some of the things that took place with that you see they have a team that has experience and senior leadership. We are still young team that doesn’t have that experience and leadership like a program like that does. Obviously, they’re undefeated but I felt we gave them all they wanted.”

Seguin took an early lead but then fell behind by two scores by halftime. The second half was a different story for the Cougars, who kept the Jaguars off the board and gave themselves a chance to get back in the game.

The Jaguars got the ball first but were forced to punt. The Cougars used big plays from Malachi Meche and Chase Ramirez on the ground to get first downs. Meche got the ball down to the 11-yard line, but on the next play Stetson Sarratt intercepted a jump-ball play in the end zone to halt the Seguin drive.

Heritage fumbled on the next drive and Lacorian Hodge picked it up and ran it back to the Heritage 16-yard line, setting up a short field.

Seguin lost yards on the first two plays of the drive, and, on 3rd-and-goal from the 19-yard line, Sirawn Evans hit Carterrious Brown for a touchdown with 10:21 to play in the game. The three-star recruit with six offers had four catches for 45 yards in the contest.

The Cougars defense then forced another punt by halting the Jaguars’ rushing attack.

“They did a great job defensively,” Heritage coach Eric Edwards said. “They stopped the run game and it’s hard to get anything else going when you stop the run.”

Gordon noted it was key for the Cougars to adjust to the rushing attack, which led to containing running back Kadyn O’Neal — two first half touchdowns — and quarterback Carter Rutenbar, who had the other first-half score.

“I think if you’re gonna be a football team in Texas to be worth your salt, you are going to have to make second-half adjustments,” Gordon said. “We had problems with the QB pulling out of the zone and scampering down the field a few times. We got that fixed at the front and adjusted coverage and that is why they didn’t score.”

The Cougars got the ball back with 9:08 left and used a long, methodical drive that started at the 12-yard line. Brown had a 12-yard catch for a first down, while Meche had a 27-yard run to get down to the 10-yard line. With 4:24 left, the Cougars threw a second interception in the end zone.

This one was caught by Ryan Satterwhite, who came down with the ball as he and Brown fought for it. The Jaguars were able to get two first downs from there and ran out the clock for the win.

The game started with an 88-yard kickoff return by Seguin’s Cam Cole, who needed only 12 seconds to get on the board.

From there, O’Neal had a 20-yard score and a 7-yard score to give the Jaguars the lead. Rutenbar, an Arkansas baseball pledge, had a 3-yard run with 26 seconds left in the first half to make it 21-7 at the break.

Arlington Seguin will face Burleson Friday to close the regular season.

This story was originally published October 27, 2023 at 12:42 AM.