Trophy Club Byron Nelson overcomes slow start, thwarts Midland upset bid to advance

The Trophy Club Byron Nelson football team punched rival Southlake Carroll in the face a few weeks ago to stun the Dragons in a decisive win.

Midland High did much of the same to the Bobcats on Friday night at Astound Broadband Stadium. Nelson struggled early against the Bulldogs fast-paced option attack, but finally caught up to pull away 35-7 in a Class 6A Division 2 area-round game.

Nelson (12-0), No. 7 in the state in Class 6A and No. 1 in the final Star-Telegram 6A rankings, advances to the regional round and will face No. 19 Coppell (12-0) at 3:30 p.m. on Saturday, November 25, at Choctaw Stadium in Arlington.

Byron took the opening kick, but on the fourth play from scrimmage a Bobcat fumble was recovered by Adam Alvarado for the Bulldogs at the Midland 37 yard line.

The Bulldogs proceeded to drive the ball right down the throat of the Bobcats behind running back Elijah McCoy. Midland (9-3) ran 11 plays, all on the ground, to cover the 63 yards with McCoy darting in from a yard out to give the Bulldogs a 7-0 lead with 5:18 left in the first quarter.

“It’s like an old-style offense and there’s multiple pieces of it,” said Oklahoma State commit David Kabongo, who is listed as a safety, but is more of a Micah Parsons-type defender and lines up everywhere. “If you get sucked inside then there’s a pitch man outside so everybody has to stay disciplined and account for each person.

“We practiced against it all week against our junior varsity, but they couldn’t really replicate the speed that Midland has. That first drive they kind of hit us in the mouth, but we built up and bowed up and just played physical.”

Byron Nelson answered right away with a 12-play, 69-yard march of its own to tie the game at seven with 53 seconds left in the opening frame.

The Bobcats converted two fourth downs on the drive with the second one being a 30-yard touchdown run by quarterback Tom Von Grote, who faked a toss pitch then went off left tackle and raced down the sideline for the score.

Nelson finally started to catch up with the Midland option attack as the first half wore on and forced punts by the Bulldogs on their next five drives. The Bulldogs fumbled and lost the ball on downs on their last three possessions.

“Coach warned us all week about their speed and told us that they were going to hit quick,” said Bobcat defensive end Eze Osondu. “Our scout team tried to do the best that they could, but seeing that speed, especially coming off of that first drive when they got us a little early, let us know how fast it really was so after that we got adjusted and just played football.”

Byron allowed Midland 178 rushing yards on 51 attempts (3.5 average/rush). The Bulldogs’ longest play from scrimmage was on the first play of the game when McCoy (30 carries for 117 yards) gained 13 yards.

The Bobcats took the lead midway through the second quarter. A Midland punt pinned Nelson at its own six yard line, but a 44-yard pass play from Von Grote to Landon Farco gave the Bobcats a first down at the Midland 32.

Five plays later Von Grote found Dmitry Schmidt down the right sideline for a 17-yard score to take a 14-7 lead with 5:21 left before the intermission.

Von Grote was the offensive star for the Bobcats with 98 yards rushing on six carries with two TDs and completed 21 of 27 passes for 226 yards and two more scores. Farco led Nelson with 10 receptions for 109 yards.

While the defense was shutting down the Midland running attack, the offense began to click as well.

“It was kind of hard to get going at first because the game plan was a little messed up because they switched a lot of what we thought they would do from watching film,” said Von Grote. “But as soon as we got in that locker room at the half we figured it out and we scored on every drive after that except for one.”

Midland opened the second half with the ball and was driving to tie the score at 14, but a third-down sack by Braedon Ulrich for a nine-yard loss forced the Bulldogs to punt.

That gave the Bobcats’ offense life. Von Grote scrambled then rambled 50 yards for a TD to up the lead to 21-7 with 6:27 left in the third quarter.

Fourth quarter scores by Tucker James on a two-yard run and a 46-yard pitch and catch from Von Grote to Aiden Abercrombie, who shook a tackle at the 15, put the game out of reach. James rushed for 61 yards on 15 carries.

“Usually people count me out on runs so I hope its a wake up call for teams to put a spy on and maybe that will open up passes,” said Von Grote. “I want to be whatever my team needs me to be.”

Part of Byron Nelson’s slow start in the game could partially be due to the fact that the Bobcats had a tough time even getting to the stadium in time for the game. One bus had a flat tire on the trip to Midland and another broke down completely and had to be replaced, causing an hour delay in the Nelson itinerary.

The Bobcats missed their pregame meal, and were only able to have one of their two warm-up sessions before the game due to the delays.

“I think their coach (Thad Fortune) did everything right,” said Byron Nelson coach Travis Pride. “He wanted to flip home and home and I think he did everything he was supposed to do as a head coach to try to put his kids in a position to win.

“They won the flip and we had a long trip down here and they have a good system so we had to fight our tails off. Teams like them that are tough, well coached, disciplined and play hard make it even tougher.”

“A lot of our thing is about sticking to a routine, so when that gets disrupted it messes something up,” added Von Grote. “We just had to wake back up, and we did ok.”