Richland overcomes slow start to defeat Arlington Heights, advance to area round

After a slow start due to some early gambles that misfired, Richland of North Richland Hills upended Arlington Heights of Fort Worth, 37-16, at Farrington Field in a Class 5A, Div. I first-round bi-district playoff.

Richland (9-2), ninth-ranked in the state according to Dave Campbell’s regular season-ending rankings, advances to play the winner of Amarillo-El Paso El Dorado at a place, date, and time to be determined.

Drew Kates, Richland quarterback and son of Coach Ged Kates, along with running back Jayshon Gibson, had triple-digit performances. Kates accounted for all five of his team’s touchdowns, running for two and throwing for the other three. He completed 18 of 27 passes with no interceptions and 338 yards.

Both teams passed liberally. Counterpart Kaeden Grant of Heights threw for both of his team’s touchdowns. He passed for 226 yards in a 17-30-2 outing.

Meanwhile, on the ground, Gibson rushed 22 times for 230 yards before finally being taken out late in the game.

The Royals ran 38 times for 315 yards with Kates contributing 70 yards on 13 carries. On the other hand, the Royal defense did its’ job, stopping the Heights’ running game by limiting the Yellow Jackets to 73 yards on 27 carries.

To Coach Kates, it was the type of gritty, old-fashioned tough-guy football he preaches to his players.

“I tell the boys all the time, this isn’t seven-on-seven football,” he explained, referring to touch football in spring training. “Every week, we’ve got to stop the run and try to run on people if we can. Still, good old football, and we did it tonight. I’m proud of how the guys handled it. It’s real in-the-trenches football. Of course, it opens up the whole offense if you can run it. It’s tried and true, and we did it well tonight.”

Richland led 20-10 at halftime thanks to some long passes. But Heights (9-2) led, 7-6, after one quarter when Richland elected to go for a two-point conversion after a touchdown that failed. It was the first of three gambles that didn’t pay off, the other two on special teams.

First, Richland took a 6-0 lead on its’ first possession after a turnover. On the game’s second play from scrimmage, the ball was caught by the Heights’ receiver but fumbled away at the Richland 48-yard line.

Kates proceeded to throw completions on three straight plays, then ran it in on the fourth from 7 yards out. But a run up the middle came up short on the attempted two-pointer.

On its’ next possession, Richland attempted a pass on a fake punt from its’ 27-yard line that went incomplete.

Heights took advantage. Two plays later, Grant connected with DeShaun Long from 29 yards out on a crossing pattern that Long took to the left pylon and the end zone. Isaiah Schuman’s PAT made it, 7-6, Heights.

After the kickoff, Richland drove from its’ 28-yard line to the Heights’ 12 in seven plays. From there, the Royals again rolled the dice in the kicking game only to come up empty-handed. A pass on a fake field goal attempt went incomplete.

Kates thought the gambles would pay off.

“I do that a lot,” he said, “ and it’s not willy nilly. We practice all of it. That doesn’t mean it works all of the time. It looked good when I called it, and it didn’t work out. We’re going to attack and we attack in special forces like we do the other two facets of the game. I thought we had it . . . I’d probably do it again based on what I was looking at at the time. But they did a great job of defending it. Coach did a heck of a job.”

Heights took over and appeared to be driving for a 14-6 lead. They reached the Richland 29-yard line before Zaid Walker intercepted at his 1-yard line.

That turned the tide permanently in Richland’s favor. The Royals drove the length of the field. Xavier Johnson caught the first of his two touchdown passes, a 69-yard bomb at the post he caught mid-range out-running the secondary the rest of the way for the score. Johnson led all receivers with 181 yards on nine receptions. It came on third-and-11 after Richland called a timeout.

Moments later, Evan Smith did likewise from 61 yards for a 20-7 Richland lead. The senior caught it at about the same distance down field as Johnson but on the right sideline after his defender fell down.

Schuman kicked a 32-yard field goal for Heights just before halftime. Jakob Hemphill put him in position with a 40-yard catch to the 15-yard line despite tight one-on-one coverage and before being pushed out-of-bounds.

In the second half, Richland pulled away with an 11-yard touchdown run by Kates on the opening drive and a 9-yard scoring pass to Johnson on their ensuing possession. The first drive consisted of all runs, seven. The second came after Richland stopped Heights on fourth-and-two at the Royal 43-yard line.

Though in a losing cause, Heights had probably the most spectacular play of the night. On fourth-and-12, Grant eluded the rush by scrambling all over the field it seemed. He eventually rolled around, and found Antonio Johnson in the end zone despite double coverage for a 24-yard touchdown.

Kicker Connor Parker finished the scoring with a 23-yard field goal for Richland.