Keller scores on final play of regulation, stuns Northwest in overtime

The Keller Indians pulled one out of their hat in their District 4-6A opener against Justin Northwest on Friday night at Keller ISD Stadium.

Bradley McCroskey caught a miraculous 26-yard touchdown pass on the final play of regulation, then Temi Ericson raced nearly untouched for a 25-yard TD in overtime to give the Indians a 34-28 victory.

Quarterback Brock Burkett threw for 135 yards and a touchdown, ran for 54 yards and caught one pass for 48 yards for Keller (2-1, 1-0). Quintin Shropshire finished with 117 yards rushing and a touchdown.

Northwest (1-2, 0-1) lost despite a great night from Caris Sela, who rushed for 237 yards and three touchdowns. Mark Hartman passed for 194 yards, and Jeremiah Brown made six catches for 88 yards.

It was a low-scoring first half, with both teams missing chances for points. The Texans’ first drive stalled at Keller’s 21-yard line on a failed fourth-and-1, despite Sela gaining big yardage on the drive.

The Indians’ first scoring opportunity came thanks to their special teams when the Northwest punter bobbled the snap near midfield and was tackled before getting the punt off.

Keller took advantage, driving right down the field on the strength of its running game with Shropshire and Burkett to set up first-and-goal at the 3. However, the Indians failed to punch it in and settled for a 20-yard field goal from Connick Whitmire to start the second quarter with a 3-0 lead.

Northwest continued to have success moving the ball in the second quarter, leaning heavily on Sela, but the Texans kept shooting themselves in the foot, committing backbreaking penalties they couldn’t overcome.

Facing one of these situations late in the quarter, Hartman bought time scrambling to his right before finding Brown behind the defense on the sideline for a 38-yard pass to the 9-yard line. Sela scored from there untouched on a run to the left side to put Northwest up 7-3 at halftime.

The start of the second half saw Northwest complete its best drive of the game, methodically moving down the field with a good mix of run and pass before Sela scored on a 7-yard run to give the Texans a 14-3 lead.

Keller answered with a 38-yard completion, putting the team deep into Northwest territory. Again, the Indians could not punch the ball into the end zone and had to settle for a 28-yard field goal to cut the lead to 14-6.

The score stayed the same into the fourth quarter. Keller again had a big pass play, then Shropshire ran untouched into the end zone from 18 yards out for the Indians’ first touchdown. Burkett scrambled in for the two-point conversion to tie the game at 14-14.

There was still the rest of the fourth quarter to play, and the Texans’ offense was rolling. With the help of several big penalties from Keller, including a costly sideline interference, Northwest saw Jaylin Mathis score from nine yards out to give the Texans the lead back at 21-14.

The Indians answered quickly. Facing a third-and-25 after a big penalty, Keller pulled out the tricks with a throwback pass from Brock Meek to Burkett, who rumbled 48 yards to the Texans’ 2-yard line. Shropshire punched in the score to tie the game at 21-21.

Northwest executed a clock-draining drive that took nearly four minutes before Sela scored on a 20-yard run with 1:29. The Texans were up 28-21, and Keller had exhausted all of its timeouts.

The Indians moved the ball down the field with big running plays toward the sideline. It looked like they were going to stall out at Northwest’s 26-yard line, facing a fourth down with only five seconds left to play.

Burkett threw it into a crowd, and McCroskey came down with it — his only catch of the game. The extra point sent the game into overtime tied 28-28.

Northwest got the ball to start the overtime, but the Texans made a huge mistake when the snap came unexpectedly and went back 21 yards. Needing 30-plus yards for a first down in two plays proved too much, and the Texans turned the ball over on downs.

All Keller needed to do was score in any way, but feeding off the momentum from the end of regulation and now the huge defensive stop, the Indians needed only one play. Ericson took the ball up the middle for the walk-off 25-yard TD run.

Keller next plays at Hurst L.D. Bell at 7 p.m. Sept. 19 at Pennington Field in Bedford. Northwest hosts Haslet Eaton at 7 p.m. Sept. 19.

This story was originally published September 12, 2025 at 11:59 PM.