North Crowley overcomes third consecutive deficit, defeats Denton Guyer

Another game and a few more white hairs might be showing for North Crowley coach Ray Gates.

For the third time in three games — that’s all of them this season if you are scoring at home — the defending Class 6A Division I champions faced a second half deficit.

But like the previous two games, the Panthers rallied for a win. This time, the No. 3-ranked team in 6A pulled out a come-from-behind 28-27 win over Denton Guyer on Friday at the Collins Complex.

“We are just gritty right now, you know?” Gates said. “This team has a lot to fight for. As long as we continue to understand that and we can make adjustments, then the dogfights will no longer be a dogfight. Then, we can win the games in the fashion that we would hope to.”

This win may have been more improbable than the ones against Lancaster and DeSoto.

The Panthers (3-0) trailed 20-14 at the break and kicked off to the Wildcats (1-2) to start the second half.

What was already bad — a touchdown deficit — got worse.

Aiden Martens returned the kickoff 96 yards for a touchdown. The PAT by Andrew Johnson made it 27-14 with just 13 seconds off the clock.

Denton Guyer wouldn’t score again and the North Crowley offense rallied behind a backup quarterback to secure its 19th win in a row.

Senior DeMarcus Harris II made his first start for the season, completing 19 of 27 passes for 274 yards. His first pass of the game was a 53-yard touchdown pass to Damarion Mays.

The two connected in the third quarter on big plays on two scoring drives that helped the Panthers rally.

He said he learned on Monday that he would be starting this week in place of Hayes Cloutier. The former Santa Margarita Catholic gunslinger was out with an injury and was on the field in shorts and his jersey. Gates said that Cloutier would be evaluated this week ahead of Thursday’s home game against Rockwall.

“My quarterback coach (Bryce Baccarini) prepared me for it, so I was ready,” Harris said of the former Abilene Christian football player-turned coach.

If that name sounds familiar, it might be because, his dad, Tony Baccarini, was the head coach for Keller Fossil Ridge.

Harris came up with two big passing plays that helped set up the rally.

He connected with Mays for a 36-yard gain, which brought the ball to the 2-yard line on the Panthers’ second possession of the third quarter.

Jayden Shaw ran it in for a touchdown from 2 yards out to pull North Crowley within 27-21.

Guyer had -3 yards on the next drive and was forced to punt.

Facing af 4th-and-1 from midfield, Kiante Ingram got 6 yards for a North Crowley first down. The next play, Harris locked up with Mays for a 36-yard gain.

That moved the ball to the 22-yard line. Ingram ran twice and so did Forney transfer G’yrell Smith, the latter a 7-yard touchdown.

Julian Perea’s PAT became the eventual game-winning points on the next snap.

Smith, who says the Panthers have the best 1-2 punch at running back in the country.

“I’ve been waiting for that one,” Smith said of his first touchdown in the blue-and-white. “Mays is great. He caught every ball thrown that way. Because of that catch, he set us up to score and he set me up for my score.”

Ingram ran for 116 yards on 28 carries but did not find the end zone. Shaw scored twice and finished with 3 carries for 3 yards. Smith finished with 27 yards rushing.

The fourth quarter featured three punts and two turnovers on downs with incomplete passes.

Harris hit Smith for a pass on 4th-and-4 at the Guyer 37, but he came up short of the sticks. Guyer got the ball back with 8:30 left.

On the first play of the drive, Kaedyn Cobbs ran 30 yards for the Wildcats. He was tackled at the North Crowley 27-yard line.

Earlier in the game, Andrew Johnson hit a 35-yard field goal for the Wildcats and only a few more yards would be needed to get in line for a possible go-ahead score.

It never happened.

A run for 3 yards was followed by two sacks. Guyer punted and pinned North Crowley at the 3-yard line.

The Panther used a heavy dose of Ingram and Smith to move the ball and the chain. They eventually punted with 48 seconds to end a 16-play drive that gave Guyer the ball at its own 41-yard line without any timeouts.

Guyer got a first down on the first play, but two incomplete passes and a sack by Aaron Bradshaw set up a 4th-and-23.

A last-second pass toward the end zone fell to the ground harmlessly.

“Everything we do, we try to put our kids at a disadvantage,” Gates said. “Offseason, when we have competitive sessions at practice, there’s a winner and there’s a loser. The loser has to do extra conditioning, like pushups. We try our best to make it where the kids hate to lose and sometimes, you’ve got to hate to lose more than you like to win.”