Walker’s career-night sends Birdville past resurgent Saginaw in bi-district playoffs
Survive and advance.
That’s the name of the game now as the Texas high school football playoffs started on Thursday night.
And thanks to Demarye Walker’s career-night, Birdville takes another step forward.
Walker rushed 34 times for 255 yards and scored three touchdowns as the Hawks eliminated a resurgent Saginaw team, 34-27 in a Class 5A Division 1 bi-district game at Birdville Fine Arts Athletic Complex.
“The first one always seems really difficult because there’s not a kid that’s ready for the football season to end especially those seniors,” Birdville coach Lon Holbrook said. “Feels great, every win is a great win and we’re playing next week.
“Demarye played defense last year and we pulled him up on offense and it was like he never missed a beat. I can’t praise him enough, he carried the load. He has a great attitude and the big boys up front did great. It starts there, that’s where you win games. They established the line of scrimmage and Demarye ran great.”
The Hawks (8-3) will await Saturday’s winner between El Paso Eastlake and Lubbock Monterey in the area round.
“It’s week by week. We’re 1-0 right now,” said Walker, whose previous best was 196 yards.
Saginaw (7-4), which made the playoffs for the first time since 2013, looked good during its first two drives, but had to settle for two field goals from Cody Grubbs.
The Rough Riders ran 12 plays on the opening series and converted their first three third downs until Grubbs made a 37-yarder to give them a 3-0 lead with 7:06 in the first quarter.
Birdville answered less than three minutes later on Walker’s 4-yard run to give the Hawks a 7-3 edge.
Grubbs’ second kick came from 35 yards, but again, the Hawks responded with seven on a 7-yard touchdown pass from Stone Earle to Cooper McCasland five seconds into the second quarter.
Birdville added to its lead at 21-6 when Walker found a seam and scored from 37 yards with 8:10 left before intermission.
“The kids did a great job on a short week,” Holbrook said.
Saginaw quarterback Kameron Williams broke several tackles and raced to a 44-yard TD to pull the Rough Riders within 21-13 at the 5:05 mark.
Ethan Ballentine’s 25-yard field goal extended the Birdville lead to 24-13 with under two minutes to play. A 20-yard field goal from Ballentine gave the Hawks their largest lead of the night at 27-13 with 14 seconds to go in the third quarter.
Saginaw scored on the ensuing possession when Williams ran it in from the 7 with 10:55 to go.
Walker’s third and final TD put Birdville up two TDs until Williams hit Blayne Taylor for a 10-yard score on the next drive with under a minute to play.
“It was big time for all of us, especially the seniors,” Walker said. “It was my first playoff start and the offensive line did great all night, the wide receivers blocked, everyone did their job.”
The Rough Riders went for the onside kick, but the ball went out of bounds and Birdville ran out the clock.
Williams, in his final high school game, led Saginaw with 204 yards passing, 132 yards rushing and three total TDs. Wide receiver JT Kennard had seven catches for 77 yards.
“Great season and great senior leadership. The guys believed what we were doing from the get go and they battled all night long. We just had one too many mistakes to beat a team like Birdville,” Saginaw coach Dane Johnson said. “I took the job four years ago and we wanted to be competitive every game. They set the level and now it’s something to point to. Before it was a dream, hope and now we’ve done it. We know what it takes and hopefully we make it the standard.”
This story was originally published November 14, 2019 at 10:30 PM.
