Red Oak wins 11th straight game, moving past Braswell in area championship game

Red Oak has been a completely different team since it lost to Denton Braswell in Week 1.

Saturday night was more proof of the Hawks’ turnaround.

Donovan Jemerson intercepted Boswell quarterback Greyson Thompson twice in the final 1:26 — the second pick coming with 28 seconds left — as Red Oak survived a late comeback by the Bengals to earn a 35-30 victory in a Class 5A-Division 2 area championship at AT&T Stadium.

Red Oak (11-1), ranked seventh in 5A-2, won its 11th consecutive game since dropping the season opener to Braswell 48-27. It will now face top-ranked Aledo (11-1) in the regional round, tentatively scheduled for 7 p.m. Friday at AT&T Stadium. Braswell finishes its season at 9-3.

“We told those guys, ‘Who can improve the most?’” Red Oak coach Chris Ross said. “I felt like our guys have come so far since that Week 1 game.”

Junior quarterback Josh Ervin threw for 384 yards on 13-of-23 passing with four touchdowns. The Hawks needed every one of those scores, as the Bengals nearly erased a 35-7 third-quarter deficit.

Ervin used the speed he has at the wide receiver position with senior Coby Cavil and junior Raymond Gay II. Cavil provided the biggest offensive spark for Red Oak with 241 receiving yards and two touchdowns. Gay II added 87 yards on five catches with a touchdown.

Red Oak appeared to have all of the momentum after Cavil caught a 99-yard touchdown pass just 25 seconds into the second quarter for a 14-0 lead. That play came immediately after a 56-yard punt by the Bengals had pinned the Hawks at their own 1.

“It’s Coby, man. That’s my boy,” Ervin said. “He made that play. He made it easy on me by being open.”

Red Oak rode that momentum.

Ervin threw for three more long touchdowns on passes of 58, 59 and 30 yards over the course of the second and third quarters, the final one coming on a strike to LaKelsey Johnson, who was wide open to Ervin’s left. The Hawks built a four-touchdown lead with 2:29 remaining in the third quarter.

“We feel like we have five guys that can go out there, and they can all make plays,” Ross said. “Today, they did that.”

But, just like in the season opener, when Braswell put up 48 points on Red Oak, the Bengals refused to go away quietly.

Ifesimi Yessuff scored the first of three consecutive touchdowns for Braswell with a 48-yard burst, and after the Bengals’ Gabe Okelola recovered the ensuing onside kick — the fifth successful recovery in the three games played at AT&T Stadium on Saturday — Braswell was back in business.

Cam Smith caught a 20-yard touchdown on the second play of the next Bengal drive, and Tristan McClary ran from the 1 with 8:27 remaining in the fourth quarter to make it 35-28 Red Oak.

Thompson found his rhythm in the second half to finish 20 of 34 through the air for 297 yards. And 219 of that total came from Jacob Hernandez, who caught 12 balls. Yessuff led the Bengals’ rushing attack with 78 yards on 10 carries.

That set up for a dramatic finish.

With just over two minutes remaining in regulation, and Red Oak still clinging to a seven-point lead, Braswell drove to the Hawks’ 9 after a 62-yard pass play, though it ended in a Jemerson interception near the goal line.

Braswell got a safety on the very next play as CJ Johnson tackled C.J. Palmer in the end zone.

That made the score 35-30 Red Oak, but the Hawks had to kick the ball away due to the safety.

Dakota Santos, who serves as the Hawks’ place kicker, booted a long ball that traveled inside the Bengals’ 20, forcing Braswell to start at its own 14 and with just 70 seconds left in the game.

“He’s a good kicker,” Jemerson said of Santos. “Every time he gets the ball out, it goes deep.”

With Braswell facing fourth and 9 from the 15, Jemerson ended any thoughts of a Bengals comeback, intercepting his second pass in less than two minutes.

“The last couple of minutes probably took a couple of years off my life,” Ross said. “It’s like, ‘How many times do you have to win a football game?’

“At times, we played well. I thought that we played sloppy in the second half, especially in the fourth quarter,” Ross continued. “Defense played exceptionally well. I thought coach (Brent) Brittain had a really good game plan for these guys. We were able to capitalize on it.”

This story was originally published November 23, 2019 at 11:15 PM.