Watauga Harvest wins shootout with New Braunfels Christian to win first state title
Unfinished business.
That was the motto for the Watauga Harvest football team in 2019 after the Saints fell short from the ultimate goal last season when they lost in the state semifinals.
However, Harvest made history on Thursday night while winning on the same field its head coach Perry Myers was a standout high school football himself.
In a wild fourth quarter, the Saints outdueled New Braunfels Christian, 60-52, to win their first football state championship in the TAPPS 6-man Division II title game at Waco Midway’s Panther Stadium.
“I’m just overjoyed,” said Myers, who starred at Midway. “We knew New Braunfels was going to be a tough team and we knew we’d have to fight. It was going to take all four quarters to pull it out.”
Trailing 52-44 with under seven minutes left, Duncan Severance took a handoff and scored 41 yards out. Following the 2-point kick, which is standard at the 6-man level, the game was tied at 52-all.
Then the Saints (14-0) made the two biggest stops of the season.
Ethan Isbell batted down a New Braunfels pass attempt to give the Saints the ball and on the second play of the ensuing drive, quarterback Charles “Hunter” Estill rushed a 27-yard gain to the NB 8.
On the next play, Estill scored the game-winning 8-yard touchdown with 3:41 to go.
“We were moving the ball and chewing up clock,” said Estill, who accounted for 219 yards and five TDs. “It’s so surreal. We’ve been working for this since August 1st. Our motto was unfinished business since we lost in the semifinals last year. We finished our business this year.”
The fourth quarter saw six touchdowns and four lead changes, including 30 points in a 48-second span.
Estill connected with Hudson Hayes on a 13-yard TD pass to give the Saints a 44-38 lead with 7:36 left.
Just 16 seconds later, the Wildcats (11-2) went up 46-44 on a 42-yard run by Luke Bales. New Braunfels recovered the ensuing kickoff and Bales scored from the 5 to give the Wildcats a 52-46 lead with 7:03 to play.
“I never thought in a million years it’d be that high scoring. Our defense has been stingy coming into the game,” Myers said. “To think it was going to come down to the fourth quarter, who was going to be the most tired, with that many scores, I had no idea that was coming.”
The Wildcats had one last chance with under three minutes, but a fourth-down snap was a bit high and hit the turf to give the Saints the ball back.
“Those stops were huge. Bales got loose on use a couple times and we knew one stop was a game changer,” Myers said. “When we came up with the ball on that last stop, we lost it because we knew we had the game.”
Bales starred for New Braunfels. The senior running back had 45 carries for 323 yards and five TDs. His 21-yard scoring run put the Wildcats up 38-36 on the second play of the fourth quarter.
He also scored on 1- and 39-yard runs and caught a 34-yard TD pass from Leverett Elrod in the second quarter.
“We knew it was going to take a full four quarters. The boys, the coaches, we all kept our tempo up and kept smiling because we knew we were going to win,” Myers said. “It wasn’t over until the clock hit zero.”
Bradley Peterson scored on a 32-yard run to give the Saints a 6-0 lead in the opening period. He finished with a team-high 71 yards rushing on 10 carries before leaving the game with a knee injury.
“We were playing for him. That turned our momentum around and we kicked it into another gear and took it from there,” said Estill, who added 9- and 28-yard TD passes to Hudson and Severance in the first half.
Harvest led for most of the second quarter until Bales scored his third TD to give the Wildcats a 22-20 halftime lead. Wyatt Greene scored on a 2-yard run to give the Saints a 28-22 edge early in the third.
