Pleasant Grove, Garrett use powerful rushing attack to win 4A D2 title over Wimberley
Texarkana Pleasant Grove won its second state title in its third consecutive title appearance by dominating Wimberley in the second half of a 35-21 victory in the Class 4A Division II championship game Friday afternoon at AT&T Stadium.
Pleasant Grove (15-1), the top-ranked team in Class 4A Division II in the final Dave Campbell’s state poll, was stellar on defense, especially after the break.
The Hawks, led by Defensive Most Valuable Player Marcus Burris, held the Texans on downs before forcing three-and-outs three times in the second half.
While the defense was clamping down, running back Bruce Garrett was running wild. Garrett, the Offensive MVP, carried 25 times in the game for 254 yards with touchdown runs of 54, 11, and 31 yards for the Hawks.
“We’ve been able to lean on different kids at different times this year,” said PG coach Josh Gibson. “You saw Bruce do it this week, but when he’s not producing someone else like K.J. Hicks or Ben Harmon or Logan Johnson will bail us out.
“People will game plan us and shut one of them down, but they all go full tilt and reap the reward when it’s their time.”
Hicks started the game off with a bang for Pleasant Grove, returning the opening kickoff 88 yards for a touchdown.
Wimberley (12-4) tied the game on a perfectly executed screen pass from quarterback Cooper McCollum to Colby Boyle with 5:17 left in the first quarter and looked to have stolen the momentum.
On the Hawks next series, Wimberley defensive lineman Walt Gold picked off a Pleasant Grove pass. But after the play was reviewed, the ball was ruled to have hit the ground and returned to the Hawks.
On the ensuing play, Garrett, a Brigham Young University commit, raced around right end, broke several tackles along the sideline, and sprinted to the end zone for a 54-yard score and a 14-7 lead for the Hawks.
Wimberley answered immediately to tie the game at 14 with a 24-yard run by Moses Wray with 1:12 left in the opening quarter. The Texans then forced Pleasant Grove into back-to-back turnovers.
Colby Wiegman picked off a pass at the Texans’ 38 and Cole Schroeder forced a fumble recovered by Jaden Potts at the PG 39. But Wimberley couldn’t capitalize on either gaffe, going three-and-out after each takeaway.
“They did a really good job early putting pressure on us and with that pressure we made a couple of errors,” said Gibson. “But we were able to bounce back from that.”
The Hawks took a 21-14 lead into the break when Garrett capped a 12-play, 77 yard drive, all on running plays, with an 11-yard TD with 1:26 left in the first half.
The Wimberley offense struggled after that.
The Texans trailed 35-14 when McCollum hit Kolby Goforth with a 25-yard scoring pass with two minutes left in the game, but it was too little too late.
“They didn’t give you any free plays,” said McCollum who threw for 215 yards completing 13-of-30 passes. “There was no one just wide open. Their defensive line is some of the best guys I’ve ever played against in my four years. They’re big, they’re physical and their corners and safeties are quick.”
The Texans, who won titles in their two previous championship games in 2005 and 2011, rushed 21 times for 37 yards.
Pleasant Grove picked up 397 yards on the ground with Hicks totaling 88 yards on 19 carries and Johnson adding 49 yards on 9 touches.
“It feels amazing,” said Garrett, a senior, who capped the scoring for PG with a 31-yard run with 2:51 left. “This is what we’ve been preparing for the whole year and what we wanted so there was nothing that was going to stop me from going as hard as I could for my brothers.”
This story was originally published December 20, 2019 at 9:43 PM.