Cedar Hill defeats Aledo on Bearcats’ homecoming in battle of football titans
Aledo coach Tim Buchanan said he didn’t care if his team was facing a Class 6A, 7A or 14A school on Friday night. He wanted to win no matter who his team lined up against.
The Bearcats, playing up two levels, pulled to within three points early in the fourth quarter, but Cedar Hill escaped Bearcat Stadium with a 27-17 non-district win over Aledo in a battle of Texas high school football titans.
The contest was scheduled last week as Cedar Hill was on a bye and Aledo was set to play district opponent Waco University, which postponed due to COVID-19.
The Bearcats have won the most state titles (9) in state history while reaching the title game 11 times. Cedar Hill has three state championships in four appearances.
“It’s fun anytime you get to play a really good, well coached football team and Carlos Lynn is a really good football coach.,” said Buchanan. “They do an extremely, extremely good job of coaching their kids. Their kids played hard right down to the very end.”
Aledo (2-1), No. 2 in Class 5A Division 2, pulled to within 20-17 of No. 11 Class 6A Cedar Hill on a 20-yard scoring run by DeMarco Roberts with 9:55 left in the game, but the Bearcats needed a stop.
Longhorns’ quarterback and Tennessee commit Kaidon Salter had tortured the Aledo defense all night converting third and fourth down plays with his arm and legs. Salter converted 10 third downs and three fourth downs on the night.
“That’s his super power,” said Cedar Hill coach Carlos Lynn. “His ability to allow plays to be extended and then with our speed it’s hard for an opposing secondary to keep up with those guys for a long period of time.
“It’s also hard for defensive lines to keep Kaidon bottled up. A lot of those plays weren’t clean and in a normal setting that’s a sack or incomplete pass, but it may turn into a touchdown with him. We’re just blessed to have that kid.”
Cedar Hill (2-0) drove from its own 27 to the Aledo 19 behind Salter, but an incomplete pass on fourth down gave the Bearcats the break they needed with 4:10 left.
The Bearcats’ hopes were squashed three plays later, however, when Cedar Hill safety Kendall Stevens picked off an Aledo pass at the Longhorns’ 40 yard-line.
Cedar Hill’s Kevin Young Jr. put in the dagger when he plowed through the middle of the Aledo line for a 20-yard touchdown to give Cedar Hill a 27-17 lead with 1:41 to go.
Aledo was playing catch up from the start after fumbling the opening kickoff that was pounced on by Cedar Hill’s Joey Johnson at the Bearcats’ 26
It took the Longhorns eight plays, but Salter was able to scramble his way out of a fourth-and-3 from the 8 and hit Julian Austin for the score with 8:08 left in the first quarter.
“That kid is special,” added Buchanan on Salter. “I thought we had him several times and he just kept making big play after big play after big play. He kind of reminded me of a 6-foot-3 Jake Bishop.”
After trading punts, Aledo embarked on an 18-play, 62-yard drive that ended in a 26-yard Clay Murador field goal to cut the lead to 7-3 with 9:45 left in the second quarter.
The teams traded scores on the ensuing two series after long drives.
Cedar Hill offensive tackle Miquel Massey Jr. capped the Longhorns’ drive with a lineman’s dream when a shuffle pass from Salter bounced off Young right into Massey’s arms for a 3-yard TD.
Roberts countered for Aledo when he bulled in from four yards out with 40 seconds left in the half to pull to within 13-10.
The Bearcats out-gained Cedar Hill 145-130 in total yardage in the first half, but the Salter and the Longhorns held Aledo to 89 second-half yards while piling up 265 of their own.
Salter accounted for all but 25 of Cedar Hill’s 395 total yards. The senior rushed 14 times for 128 yards and was 16 of 35 passing for 242 more.
“On third down we have to make a play every time,” said Salter. “When the ball is in my hands I pretty much think that I can make every play that the offense needs made.”
Javien Clemmer paced Cedar Hill with 93 yards on four receptions. His 27-yard TD reception from Salter on the Longhorns’ first drive of the second half pushed the lead to 20-10.
Roberts led Aledo with 106 rushing yards on 17 attempts. Four-star LSU commit JoJo Earle had trouble finding space against Cedar Hill’s quick, aggressive defense with six catches for 67 yards and 27 yards rushing.
“You expect a battle and that’s what we got,” said Lynn. “We didn’t get a chance to play Allen, but we’re going to go play Aledo so it didn’t matter because they’re two great programs and it was a test for us.
“Our district has Duncanville and DeSoto so we have to be battle tested and I think that we got that tonight.”
This story was originally published October 17, 2020 at 12:28 AM.