South Hills turns up 2nd half offense to beat Trimble Tech, wins first district game
After a scoreless first half, Fort Worth South Hills got three rushing touchdowns from Ca’lub Holloway and the Scorpions beat Trimble Tech, 21-2, in a District 4-5A Division 2 contest Thursday night at Clark Stadium.
The best drive of the night came on South Hills’ second of the third quarter when the Scorpions went 80 yards in 15 plays, highlighted by Holloway’s 14-yard TD run with under a minute left on the clock.
“I’m really proud of the kids, they fought. I challenged them at halftime and told them that they could either lay down or keep fighting,” South Hills’ coach Mika Harp said. “I wished we did that in the first quarter, but it is what it is and we got the victory. We’re 1-1 in district and now we’ll get ready for Creekview next week.”
The drive took 5 1/2 minutes long and South Hills (2-3 overall, 1-1 district) converted two third downs and a fourth-and-5 when quarterback Deshawn Ford rushed for 16 yards.
After a holding call backed the ball up to the 14, Holloway came in motion from the right-side receiver position and took the hand-off from Ford before breaking several tackles and hitting the pylon for the 7-0 lead.
“We came out kind of struggling in the first half. We made some adjustments and got some fire in our hearts and it took off from there,” Holloway said. “Liked how my team turned the switch because going 0-2 in district, we weren’t going to have it.”
But Tech (0-5, 0-2) had a chance to tie the game on the next drive when the Bulldogs got a first-and-goal at 5. The big play came on Jaydon Cook’s 23-yard run. However, Tech fumbled at the 1 and South Hills recovered.
The Bulldogs got on the board on the next play when South Hills recovered its own fumble in the end zone for a safety to bring the score to 7-2 with 8:39 to play.
Tech was in place to take the lead on the next possession when it got to the Scorpions’ 14, but a fourth-down run was stopped just short of the marker.
The game was put away when Holloway trucked a defender and scored from 23 yards out with 2:46 left to make it 14-2. Tech threw an interception on the next play to Isaac Guajardo and Holloway sealed it with an 8-yard score on the ensuing possession.
Holloway, who rushed for 102 yards on six carries, burst through the line for a 38-yard gain the play before.
“My offensive linemen gave me something to work with,” Holloway said. “That’s football for you. I look for contact and try to bring that defensive mentality to the offensive side.”
South Hills’ Christopher Clayton led all players with 148 yards on 16 carries and Ford added 65 on 16 attempts. Eliseo Cabello chipped in 55 yards on the ground to give South Hills a total of 361 yards rushing.
“We had the intention to throw the ball tonight, but my best receiver got banged up and it took away from what we wanted to do,” Harp said. “But things happen and you kind of go back to what works of you and running works for us.”
Tech was held to 165 yards total offense. The Bulldogs were led by Khaffid Muhammad and Cook, who finished with 50 and 46 yards rushing, respectively.
Four of the seven first-half drives ended in punts while the other three were turnover on downs and a lost fumble, all by South Hills, but the Scorpions were the closest to scoring during their third possession of the game.
After pinning Tech to the 2 following a sack that made it fourth-and-28, South Hills began near midfield. Clayton (12) and Holloway (11) picked up big runs and the Scorpions got to the 4.
But on first-and-goal, South Hills got to the 1 before fumbling the ball into the end zone, where Tech recovered for the touchback.
This story was originally published October 29, 2020 at 9:59 PM.
