LONGVIEW – This District 9-4A, Division I race between Henderson, Kilgore, Chapel Hill, Pine Tree and Lindale is one big game of musical chairs.
There’s five players and only four seats; at some point, the music’s gonna stop.
That point is Friday night, November 8, the end of the regular season. Someone won’t have a chair – won’t make the UIL Class 4A, Division I playoffs.
But right now, the music is still playing.
Henderson had its chance to put at least a partial grip on the 9-4A lead Friday night, here at Pine Tree’s Pirate Stadium. But turnovers proved to be costly, and in the end, Pine Tree claimed the lead last, and held off the Lions, 35-25.
Here are the way things stand now: Henderson, Kilgore and Chapel Hill each have 3-1 records in district play. Pine Tree is 2-1. Lindale is 1-2, and Palestine and Mabank are both without a win in 9-4A – they’re both 0-3.
There’s so much football to be played, and specifically, here’s what coach Clay Baker and the Henderson Lions have done, and what they have left.
Henderson has wins over Palestine, Kilgore and Mabank. The Lions’ only district loss is to Pine Tree.
The Lions have an open date this coming Friday, Oct. 25, and then they’ll face Chapel Hill, one of last year’s state finalists, on Nov. 1. Henderson closes the regular season with a trip to Lindale Nov. 8.
Back to the Henderson-PT game.
To say turnovers were a factor in this contest would be a gross understatement. Pine Tree’s Kalil Deckard had three interceptions as a defensive player and also played a role on offense for the Pirates (6-1 overall).
Down 14-10 at the half, Henderson came out of the locker room run-heavy, dealing it off to running back Jesstin Starling and to Lemarion Coleman on four straight running plays, picking up 32 yards in all, all the way down to Pine Tree’s 40-yard-line. The fifth play: an inside receiver screen that went just off the hands of Amauri Murphy, and left Henderson in second and 10.
Right back to the run, with Starling, and a 7-yarder, and then, after coming up short on third down, the Lions were left with a fourth-and-1 – maybe not even a full yard – at the Pirates’ 30.
On fourth-and-short, though, the Pirates were unable to grab quarterback Vince Howard before he muddled his way through the defenders and got in, a 30-yard touchdown run that put Henderson, who had scored first in the game, back in front, 17-14, with 8:49 left in the third quarter.
It wouldn’t hold.
Pine Tree quarterback Matt Cates found Jordan Taylor for a big pass, a 23-yarder, down to Henderson’s 33, but he was spun out of bounds by Henderson defenders and they were flagged for a facemask.
Two plays later and Pirates running back L’Marion Hunter was in the end zone, an 8-yard score that put the Pirates back in the lead, 21-17.
On the kickoff, worse news for Henderson: a fumble, it was ruled, and Pine Tree ball at the Lions’ 16.
PT was flagged for holding on first down, and that nullified a big run by Hunter inside Henderson’s 5.
Now in first and 20 at the Lions’ 26, Cates got half of it back on one throw, to Jaeden Williams, down to the Henderson 15. On second down: a huge run by Cates, whose spinning style and help from his line took him all the way down to the Henderson 1, for a first-and-goal.
One hand-off to Hunter and Pine Tree had scored with 4:09 left; two touchdowns in the span of about two minutes of game time, and the Pirates claimed a 28-17 lead.
In spite of the deficit, the Lions executed a methodical drive steadily inside the Pine Tree 5-yard-line, and on the final play of the third quarter, they scored, a 5-yard run by Jordan Ervin, who also added the two-point conversion, a catch from Howard, to get Henderson within three (28-25) at the start of the fourth.
Cates and Deckard couldn’t connect on first down, as Pine Tree began the fourth quarter with the ball at its own 29. They did, though, on second down, as Deckard made the grab, reached the first down marker, and Henderson was flagged a 15-yarder for a late hit.
Cates completed a quick second-down pass to Taylor to the Henderson 29 for a first down. The Lions’ defense threw Roger Attaway down for no gain on that first down play, but defensive backs were flagged in the end zone on the next play for pass interference.
The Pirates would be at the 14 with a first down, but when Hunter took the handoff, Henderson’s leading tackler this season, Logan White, spun him around and down for a 2-yard loss.
Taylor picked up only a yard on an end-around play, and was ran out of bounds, and on third and 11, as Cates got hit as he threw, Taylor made the catch for a 15-yard TD. With 8:47 left, Pine Tree had another two-score lead, 35-25.
Starling reeled off a 4-yard run to his own 43, and then Coleman caught a pass from Howard for another 3 yards, then ran for the first down on the next play, a first down and 10 at Henderson’s own 47.
With the clock running, Starling broke free, managing a 21-yard run to Pine Tree’s 23, with 6 ½ minutes left and the clock running – and Henderson needing two scores.
Two plays later, a huge blow to Henderson’s comeback hopes: Deckard again, picking off another pass and falling down at his own 2 – but giving Pine Tree the ball back with 6:06 left, his third pick of the game.
Henderson almost dragged Hunter down in the backfield for a safety, but he managed to get free and out of bounds to the 4, for a 2-yard gain.
On third and 9, Cates heaved a prayer of a throw down the sideline, but it was incomplete, and the Pirates had to punt from their own end zone. It was downed at the PT 40, but Deckard’s interception had allowed the Pirates to run off almost two full minutes of game time.
A personal foul was called on Pine Tree, and marked off to the Pirates’ 25. Henderson took over there, with 4:47 left in the game.
Howard’s pass on first down was batted back, and dangerously floating in the air with three Pine Tree defenders within reach. Howard got there and slapped it down.
Henderson tried a halfback pass on the next play, a pass backward to Macen Jones, who threw the ball into the end zone, but incomplete.
Howard was hit from behind by Tydaryn Peters on the second-down play, but somehow, Howard held onto the ball. He completed a pass to Murphy, but Murphy was thrown for a loss on third down.
That left Henderson in fourth and 11 at the 25, and a 42-yard field goal by Navarro was low, and no good.
Hunter picked up a first down with a run of 18 yards on Pine Tree’s next series, down to the Pirates’ own 39, and the clock running – 2:21, 2:20, 2:19 – when Henderson took a time out with 2:09 left after the first down play.
The Lions only had one time out left, which they took after second down with 2:02 in the game.
Hunter, though, made it a moot point – an 8-yard run for a first down that all but finished the game. The Pirates ran another play, and were able to kneel out the clock.
Back in the first half, after forcing a Pine Tree punt, the Lions’ first possession of the game ended in an interception, a pick by Deckard at the Pirates’ 20.
But the Lions would get it right back, like on the very next play, when Cates was also picked off, this one by the Lions’ Corey Harper, and just 10 yards in front of the line of scrimmage.
That put the Lions in business at PT’s 30. They went immediately into a hole, a fumble, but Howard recovered it, a loss of 5. Howard immediately came right back with a throw on second down, to Jordan Ervin, who gave Henderson a third-and-2 with the catch.
They would convert on an offsides penalty on Pine Tree, and then on first and goal at the 2, it appeared Howard lost the ball. Officials ruled that he was down, and second down ensued.
On that second down play, Starling went in, a 2-yard touchdown run, his 22nd of the season, and with 3:42 left in the first, he had given the Lions a 7-0 advantage.
After a pair of impressive runs by Hunter, the Pirates were quickly at midfield, but the drive stalled out when, on third and 5, Cates couldn’t connect on a deep ball to Jordan Taylor, at Henderson’s 2.
The Pirates punted, and got the ball right back on another fumble, giving them great field position at the Lions’ 17-yard-line.
That drive, too, would end in a turnover: an interception by Henderson’s Anthony Newman, although his return yards were nullified by a penalty. Still, Henderson re-claimed the ball on the second play of the second quarter, at its own 8.
And guess what happened?
Pine Tree intercepted the ball on the very next play, this one returned by Deckard for a 32-yard touchdown that, with the extra point, tied the game at 7, with nine minutes left in the half.
The Lions would add three more. Taking possession after the kickoff at their own 22, Henderson put together a 12-play drive that finished with a 23-yard field goal by Ivan Navarro, giving them a 10-7 lead with 5:23 left in the half.
The key play: a 26-yard run by Starling that gave Henderson a first down at the 6, but they couldn’t punch it in and wound up settling for the three-point kick by Navarro.
Pine Tree got a huge play from Cates on the first play of its next possession, a 32-yard run by the quarterback, down his own sideline and finally knocked out of bounds at the Henderson 40.
Deckard made a big catch for 11 yards on the drive, to the Henderson 11, and Cates had a key run, picking up a first-and-goal at the 1.
As the clock ran under a minute left in the half, with a second-and-goal at the 2, Cates hunkered down behind his offensive line and they bulled their way forward, for just enough to get him into the end zone, with 31 seconds left in the half. Kicker Julian Ibarra knocked through the point after, and gave the Pirates their first lead of the game, 14-10.
We’d see one more fumble: Henderson bobbled the kickoff, inside its own 15, but the Lions were able to fall on it. They were flagged for a block in the back, and the ball was spotted on the Henderson 2 – Howard was standing in the end zone for the snap.
But he handed one time successfully to Ervin, who picked up a couple of yards, enough to get Henderson safely away from their own goal line as time expired in the half.
Starling was again huge for Henderson, going for 192 yards on 29 carries and a score in this game.
