Both Crandall and Sulphur Springs came into Friday night’s game knowing that they were eliminated from playoff contention. That didn’t stop both teams from preparing all week and putting up a crazy number of yards on offense. There wasn’t much defense in this game as it was an all-out assault in the air and on the ground.
This matchup was played in Crandall, and the Wildcats deferred, giving the Pirates the ball to start the game off. The Pirates started off with great field position on their own forty-four-yard line. Quarterback Jamonte Gordon-West led the Pirates down the field in quick form on a six-play scoring drive. West connected with one of his favorite receivers on the season, sophomore stand out Samuel Omosigho, for a thirty-one-yard touchdown reception. Crandall hurried to the line in their gate formation and the ball went through the hands of West. Somehow West hit receiver Luke Moffit on a sack saving throw for the two-point conversion. The score was 8-0 Crandall fifty-six seconds into the game! This was definitely a sign of how quick teams would score on the night.
The Wildcats would answer convincingly on their first drive of the game. They ended the drive on a nineteen-yard run by senior running back Caden Davis into the endzone. Unfortunately, the little defense had in this game was had by the Wildcats. Crandall received the ball and had a quick three and out giving the Wildcats the ball with great field position on their own thirty-seven-yard line. Senior quarterback Kaden Wallace led the Wildcats down the field in convincing fashion on a seven-play scoring drive. Junior running back Dougie Deloney finished off the drive with a three-yard run into the endzone. The score was 8-14 Wildcats mid-way through the first quarter. The Pirates received the ball and answered quickly with West hitting receiver Luke Moffitt for a thirteenyard touchdown reception. The Wildcats would strike one more time before the end of the first quarter. Davis would run it in from nineteen yards out making the score 15-21 Sulphur Springs at the end of one.
It was clear that whichever team could stop the offense one or two times would more than likely come out on top. Sulphur Springs would put up three more scores in the second quarter all on their strong run game. The Pirates would answer with two scores of their own in the second quarter. West connected with Freshman receiver Joshua Smith for a seventy-one-yard touchdown reception. Then for the second time on the night, West connected with Omosigho for a fifty-three-yard touchdown reception. The score was 29-42 Sulphur Springs at halftime.
The Wildcats would strike first coming out of the locker room. Deloney scored on a fifty-four-yard touchdown run. Crandall’s Chris Abron would answer with a ten-yard touchdown run of his own. The Pirates went for two, hitting Abron in stride for another successful two-point conversion. This made the score 37-49 Wildcats half way through the third quarter. The Wildcats would score two more times in the quarter to the Pirates’ one score. At the end of three quarters of play, the score was 44-63 Wildcats.
The running game was just too much for the Pirate defense to handle. Deloney scored his fifth touchdown on the night in the fourth quarter. The Wildcats had a whopping 418 rushing yards from their three running backs and quarterback. The Pirates’ 408 yards in the air unfortunately weren’t enough to win the game. In an unfortunate turn, there was a bench clearing brawl which resulted in multiple players from each team being ejected before they could finish the final minutes of the game. At the time of writing, the UIL has not yet ruled on the matter or handed out consequences. The final score was 44-72 Wildcats. There was a total of 1,354 yards in this game between both teams.
The Crandall Pirates have one more game this season at home vs. the Corsicana Tigers on Friday December 4th at 7:30pm.
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