Haslet Eaton takes care of business in the District 4-6A race with win over Keller Fossil Ridge
The Haslet Eaton football team really needed a win against Keller Fossil Ridge if the Eagles were to keep their playoff aspirations alive.
After taking it on the chin a week ago against Keller and with Southlake Carroll and Trophy Club Nelson still looming ahead, Eaton got the win it needed with a 38-21 victory against the Panthers in a District 4-6A game on Thursday at Keller ISD Stadium.
“This game was huge standings wise, but I think it was a big bounce back for team moral overall,” said Eaton quarterback Noah Lugo, a Brigham Young commit and the 32nd ranked player in the Star-Telegram Top 50. “We had a bunch of injuries last game as well as not having two of our starting outside receivers.
“We were running with threes the second half of the Keller game so it was more like that we knew that we were able to beat them, but we just didn’t have the guys to rally around due to injury. This win means a lot showing that we can do what we do with what we have and when we get them back we’ll be rolling on all cylinders.”
The game was much closer than the final score indicated, but Eaton (3-1 overall, 1-1 in district) was able to take advantage of miscues by Fossil Ridge (0-4, 0-2). The Panthers out gained the Eagles 442-423 in total yards.
The turning point in the game came late in the first half. Fossil Ridge had tied the game at 14 and had a successful onside kick that was recovered by Reece Watkins at the Eaton 41 yard line.
The Eagles held, however, and the Panthers lost the ball on downs. Eaton drove down for a 27-yard field goal by Brody Foutch to up the lead to 17-14 with 1:20 left before the intermission.
Fossil Ridge was moving the ball again, but tried to “clock” the ball with under 30 seconds to go in the half, but quarterback Logan Cundiff’s arm and the ball hit off the back of one of his offensive linemen causing a fumble that was picked up by Eagles’ defensive end Jacob DeShay and returned 56 yards for a touchdown.
“The ball fell right into my stomach and I caught it,” said DeShay, who’s score gave Eaton a 24-14 lead. “My other defensive end Alijah (Lash), I didn’t know what happened at first, told me to run so I just took off. The quarterback tried to tackle me, but I stayed up and got the touchdown.”
Fossil Ridge got in position to try a “Hail Mary” on the last play of the half, but Ben Self wrestled the ball away from Panthers’ receiver Cooper Leonard in the end zone to end the second quarter.
The teams traded a pair of punts to start the second half before Lugo took the game over. The senior scored on a two-yard run with 9:59 left in the game to up the lead to 31-14.
The Panthers answered with a long march only to give the back to Eaton on a fumble at the Eagles’ one yard line. Two plays later, Lugo raced around left end pulling away from the Fossil secondary for a 97-yard TD.
“It was a school record,” said Lugo who rushed 16 times for 175 yards and completed 8 of 11 passes for 79 more. “Anything 96 and above is a school record. It felt like it was 112 since I was in the back of the end zone.”
The long run pushed Lugo past Chris Duharte who was a work horse for the Eagles with 164 yards on the ground on 24 carries.
“(Chris) Duharte is really, really good,” said Eaton coach Ellis Miller. “He’s just a sophomore, but we knew he had it in him.”
Miller said that Duharte showed up a little out of shape, but they knew he had it in him because they had seen glimpses of his talent.
“You’re magic in a bottle,” Miller said of Duharte. “We need it to come on. He had a heck of a game.”
Duharte was subbing for Demarion Williams who got dinged up last week and will be out for a bit. Miller said Williams has had an unbelievable year, rushing for over 200 yards twice this season.
The teams traded two long drives that ate up the entire first quarter.
A Fossil Ridge fumble on the second snap from scrimmage was recovered by Lash at the Eagles’ 31 yard line. The Panthers had just completed a 35-yard pass play from Cundiff to X’Zavion Branch-Duncan.
The Eagles marched the 69 yards in 14 plays to open the scoring. Duharte went off left tackle from a yard out to give Eaton a 7-0 lead with 7:47 left in the first quarter.
Fossil Ridge answered with a 17-play, 75-yard drive of its own. Cundiff ran it in from a yard out on the final play of the first quarter to tie the game at seven.
The teams traded quick scores after that. Duharte made a nice move in the middle of the line then raced 38 yards to up the lead to 14-7 at the 10:53 mark of the second quarter.
Cundiff tossed a short pass in the left flat to X’Zavion Branch-Duncan who broke several tackles on his way to a 61-yard score to tie the game at 14 with 5:51 left in the first half.
The loss spoiled a big games from Cundiff and running back Cameron Moran of Fossil Ridge.
Cundiff threw 35 times, completing 26 for 271 yards and rushed for 40 yards on 15 carries. Moran added 123 yards on the ground on 20 attempts.
Cundiff hit Keenan Burley with a six-yard scoring pass as time expired.
“We have our bye next week and then we have (Keller) Central and (Keller) Timber (Creek) and those two are huge,” said Miller. “We have to win those two and then we have Southlake (Carroll), Haltom and (Trophy Club) Byron (Nelson). We catch Haltom in between and maybe take care of business there, but the next two weeks are big, really big.”
