Football: College Park's comeback falls short in playoff loss to Dekaney

Emotions ran over the College Park team after battling back from a 20-point deficit, but falling short in a 27-21 loss to Dekaney at Woodforest Bank Stadium in the Division II, Region II-5A bi-district matchup.

The Cavaliers rallied thanks to two big fourth-quarter pass plays by quarterback Zach Wright to receiver Kevin Barnes. An 11-yard touchdown pass helped cut the lead to 27-14, and 74-yard play set up a 1-yard plunge by Wright that cut the lead to six.

This was a better effort from College Park from mid-September, when the Cavs lost to the Wildcats, 41-14.

“I don’t care what happened last game. All I know is that I believe in our group of guys, and we have a lot of pride,” College Park head coach Richard Carson said. “We didn’t try for a moral victory, we didn’t try to play close. We came to win the game. I’ll take that group against anybody who is out there.”

Dekaney (9-2) was once again led by its star running back, Trey Williams, who ran for 322 yards on 38 carries and two touchdowns. He had one 38-yard touchdown run in the second quarter to put the Wildcats up 7-0, and had an 80-yard touchdown run early in the fourth quarter.

But those were his only big runs of the game. For the most part, the Cav defense played Williams tight, not allowing him to get into the open field. But the Texas A&M recruit still made enough big plays to move his team to the second round

“Our defense played their behinds off,” Carson said. “(Dekaney) has got a good back who does a lot of great things. I don’t know if you can stop him, but we hit him and we tackled him, we chased him all night, and he had to work for everything we got.”

College Park (6-5) go on the board after a diving interception by linebacker Tristen Newman gave the Cavs the ball at the Wildcat 24-yard line. Two plays later, running back Domynique Lindo ran in a 15-yard touchdown to tie the game at seven heading into halftime.

Dekaney regain the lead on its first drive of the second half, moving down the field in eight plays and scoring on a 38-yard touchdown pass from quarterback D’Juan Hines to receiver Austin Garrett. Then after forcing College Park to punt, three big runs by Williams and a 15-yard scramble by Hines to the Cavalier 9 led to a 1-yard scoring sneak by Hines to put the Wildcats up 20-7 after a missed extra point.

Wright led the Cavs with 126 yards passing, while running back Connor McPherson had 80 yards rushing.

While losing senior players like Wright and Lindo, Carson will now hope that next year’s team can take solace that two of their goals were reached this season, and one more goal remains to be reached.

“With this senior class, we set some goals and one of those was to have a winning season, make the playoffs and win a playoff game,” Carson said. “We didn’t get the last one, but we laid a foundation for our program.

“Our program is going to grow because of the great effort and their commitment.”