Alex drops 44-40 decision

Chuck Larsen
The Express-Star

ALEX November 11, 2006 10:46 am

— Pioneer quarterback Garrett Diel got to the outside with 26 seconds left in the game for a 43-yard tightrope touchdown last night, ending Alex's season with a shocking 44-40 home win in round one of the Class B playoffs.
After getting drubbed and shut out in their last three meetings, the senior-heavy Longhorns came in ready to end the Mustangs' hold on them in their last meeting.
Alex did everything they needed to do to win.
They overcame a fumble on their first possession of the game that gave the Mustangs a quick 8-0 lead and bounced back twice to open up a 34-22 halftime lead.
Cody Mendenhall got the home team on the board a minute in after Emilio Shriver covered a muffed Alex snap on the Horn thirteen but John Hutchins got the equalizer with a 42-yard end-around on Alex's ensuing possession.
Shriver got the Horns again with a five-yard push to cap off an eleven-play drive to give Pioneer a 14-8 lead.
After forcing a punt into the stiff wind, Gus Overstreet rambled for a seventeen-yarder and Pioneer extended to 22-8
After forcing another punt, Diel went deep to his brother Grant to set up a first and goal on the Alex nine with a minute left in the first quarter. About the time everyone was thinking “here we go again,” Alex forced a fumble and Justin Tillman covered it to get the ball back and save a score.
The teams switched ends, and now with the wind, quarterback Kelby Ketchum hit Hutchins for a 65-yard catch-and-run then Damon Avery went around end for a quick six.
A pair of big hits by Kevin Mills forced Pioneer into a punting situation from their fifteen. The kick went straight up into the wind and took an Alex bounce, setting them up on the nine. Bryson Braziel punched it in for another six and got the Longhorns within two points.
The Horn defense held and Pioneer tried a pitch on a fourth and five. Dereck Halford read it perfectly and knocked the ball down to give Alex great field position at the Stang fifteen.
Avery went back to the right side on first down for the score and Ketchum's deuce gave Alex their 34-22 halftime lead.
Pioneer had deferred to start the game and took the wind to start the second half, hoping to capitalize and climb back in it. With seven minutes left in the third the strategy paid off. After almost losing the ball on a bad snap, Diel rolled out and hit Overstreet from the six to get within four at 34-30.
Alex drove back down the field and Avery got outside from the 41 on a sweep, but his touchdown was called back on a block to the back to spring him. Make a note of this play.
The Longhorns then had to punt but their defense held again as they switched ends to start the fourth quarter. Once they got the ball back they got into trouble with a sack and a holding call. Facing third-and-25 from their own 35, Ketchum was flushed out of the pocket by a furious Mustang pass rush. The converted tailback tucked and ran, getting by the first wave then reversing fields in the secondary and running away from everyone for 65 yards and a ten-point lead.
Hutchins then came up with a big defensive play, picking Diel off at the Horn 35, but Alex couldn't get going and had to punt. A clip on a very short return moved Pioneer back to their eight but Diel screened to Jordan Tate to get to midfield then hit Jacob Mack for another fifty and a touchdown. The converted deuce got Pioneer within two with just under three minutes left to play.
Again, Alex couldn't get anything going and had to punt, and when the ball rolled dead on the two-yard line with ninety seconds left and the Mustangs out of time outs, Alex and their fans could sense the win and some vindication.
Needing 98 yards, Pioneer needed some divine intervention, and it came from the officials. On third and ten from their two, the officials flagged Alex for a personal foul. Now with a second and ten from their thirty, the crew flagged Alex for another personal foul and Pioneer was at midfield with a first down.
With 26 seconds left, the Mustangs ran the same sweep that Alex ran when Avery's touchdown was called back for a block to the back, except to the left side. Again, flags flew in the same area as Diel turned upfield and tightroped in for the lead.
Just as Alex fans saw the flag and breathed a sigh of relief, though, the official picked it up and waved the penalty off.
The touchdown stood, and in spite of protests from the Alex staff, Pioneer got the 44-40 win with a gift card.
Head coach Jim Kerbow was livid. “That was the same thing they called ours back on,” he said later, “the exact same thing. They got this game handed to them on a silver platter.”
His team was crushed. The win they worked so hard to earn was taken from them by three very suspicious calls that kept Pioneer's final drive alive. The timing of the two personal fouls on Alex and the change of heart by the referee on the suddenly-legal block that gave Pioneer the win was devastating.
“You believe what you want to believe,” he told his kids. “They didn't win that ball game.
“Hold your heads up high, you deserved to win because you did win it on the field. You did everything you had to do to win, you did things right and you didn't have to have any help. It hurts, and there's nothing I can do about it, but I am so proud of you.”
A really good game ended ugly with the officials too involved in the outcome. One team got a win with an asterisk and one went home feeling they got robbed. A playoff game, and the kids, deserved better.

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