The Tigers flew past Killeen Ellison 35-21 to secure a playoff berth and in turn, make a couple of games tonight have a bit more meaning in the playoff seedings for District 12-5A.
“No more scenarios,” said a relieved Consol head coach Jim Slaughter. “Tigers are in the playoffs and we don’t have to worry about all that other stuff.”
But a few more teams do. With the win, the Tigers, who improved to 6-4 overall and finish district at 5-2 to finish no worse than second, secure the Division I top seed. Ellison can still make the playoffs if Temple beats Shoemaker and Bryan beats Belton. That would put Ellison, Bryan and Shoemaker in a three-way tie for fourth place in the district standings, and Ellison, who fell to 5-5 and 3-4 would have the advantage in the point tie-breaker.
But that doesn’t mean a thing to Ellison coach Buddy McBryde, who would rather not hope other teams come through for him.
“Of course, I’d much rather be assured of a playoff spot,” he said. “But our kids gave it their all tonight and never quit.”
The Eagles couldn’t find a good way to stop the sophomore running game of Chris Nutall and Clinton Banks. Nutall rushed for 150 yards and scored twice while Banks added 160 yards and a score.
“That pretty well speaks for itself,” Slaughter said of the totals. “They are tremendous athletes.”
They did their damage done early, starting their first possession on their 32 and driving 68 yards in just over five minutes, to take a 7-0 lead on a 7-yard run by Nutall. The 10-play drive saw Nutall carry just twice for 9 yards while Banks had the other eight carries for the rest of the yardage.
“They had two plays that hurt us,” McBryde said. “The jet sweep and the dive. We knew they were coming; we just couldn’t beat their blocks.”
Ellison did have a response in the form of Daniel Cobb, who scored on a 5-yard run on the Eagles’ first possession to knot the game at 7 after the opening quarter.
It looked like that was going to be the beginning of a little momentum builder for Ellison, which then forced two consecutive punts. But that momentum was short lived.
The second punt gave the Eagles the ball at the Tigers’ 46, but on first down, Ellison’s pass was intercepted by Andrew Fletcher. Three plays later, Banks gave the Tigers a 14-7 lead.
“It was close,” McBryde said of the interception. “We could have caught it, they could have caught it or it could have gone out of bounds.”
The Tigers would add one more score before the half to go up 21-7 and built that up to a 35-14 lead after the third.
And then the Eagles, who looked left for dead entering the fourth, suddenly found a little life. A fumble by Consol’s Javon Searcy was recovered by Ellison’s Nelson Devin at midfield. The Eagles were able to march down the field and cut the lead to 35-21 with 8:10 to go.
They then caught Consol off guard with an onside kick and had the ball back at the Ellison 42. But after a 7-yard gain by Jaron Turner on first down, Ellison stalled out and turned the ball over on downs, effectively letting Consol run the clock out and reclaim a spot in the playoffs.
“This was a big night for our defense,” Slaughter said. “They had some big stops and a key stop after the onside kick."
The Tigers will likely either play Mesquite or Desoto in the first round of the Class 5A playoffs. The game time has been set for 7:30 p.m. Friday at Waco ISD Stadium.
mhood@temple-telegram.com
