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Throwback: Wildcats grind out season-opening win over gritty Lewisville
BY Matt Welch, mwelch@starlocalnews.com
MURPHY -- In an age of high-octane offenses and video game-like statistics, the Plano Senior and Lewisville football teams waged a rough-and-tumble affair in their respective season openers.
While it was rough in some spots for both squads, it was the Wildcats defense that stood firm late to preserve a 14-7 win over the Farmers Friday at Kimbrough Stadium.
"It was kind of an ugly victory," said Jaydon McCullough, Plano head coach. "I hate to say that and it kind of reminded me of some of those old Plano-Lewisville games where every game was 7-0 or 14-7."
Both drives went awry though, starting with a pass from Lewisville's David Vasquez that was tipped and intercepted by Plano senior Austin Connell that turned the ball over to the Wildcats with 7:20 left in the fourth quarter. A mishandled Plano snap -- one of several on the night -- would give the Farmers another shot. A 22-yard run by Deandre Brown again brought Lewisville to the Plano 24, but a pair of penalties turned first-and-10 into first-and-20.
A sack by senior Matt Hintz, a tackle-for-loss by junior David Griffith and a Lewisville holding penalty forced the Farmers to punt on fourth-and-35 with 2:12 left.
"We fell apart in the end, but that's part of the process," said Gregg Miller, Lewisville head coach. "It's something we've been working on and these kids are aware of it. This isn't a bad place to be right now, but you never like losing."
The Wildcats required a timely third-down conversion from senior Richard Lagow to senior Anthony Antwine that covered 45 yards to seal the victory.
"As ugly as it was, there were some bright spots in there," McCullough said. "I still feel like we did what we had to do to win. It'll all play out and we might be wrong, but we think Lewisville is a pretty good football team."
It was a fitting end for the quarterback-receiver duo, who teamed up one quarter earlier to jumpstart Plano's second scoring drive of the night. Tasked with third-and-20 on the Plano 16, Lagow found Antwine deep for 55 yards -- the longest of the wide out's 133 yards on four catches -- to bring the Wildcats within striking distance.
A 14-yard run by senior Andre Morman predicated a 21-yard touchdown run on a reverse to sophomore Mitchell Hansen to give the Wildcats their first lead of the night with 27 seconds left in the third.
Plano scored its 14 points unanswered, overcoming a sluggish start to string together a 10-play, 75-yard drive in the closing moments of the first half that ended with a 1-yard touchdown run by Lagow with six seconds left. The quarterback opened his 2012 campaign with 181 yards on just 7-of-12 passing.
That was because the Wildcats dealt the Farmers a heavy dose of ground-and-pound with 152 yards on 29 carries, paced by 55 yards from senior Braylan Campbell.
Lewisville did much of the same in Miller's debut as head coach, scrapping the spread look the team showcased in recent years for an under-center approach that gave the Wildcats' fits for much of the first half.
"We just want to be a little bit harder to beat," Miller said. "We can't say we'll right the ship and win a ton of games. We're disappointed, but there were some good things for us tonight."
The Farmers totaled 160 rushing yards, led by 124 from Brown. Vasquez and Lewisville's short-range pass attack equated 74 yards on 9-of-10 passing with Vasquez adding a 3-yard rushing touchdown that got the Farmers on the board at 7-0 with 3:05 left in the first half.
"David did a good job of controlling the game and Deandre ran very well," Miller said. "[Brown] didn't see some holes early but that just comes with transitioning to the I, which is much faster. He made progress, though."
That was the extent of the scoring by the Farmers, who next play Friday at 7:30 p.m. in a road tilt at Ennis. The Wildcats travel to Irving MacArthur at the same time.
"I know these kids are excited because of how we ended the season last year," McCullough said. "We know we've put in a lot of work and in several ways, it showed tonight because we didn't quit and we finished."
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