It will happen, but in our lifetime?

Rick Mauch

I am convinced that the Rapture will come before the Aledo Bearcats lose another district football game. In case you’ve lost count, they’ve now won 131 straight dating to 2007.

They extended their national record with a come-from-behind 15-14 win over Ryan Oct. 3 in Denton.

It was there for the taking for Ryan. The Raiders led 14-2 and appeared to have a firm grasp on the game, having just returned an interception 52 yards for a touchdown midway through the third quarter.

We should have known, however, that the Bearcats (6-0, 4-0 in District 3-5A Division I) had the Raiders (4-1, 3-1) right where they wanted them. After all, we’ve all seen this movie before.

In 2023, Ryan came back from a 17-0 deficit to take a 19-17 lead. However, Aledo quarterback Hauss Hejny broke free for a 57-yard touchdown run on third-and-11 in the closing seconds for a 25-19 Bearcats victory.

Last season Ryan came to town again and stormed out to a 27-8 first half lead. In the end, though, it was Aledo that came back to win 42-27.

This time, however, the game was in Denton, on Ryan’s own turf. In addition, Ryan had won the last meeting between the two — albeit not in district play — when they came back to defeat the Bearcats 31-21 in the Class 5A Division I quarterfinals in 2024.

The Bearcats came into last Friday’s game ranked No. 1 in the state. Ryan entered No. 4, but with all the hunger of someone stranded on a desert island seeing a cheeseburger for the first time in four years.

They had confidence. They had talent. They had swagger.

What they didn’t have was something that cannot be measured. When you’ve won as much as the Bearcats have — remember, they also have a dozen state championships — Godzilla could take the field as underdogs against them.

“The will to win, it’s just part of a tradition of this program,” Bearcats coach Robby Jones said. “No one wants to be the team loses a district game.”

And you’d better believe players keep up with the streak.

“The tears were coming. I had to fight them back,” said an elated senior defensive end Cooper Cyphers, adding, “Even though it was tight, this game was so much fun.”

Earlier this season I wrote that the Bearcats’ defense was the strongest part of the team. It was rock solid once again, holding Ryan to a single score and scoring two points of their own by forcing a safety with an intentional grounding in the end zone penalty.

But the offense has to get credit for rallying against a stout Ryan defense. When Aledo switched schemes and went with quarterback Lincoln Tubbs in the second half, the Bearcats threw the ball just five times and ran it 34 times — including the last 27 plays they had possession.

Ryan had no answer.

Aledo also overcame the numerous mistakes and penalties they had made through the first two and a half quarters. This included back-to-back holding penalties that left them a second-and-30 at their own 31.

Ryan helped Aledo’s cause at that point, committing a pass interference penalty that might very well have changed the entire game. Suddenly, Aledo had a first down at its own 46.

From there, the Bearcats committed just one more penalty, a 5-yarder late in the game.

“That was such a momentum shift. It all came to us and we never gave it back,” junior offensive lineman Grant Forman said. “That’s how you play football!”

There’s an old saying — or if there’s not, I’m creating it now. It’s one thing to have an opponent down, it’s quite another to put them away.

Surely someone said that before, right?

Either way, Ryan has learned that lesson all too well several times this decade.

Jones, always humble, in typical coach speak, diverted attention by saying the Bearcats still have four district games to play. He noted that they have to go on the road again to play Richland (5-1, 4-0) on Oct. 24. Last season in Aledo, the Royals led by two touchdowns last season before the Bearcats came back for a 49-42 overtime victory.

“We’d better be ready. Richland is very good and we saw what they almost did last season against us,” Jones said.

It will happen. The Bearcats will someday be on the short end of the score in a district game. They can’t go from now to eternity without it ever happening again, can they?

Can they?