By Melissa Winn
The Community News
Uncharacteristic turnovers and costly penalties could have cost the Bearcats Friday night but Aledo was able to eek out a win and improve to 2-0 on the season.
Aledo defeated the Frisco Lone Star Rangers, 34-32, in front of a crowd of approximately 2,500 at Bearcat Stadium.
It was a back-and-forth affair most of the night with neither team ever leading by more than a touchdown.
Aledo won the opening toss and elected to receive and subsequently took the ball 65 yards to start the scoring. The 11-play drive was capped off by a 1-yard touchdown run from Demarco Roberts. The Bearcats missed the point-after attempt but they had also kept the Rangers’ defense on the field for nearly half the quarter.
Not to be outdone, Lone Star took the ball and marched down the field, making it to the Aledo 4-yard line before settling for a field goal.
A 55-yard TD run by Roberts and a failed 2-point attempt from Aledo made the score, 12-6.
After stopping the Rangers on their next drive, it seemed the Bearcats had the momentum when sophomore quarterback Brant Hayden threw the second of his three first-half interceptions. Lone Star took over on the Aledo 25 and scored two plays later for a 13-12 lead.
Roberts would again put Aledo back in the lead with an 8-yard TD run and this time, the 2-point attempt was successful when Hayden threw a strike to senior wide receiver Logan Flinta, who caught the ball in the back corner of the end zone for a 20-13 score.
The Aledo defense was again able to force a three-and-out but an interception gave Lone Star the ball on Aledo’s 48 that resulted in a field goal as time expired in the half with the score 20-16.
At the half, Hayden was 5-for-9 with 58 yards and three interceptions. Aledo turnovers led to 13 points for the Rangers.
The second half saw much of the same back-and-forth with Lone Star scoring twice in the third – one on a 49-yard field goal by Josh Click and another on a 51-yard TD run by Jaden Nixon – before Aledo took back the lead as the third quarter expired, 28-25.
In the fourth, Frisco was able to score again to lead by 4 but Aledo took back the lead on a 5-yard touchdown pass from Hayden to senior Jo Jo Earle. The ensuing point-after kick was blocked but the Bearcats now lead 34-32 with a little more than six minutes to go.
Frisco then had the ball at midfield but turned it over on downs with 2:40 left to go after the pass from quarterback Garrett Rangel to Ashton Jeanty fell incomplete. Aledo then was able to run out the clock after getting a couple first downs.
Aledo (2-0) is off next week and will play Oct. 16 at Bearcat Stadium against Waco University.
Full coverage of the game will be in the Oct. 9 issue of The Community News.
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