Bearcats bounce back to defeat Lancaster 37-27

Cole Crawford was smiling like he had just opened his favorite gift on Christmas morning.

And why not? He and his Aledo Bearcats teammates on the special teams were celebrating a turnaround that was key to a 37-27 victory in their home opener against Lancaster on Friday, Sept. 6 at Tim Buchanan Stadium.

In fact, it was his career-long 46-yard field goal with 6:51 to play that for all intents and purposes put the game out of reach, giving Aledo a three-score lead at 37-20.

“Oh man, it was a really good feeling,” Crawford said. “I’ve hit from there plenty of times in practice. I just told myself it was just another kick and to trust my offensive line.”

Crawford had earlier kicked a 28-yard field goal that put Aledo up 10-6 midway through the second quarter. It came after Kadon Winkfield had scored a 13-yard TD and Lancaster countered with a TD, followed by a penalty that forced a missed 35-yard extra-point attempt.

“We need him to have confidence and we need to have confidence in him to make those kicks,” Bearcats coach Robby Jones said. “We said let’s give this kid a chance to build his confidence back up. In a playoff situation we might need that field goal.”

Special night

Crawford’s kicks were only part of the special teams highlights a week after they were a factor in a 35-30 season-opening loss at Denton Guyer. Others included:

• Jacob McIntire partially blocked a punt that set Aledo up at the Lancaster 24, with Ray Guillory scoring a 15-yard touchdown, his first of three scores on the night, for a 17-6 lead with 4:15 left in the first half.
• Kutter Harrel pounced on a muffed punt with just over a minute remaining the game, giving the Bearcats the ball back at their own 37, squelching any hopes of a last-minute miracle for the Tigers.
• Pierce Ling averaged more than 41 yards per punt, including a 53-yarder that pinned the Tigers at their own 1. On the next play, Aledo’s Ben McElree registered a tackle in the end zone for a safety and a 19-6 halftime lead.
• Lamel Swanson returned a punt 25 yards to the Lancaster 22 before Crawford’s career-best kick.

In addition, another kickoff return of 37 yards by Adrian Fuller was nullified by a penalty. Fuller would, however, later have his second interception of the season from his cornerback position.

“You wanna talk about a big-time change, special teams played about as well as we could ask them,” Jones said.

Big game for Guillory

While he said he’s still not 100 percent recovered from his knee surgery, the Lancaster defense is no doubt wondering what Guillory might have done to them if he were. He rushed an unofficial 15 times for 172 yards and three touchdowns.

Guillory’s second score gave the Bearcats a 26-6 lead early in the second half. It came on the first play after Lancaster lost 39 yards on a bad snap on a fourth down punt attempt.

Then, after the Tigers (0-2) scored back-to-back touchdowns, including a 79-yard pass from quarterback Carter Jones to Emmanuel Choice, to close within 26-20, Guillory delivered a run that had folks doing a double-take.

In the final seconds of the third quarter and the Bearcats at their own 44, he broke several tackles, weaved and bobbed his way through the would-be tacklers en route to a 56-yard touchdown. A two-point conversion followed, and just like that, Lancaster’s momentum was in Aledo’s hip pocket as the Bearcats built the lead back to 34-20.

“Ray looked like the old Ray,” Jones said. “He still has to get back to that top end speed, but he’ll continue to work and get back to that.”

Guillory, who now has an unofficial 261 yards and four TD in two games, said he still has another “gear” in his running.

“I’m building into it. I’m getting into that gear,” he said, adding that after nine months of no contact following surgery, he is “very hungry.”

First varsity start

With starting quarterback Gavin Beard out with an injury, sophomore Nash McElree got the start. While he was intercepted twice — one the result of a tipped ball — Jones said the sophomore newcomer to the varsity did what was asked of him.

McElree completed five of 13 passes for 36 yards — four to Kaydon Finley for 30 yards. He also had a couple of runs of 11 and 10 yards, the latter setting up Crawford’s first field goal.

And he completed a two-point conversion pass to Blake Burdine.

“It was a great job by Nash. We told him to be himself, you don’t have to do anything special, just guide the team. You don’t have to win the game by yourself,” Jones said.

Beard’s status is day-to-day, Jones said.

“He’ll meet with the doctor. Possibly he’ll be back next Friday (Sept. 13 at Brewer), but we’ll have to see. It might be a pain tolerance deal,” Jones said.

Taking away Lancaster’s speed

The Tigers are known for speed, as is most every program at Lancaster. Their state championship basketball team regularly got downcourt in the blink of an eye. Their track programs win or contend for state titles annually.

But this night the Tigers’ speed was nullified, for the most part. On offense, the Bearcats offensive line provided consistent protection for Nash and opened holes. On defense, Aledo held Lancaster to 16 plays of three yards or less, including 10 plays for negative yards and two more for zero yards.

Meanwhile, the Aledo offense had nine plays of 10 or more yards, including runs of 56, 40, 25, 15 and 12 yards by Guillory.

“You’ve got to give credit to our kids’ training. That always allows us to keep up with teams faster than us,” Jones said. “If we go to a track meet with Lancaster, they’re going to be faster than us at just about everything, but our kids train and prepare for this and it’s a credit to them.”

Next up

The Bearcats begin District 3-5A Division I play at Brewer on Friday, Sept. 13 at 7 p.m. The Bears, projected as a playoff team entering the season, fell to 0-2 with losses of 26-13 at home to Saginaw and 27-14 at Lake Dallas, both 2-0.

Aledo has dominated the series by an 18-2 margin, including a 59-13 win last season at Brewer.