Aledo completed its 12th consecutive undefeated district season and won its ongoing state-record 91st consecutive district win after the Bearcats defeated the Arlington Seguin Cougars, 56-13, in the District 5-5A, Division II finale Friday night at Wilemon Field in Arlington.
Aledo (9-1, 8-0 in 5-5A) will face Dallas Kimball in the bi-district playoffs. Kickoff is at 7:30 p.m. Friday, Nov. 15 at Bearcat Stadium.
“The best part of the win was everybody got to play,” Bearcats head coach Tim Buchanan said. “That’s good news. It keeps players focused in practice. I thought our defense played well, and I thought we tackled well at the linebacker spot. That was big.
“We have to look at video to find out what happened to us in the kicking game – we gave up a couple of long returns. But we will fix that before next week.”
Aledo found the end zone on all five of its first-quarter possessions to put the game away early.
It took just two plays for the Bearcats to find the end zone, and it was scored by a familiar face who has missed most of the season due to injury. On second and 10 from the Aledo 31, senior tailback Jase McClellan – who had not seen the field since early September – raced 69 yards off left tackle and sprinted past the Seguin secondary and into the end zone.
Micco Little booted the extra point to give Aledo a quick 7-0 lead.
After forcing the Cougars to punt on their first possession, McClellan found the end zone again. After a 14-yard carry brought the ball deep, McClellan’s number was called again from the Seguin 7.
Taking a handoff, McClellan ran into a crowd on the right sideline, lowered his shoulders and broke four tackles before crossing the goal line with 7:51 left in the first quarter.
LIttle added the PAT for a 14-0 advantage.
Seguin got on the board on the ensuing kickoff when Jalon Hunter raced 91 yards for a touchdown. The PAT failed on a dropped snap to leave the score at 14-6.
On the Bearcats’ next series, McClellan would once again find the end zone, but the drive began with quarterback Jake Bishop putting the ball in the air.
Bishop began the drive with a 13-yard completion to Money Parks to bring the ball to the Seguin 40. Bishop then completed consecutive passes to receiver Jo Jo Earle, for 15 and 11 yards, respectively, to the SHS 14.
McClellan took over from there, scooting 13 yards down the right side to the Cougars’ 1-yard line, and then on the next play taking a handoff and scoring up the middle and untouched with 6:09 remaining in the opening period.
Little tacked on the extra point to extend the lead to 21-6.
The Bearcats’ defense – which would give up just one first down in the half – forced another punt.
Bishop would follow with the first of three touchdown passes before the half ended. His first came on a 33-yard pass to receiver Jaedon Pellegrino; the second on a 43-yard screen pass over the middle to Earle; and the third a 2-yard TD pass to a wide open Kyle “Boogie” Thompson, who was all alone in the back of the end zone.
Little added all three extra-point kicks as Aledo’s lead grew to 42-6.
McClellan would score his fourth rushing touchdown of the half to close the second-quarter scoring on a 19-yard walk-in touchdown from 19 yards out with 8:15 left in the half.
Little added the PAT to increase the Bearcats’ lead to 49-6, where it remained at the half.
“Jase got a little tired after a while, but he played well,” Buchanan said. “He took it to the house on his first carry…what else can you say? We will give Jase more and more carries every week.”
Bishop completed 11 of 24 passes for 237 yards in the first half, while McClellan rushed eight times for 154 yards and 4 TDs. Earle caught seven passes for 153 yards.
There was no scoring in the third quarter, but each team ran to pay dirt in the fourth quarter.
The Bearcats scored on a one-yard run by Steven Burns, and Seguin closed the scoring on a 56-yard TD run by quarterback X’avion Brice.
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