Published: November 07, 2009 05:19 pm      

Second half meltdown thwarts Indians’ title hopes

By Jay Neal

sports@jacksonvilleprogress.com



Friday night began with all the usual pre-game Senior Night pomp and celebration that is annually observed at the final home game of the season.

Little did Indian fans know at the time, that would be their only moment to bask in revelry during the evening.

Lindale scored 21 unanswered points in the last 25 minutes of the game to post a 28-17 win over the Tribe and spoil Jacksonville’s bid for their first district championship in six years.

Instead, the District 14-4A title goes to Lindale, and is the Eagles’ first football championship as a member of Class 4A.

Both teams advance to represent the conference in the state playoffs, bi-district round, this weekend.

Jacksonville, who concludes its regular season with a 7-3 overall record, 3-2 in district, will tangle with the Tigers of Texas High (Texarkana) who ended their regular campaign at 6-3, 4-2 after butchering Pine Tree, 41-0, Friday. The Division I contest is scheduled for a 2 p.m. start Saturday at Homer Bryce Stadium on the campus of Stephen F. Austin State University.

Lindale (6-4, 4-1) will meet Sulphur Springs (7-3, 3-3) in a Division II affair that will be played on a date and at a location to be announced.

Two plays changed the course of the game and ultimately vaulted Lindale to victory.

The first came as Jacksonville held a 17-7 lead with just over a minute to play in the first half.

Facing a fourth-and-4 from the Tribe 35-yard line, Lindale elected to go for the first down, being well out of the range of their placekicker.

The Eagles got the first (and a lot more) as Lindale quarterback Matt Broussard put the “50-50” ball into the air down the right sideline with Chris Terry out jumping two Indian defenders and making the highlight reel-worthy grab that enabled the Eagles to have a first-and-goal from the 9-yard line with 54 ticks showing on the clock.

On the next play Broussard scurried around the right edge and scored from 9-yards out. The touchdown cut the Jacksonville lead to 17-14 which also would be the score at intermission.

“The big momentum shift in my mind as a head coach came when we had them down there on the 35 (yard line) late in the first half,” Jacksonville head coach Steve Wells said in an interview Saturday afternoon. “Their kid made a great catch; they (Lindale) got the first down and went on to score and got hot from that point.”

Lindale, after winning the opening coin toss and deferring until the second half, went to work on offense first to open play in the final half.

The Tribe defense did their job and forced the Eagles to punt on Lindale’s opening possession of the half however.

Jacksonville set up shop from their own 22 to start things off in the third quarter and moved the ball effectively, mainly due to a 31-yard catch and run by Justin Davis (from Ryan Black) on a flawlessly executed timing route.

The Indians advanced the ball all the way down to the Lindale 18-yard line in 12 plays beefier their march began to sputter due to the superb play of the Lindale secondary.

Facing a fourth-and 10 from the Eagle 18, Wells elected to go for the first down as opposed to sending placekicker, Jeff Landrum, out to attempt what would have amounted to a 35-yard field goal — Landrum had already connected on a 37-yard field goal in the second quarter that gave Jacksonville a 10-7 lead at that interval.

Wells explained his decision this way.

“The score was 17-14 at that point and I thought we were a little far for a field goal try and I thought we had a play that we would be able to bust loose on,” he said.

Black was not able to connect with his receiver in the end zone on the play, thus the ball went over on downs to the Eagles.

The play also seemed to boost the Eagles’ defense as Lindale’s defenders hurled the shutout in the second half by forcing Jacksonville to punt, throw an interception, punt, and finally turn the ball over on downs after four plays in the Tribe’s final drive of the night.

After the critical stop on fourth down, the Eagle defense did not allow the Indians past the Lindale 43-yard line the rest of the night.

As a result of a scoreless third stanza, the Eagles took their first lead of the evening at the 10:42 mark of the fourth when Broussard streaked into the end zone after running around the right side from 26 yards out. After the James Crews’ PAT — Crews was 4-of-4 on the night on point after tries — Lindale took command at 21-17.

The Eagle deal was solidified with 1:48 to play when Keandre Ross, taking the direct snap out of the wildcat formation, juked in from 13 yards out as Indian fans trotted for the exits to get a jump on post-game traffic and Eagle fans, which filled up the visitors stands like they have not been filled in many moons, jubilantly rejoiced at their team’s earning a district crown.

Jacksonville got on the board first on a quarterback sneak by Black that covered a yard and occurred at the 8:07 point of the opening quarter.

The score was set up on the previous play when Black lasered in on Brandon Orr on a timing play along the right sideline that covered 27 yards.

The Indians regained the lead, following a Broussard touchdown run of 37 yards, on the 37-yard field goal by Landrum out of an Orr hold.

A 14-yard touchdown pass from Black to Chris Hall that came with just under five minutes to play in the first half accounted for the Tribe’s final touchdown and last score of the contest.

The score was set up by a 29-yard reception by Davis on a pass from Black on a deep crossing route that came midway on the 57-yard, six-play march.

Davis was the leading Jacksonville receiver (two catches for 60 yards) on a night that was atypical for Indian pass catchers as Tribe receivers had five drops which just happened to be the same number of receptions they made as well.

Sub-par play was not limited to just the Tribe receiving corp, Jacksonville could only muster 52 total yard rushing on 29 attempts while Black also had a long evening, connecting on just 7-of-23 pass attempts (I TD, 1 INT). Black was also sacked on several occasions for substantial loss of yardage by the aggressive Lindale defense. For the game, Black lost a net of 30 yards on 10 carries, with most of the negative yardage coming as a result of sacks.

The Indian defense also did not perform up to their usual level as the Eagles outgained the Tribe 254 to 219 total yards with Broussard rushing for three touchdowns (16 carries for 100 yards) while passing for 84 yards (8-10-2) also.

No words can describe the scenario better that the ones Wells used to sum up the night .

“We picked a bad night to have a bad night,” he said. “We did not execute, especially on special teams (Indians had a blocked punt and a punt covering just 14 yards as Landrum faced the most intense rush he has seen all year), and we didn’t make the plays we needed to make.

“Credit the Lindale defense for the job they did (also); their defensive line is probably the best we have faced all year.”

In true yesterday is just a memory-mode, Wells sketched the blueprint for his team’s future heading into the playoffs.

“We have to refocus now,” he said. “This was a disappointing loss and we are disappointed about not being able to win a district championship, but we have to move on and we are still in the state playoffs and that has been one of our goals all along.

“We have to take things one game at a time now and have to be able to go out and execute and make the plays that we have been doing all year, and hopefully if we do that we can advance in the playoffs.”