LAREDO – Thursday’s trip to the border to play Edcouch-Elsa in the second round of the 5A-DII playoffs didn’t start out so great for the Boerne High football but the night sure ended on a positive note.
One of Boerne’s two charter buses broke down on the way to Laredo, so a few phone calls were made and Cotulla ISD sent a yellow school bus to pick up the players stuck on the side of the road and drive them to the game at Shirley Field in Laredo.
Once the team had everybody there, the Greyhounds took care of business on the field and defeated the Yellowjackets, 38-3, to advance to the third round.
BHS plays Thanksgiving weekend and faces the winner of the Victoria West – Alice match up held Friday evening. The game will likely be played the Friday after Thanksgiving regardless of the opponent. For details, check the Star.
It was the bus loaded with defensive players that broke down and Boerne coach Che Hendrix said they did a great job of putting it behind them and focusing on the game.
The only thing that stood between the Boerne “D” and a shutout was a 53-yard field goal by Jesus Ramirez in the fourth quarter.
“It was a weird night,” Hendrix said. “It’s not ideal to be stranded on the side of the highway, but I was proud of them for moving on and playing ball.”
While the offense was rolling and scored in all four quarters, the defense came up with a couple of huge plays.
Early in the second, with the Hounds up 10-0, the Yellowjackets had a 4th and goal at the Boerne 1-yard line and went for it but didn’t get in after the play was stuffed short of the end zone.
Later in the game, Ryan Hooper intercepted a pass on Edcouch-Elsa’s opening drive of the second half and gave the offense a short field.
Boerne scored two plays later and bumped its lead to 24-0 to pretty much put the game away.
Hendrix said those two key defensive plays changed the momentum of the game.
“Any time you make a big play defensively, especially a goal-line stand like that, it just brings a jolt of energy to your sideline and I felt like that woke us up and got us going,” he said. “That interception was also huge for us. You talk about momentum plays on defense, we scored after that and took control.”
On the other side of the ball, Brooks Perez sparked the offense after he scored on the fourth play of the game on a 49-yard bomb from Hank Hendrix.
On Boerne’s next possession, Hendrix found Perez again, this time on a 68-yard pitch and catch to set up the Greyhounds at the Yellowjackets’ 10-yard line.
With just those two catches, Perez had totaled 117 receiving yards in the first quarter alone.
The Perez catch resulted in a Diego Jimenez 20-yard field goal for the 10-0 lead.
In the second quarter, Hendrix hit Matthew Garrison on a 44-yard TD toss and it was 17-0 by halftime.
In the third, Adam Hicks caught another Hendrix touchdown pass on a 32-yarder, and later in the quarter, Hutson Hendrix rumbled in from the 13-yard line to bump the lead to 31-0.
Later in the game, Cooper Thompson capped a 10-minute Boerne drive (9:54) with a 31-yard catch for the fourth Hendrix touchdown pass of the night to round out the scoring.
After a 2-3 start to the season, the Greyhounds (9-3) has won seven straight heading into the third round.
Offensive lineman and TCU commit Logan Schram said the team is firing on all cylinders now.
“We got things going, it was kind of a slow start to the season, but we’re a great group of guys and I think we got it figured out,” he said.
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