Decatur wins rematch with district foe Wichita Falls, cruises into state semifinals

Could the Decatur football team do it for a second time?

The Eagles met District 4-4A Division 1 rival Wichita Falls on October 14 and the game went to overtime with Decatur prevailing by four.

Friday night in the 4A D1 state quarterfinals the two met again. This time Decatur had to rally from a score down in the third quarter, but pulled away from the Coyotes 35-21 at the C.H. Collins Complex.

Decatur (11-3) will now advance to the state semifinals and meet China Spring (13-1), which defeated Anna 31-14, at a date, time and site to be determined.

“It’s really hard to beat a team, especially as good as Wichita Falls, twice in the same season, but the kids just stuck to their training tonight,” said Decatur coach Steve Huff, whose team started the season 0-3 and is on an 11-game winning streak. “They stuck to the things that they do in practice and just held tight and didn’t panic. When we got down no one really batted an eye they just got back out there and went back to work.”

A 7-7 tie at the half turned into a frenetic 35-point barrage in the the third quarter. The teams traded touchdowns on each of their first two possessions of the second half.

Wichita Falls (9-5) took a 21-14 lead after running back Cameron Gould ran a wheel route and was wide open down the left sideline. Quarterback John Ledesma hit Gould who shook a tackle at the Decatur 40, and then raced the remainder of the 79 yards with 6:56 left in the third quarter.

But Decatur rallied by scoring 21 unanswered points. Eagles quarterback Preston Escobar tied the game with a keeper off right tackle from 19 yards out at the 4:52 mark of the third frame.

Escobar had run the exact same play for a 27-yard score a series earlier to tie the game at 14.

“Wichita Falls has a linebacker that’s really good, a really good ball player, and I think that when they all focus on Nate (Palmer) they flow that direction and I take it right behind them,” said Escobar of the play. “It’s really hard when you face a team twice in a year because they’re gonna know what we do and we know what they do. Our offense really clicked tonight.

“It all started with the offensive line and they did a great job. Nate’s (Nate Palmer) running the ball like crazy and Devin’s (Devin James) running the ball like crazy. I get great protection and it all worked out.”

The offense clicking was an understatement as the Eagles rushed for 345 yards on the night. Palmer led the way with 169 yards on 23 carries, James picked up 89 yards on 13 totes and Escobar ran for 87 yards on 10 attempts.

Escobar was also an efficient 17 of 19 passing for 129 yards with Palmer on the receiving end of 11 of the passes for 35 yards. Landon Felts had three catches for 71 yards with two coming on huge third down plays.

The Decatur defense put the clamps on the Coyotes following Escobar’s second TD run, forcing two punts and picking off a pass.

Following the first punt, Palmer took a hand off on the second snap of the drive, darted up the middle, past one of his own blockers, and raced 83 yards for a touchdown that gave the Eagles a 28-21 lead with 1:07 left in the third.

“Power is a big play for us and we studied it and ran it against their front all week in practice,” said Palmer. “It was something we haven’t seen yet and it’s really hard to beat a team two times. I just trusted my linemen and stayed behind them and broke out.

“I was sprinting and I looked behind me and I thought that they were going to catch up to me so I started running even faster...I had to get out of there.”

Following the second punt, the Eagles took almost five minutes off the fourth quarter clock on a drive capped by a 1-yard TD run by James.

Sophomore linebacker Lane Hesteande put in the dagger, picking off a pass with 4:41 left at the Eagles’ 25 yard line.

“I saw the quarterback pull the ball and saw his eyes go straight out,” said Hesteande. “For the first time in a long time I got my eyes out and saw the receiver going on a 10-yard out and I got under it, looked down at my feet and tapped them in and was like, how did I just do that.”

Decatur came out of the gate strong, but couldn’t finish on two of its three first-half drives.

The Eagles ran 23 plays to 5 for Wichita Falls in the first quarter. Decatur had drives of 14 plays, nine plays and 10 plays in the first half, but loss the ball on downs twice.

The 9-play drive gave Decatur a 7-0 lead at the 49 second mark of the first quarter when Palmer ran it in from two yards out. The second quarter was a different story as the Coyotes got their offense on track. Wichita Falls answered right away, but not after some craziness.

The Coyotes drove from its own 31 to the Decatur 21, but the drive stalled and Patricio Maldonado came on and booted a 38-yard field goal. An illegal motion penalty on the play brought the offense back out facing a fourth-and-9 from the 26.

Ledesma was hit as he tossed up a lame duck that was almost certain to be picked off by the Decatur secondary. But Caden Justice jumped just in front of an Eagles’ defensive back, plucked the ball out of the air, and raced to the end zone to tie the game at 7 with 10:31 left in the half.

“This is a blessing getting this far,” said Palmer. “We have a really good team and I wouldn’t want to be anywhere else. I love my team, I love my o-line and even the cheer team on the sideline, band, and fans.

“I appreciate everybody. It’s a great feeling.”