Football: Bad quarter costs Loboes against Steers

SWEETWATER Monahans hasn’t had to bounce back from a series of big blows in almost any game this season.

But then again, the Loboes haven’t faced off against a quarterback as explosive against Case McCoy.

Trying to fight back from a furious burst of points, the Loboes eventually succumbed to No. 10 Graham 44-28 in a Class 3A Division II area playoff at the Mustang Bowl in Sweetwater.

“We fought back into it,” Monahans head coach Mickey Owens said. “We just ran out of gas. We spent so much energy trying to get back into it that we ran back out of gas.”

Ranked No. 4 in Class 3A at the end of the season, Monahans (11-1) opened the game with a 12-play, 76-yard drive that Byron Scharf capped with a 3-yard touchdown run to give the Loboes an early 7-0 lead.

“We came out fired up,” Loboes linebacker Ricky Robledo said. “As the game went on, we lost it.”

Through most of the first quarter, the Loboes kept McCoy — a Texas recruit following in the footsteps of his older brother, Colt — in check.

But McCoy and the rest of the Steers’ offense started clicking in the second quarter.

To open up the second quarter, McCoy capped a 13-play, 59-yard drive with a 1-yard sneak to tie the score. Two minutes later, McCoy hit Dylan Fulford for a 69-yard touchdown pass to take a 14-7 lead.

A Loboes fumble on the first play of the ensuing drive set up a 2-yard plunge by Cameron Bailey. And although Wade Roark hit Rex Rose for a 10-yard touchdown pass with 38 seconds left, Graham blocked the extra point, and Brian Sides returned the extra point 87 yards to give the Steers a 23-13 advantage.

“Going into the half, scoring right at the end of the half was huge,” McCoy said. “We only had like 20 seconds.”

McCoy actually had 34 seconds, but that was more than enough. McCoy hit Conner Higgins deep down the right sideline for 46 yards, then found Garrett Spears for a 6-yard touchdown to end the half holding on to a 30-13 lead.

McCoy passed for 220 yards in the second quarter alone.

Monahans has been in this situation before. On the other side of the coin.

Last year, the Loboes led Bridgeport 28-7 at halftime in the playoffs, only to give up the lead and lose in overtime. Now, Monahans — a team that lost starting quarterback Quincy Titus and leading rusher Colby Denton to injury this season — needed to orchestrate that kind of comeback.

“We were in the same position Graham was last year,” Loboes defensive end Trevor Owens said. “We told each other we weren’t quitting.”

Scharf, who picked up 97 yards on 16 carries, capped the Loboes’ first drive of the second half with a 9-yard touchdown, then picked off a McCoy pass to give Monahans the ball deep in Graham territory.

Four plays later, Andrew Gaona took a pitch into the end zone from 11 yards out, and Scharf’s two-point conversion closed the gap to 30-28.

“We had a lot of momentum coming back into it,” Roark said. “We just couldn’t finish it.”

But Monahans came close. Rex Rose intercepted McCoy at the Monahans 2-yard line to end the next drive, but the Loboes couldn’t get out of the shadow of their own end zone.

Two consecutive Monahans punts gave McCoy the ball at the Loboes 30.

And the senior quarterback capitalized, tossing a pair of fourth-quarter touchdowns to seal the win. McCoy finished 22-for-34 with 343 yards and four touchdown passes.

“We tried to pressure him, but he gets the ball away fast,” Trevor Owens said. “It was hard to get to him.”

Monahans came close to catching McCoy.

But trying to catch up to a good team cost too much energy. 

>> Graham 44, Monahans 28

CLASS 3A DIVISION II AREA PLAYOFF

At Sweetwater

Monahans.................... 7    6  14    0     — 28

Graham........................ 0  30    0  14     — 44

First Quarter

Monahans — Byron Scharf 3 run (Ty Horton kick), 6:55. Drive: 12 plays, 76 yards, 5:01. Key play: Ricky Robledo 14 pass from Wade Roark on fourth-and-four at the Graham 41.

Second Quarter

Graham — Case McCoy 1 run (Karl Baker kick), 7:20. Drive: 13 plays, 59 yards, 4:32. Key play: Dylan Fulford 16 pass from Case McCoy on third-and-6 at the Graham 45; Dylan Fulford 14 pass from McCoy on third-and-12 at the Monahans 27.

Graham — Dylan Fulford 69 pass from Case McCoy (Karl Baker kick), 5:17. Drive: 3 plays, 76 yards, 0:49. Key plays: Garrett Spears 11 pass from Case McCoy on first play of drive.

Graham — Cameron Bailey 2 run (Karl Baker kick), 3:47. Drive: 4 plays, 31 yards, 1:19. Key plays: Dylan Fulford 16 pass from Case McCoy on second-and-goal at the Monahans 18.

Monahans — Rex Rose 10 pass from Wade Roark (kick blocked), 0:38. Drive: 12 plays, 87 yards, 3:13. Key plays: Byron Scharf 17 pass from Wade Roark on fourth-and-11 at the Monahans 37.

Graham — Brian Sides 87 extra point return, 0:38. Drive: No drive.

Graham — Garrett Spears 6 pass from Case McCoy (Karl Baker kick), 0:00. Drive: 5 plays, 63 yards, 0:34. Key plays: Conner Higgins 46 pass from McCoy on second-and-10 at the Graham 48.

Third Quarter

Monahans — Byron Scharf 9 run (Ty Horton kick), 6:44. Drive: 8 plays, 66 yards, 3:07. Key plays: Trevor Owens 17 pass from Rex Rose on third-and-9 at the Graham 26.

Monahans — Andrew Gaona 11 run (Byron Scharf run), 4:43. Drive: 4 plays, 26 yards, 1:09. Key plays: Byron Scharf 5 run on third-and-1 at the Graham 17.

Fourth Quarter

Graham — Dylan Fulford 14 pass from Case McCoy (Karl Baker kick), 11:07. Drive: 3 plays, 30 yards, 0:35. Key plays: Cameron Bailey 16 run on second play of drive.

Graham — Conner Higgins 37 pass from Case McCoy (Karl Baker kick), 8:53. Drive: 2 plays, 30 yards, 0:46.

———

TEAM STATISTICS

                               Monahans           Graham

First downs................ 16                    18

Total yards................. 280                  434

Rushes-yards.......... 36-161               29-66

Passing...................... 119                  368

Comp-Att-Int.......... 11-25-0           23-35-2

Sacked-Yards Lost...... 3-18                 2-30

Punt Returns.............. 1-11                 3-25

Kickoff Returns............ 5-71                 5-98

Punts-Avg................. 5-38.0              2-29.5

Fumbles-Lost................ 3-1                   2-0

Penalties-Yards............. 6-49                 7-72

———

INDIVIDUAL STATISTICS

RUSHING

Monahans

Byron Scharf 16-97, Wade Roark 10-24, Andrew Gaona 5-19, Ty Horton 2-14, Micah Ramsey 2-9, Logan Mitchell 1-2.

Graham

Cameron Bailey 17-68, Errik Ortiz 2-7, Spencer Sims 1-4, Case McCoy 7-3, Ethan Hiser 1-2.

PASSING

Monahans

Wade Roark 10-22-0-102, Rex Rose 1-2-0-17, Ricky Robledo 0-1-0-0.

Graham

Case McCoy 22-34-2—343, Dylan Fulford 1-1-0-25.

RECEIVING

Monahans

Ricky Robledo 3-42, Trevor Owens 2-31, Rex Rose 2-19, Byron Scharf 2-18, Micah Ramsey 1-9, Bryan Azuaje 1-0.

Graham

Conner Higgins 7-137, Dylan Fulford 6-130, Garrett Spears 6-45, Corey Groves 2-27, Ethan Hiser 1-25, Spencer Sims 1-4.

INTERCEPTIONS

Monahans

Byron Scharf 1-4, Rex Rose 1-0.

Graham

None.