Football: Crane advances to quarterfinals by beating Cisco in overtime

SAN ANGELO For Cody Black, that bouncing ball in overtime meant redemption, a chance to make up for second-half mistakes.

That ball meant redemption for the Golden Cranes. And Black pounced.

Getting to that ball gave Fabian Moreno a chance to kick a game-winning field goal in overtime to give Crane a 31-28 victory over Cisco in a Class 2A Division II regional playoff at San Angelo Stadium.

Crane advances to the quarterfinals to play the winner of a regional playoff between Bushland and Henrietta. It is the first time Crane has advanced this far since it made it to the quarters in 2005.

Right after he recovered a fumble by Colton Conger to end Cisco’s first overtime possession, Black busted through the middle for 17 yards on the first play of Crane’s series to set up the field goal.

“That really helped boost me back up” Black said. “When we got that fumble back, I just wanted to get back on offense and go score.”

Black racked up 159 yards on 20 carries, caught four passes for 94 yards and scored two touchdowns.

But trying to erase Crane’s 21-7 halftime lead, Cisco (12-1), a team that played in the state final last year, stripped Black twice.

The first fumble set up a 31-yard halfback pass from Colton Conger to Cody Joyner to close the gap to a single score.

And after Crane (12-1) couldn’t overcome poor field position and punted the ball back to Cisco at the Crane 35, Vegas Hastings scored on a 12-yard run to force a 21-21 tie.

At that point in the game, Cisco had turned the tide completely.

Until Golden Cranes quarterback Jordan Cavazos kept the ball to the right side, made a couple of people miss and raced away with a 62-yard touchdown run.

“You have to give all the credit back to (Cisco),” Cavazos said. “On that run, I found some creases, got a block from Teague Esparza and made it to the end zone.”

Led by Hastings, who finished with 167 rushing yards and a touchdown, Cisco responded with a seven-play, 54-yard drive that Conger capped with a 2-yard plunge to tie the game.

And then Black fumbled again. Cisco’s Donnie Toof recovered to give the Loboes the ball back at midfield.

Five plays later, Cisco faced a fourth-and-one at the Crane 30. Get that first down, and the Loboes had a chance to end the game with a touchdown.

Crane stopped a quarterback sneak by Cisco quarterback Tanner Garcia cold.

“That was the most important thing of the day, that fourth down,” inside linebacker Justin Mendoza said. “It was a quarterback sneak, and we just pounced.”

Crane couldn’t respond with a score.

The Golden Cranes won the overtime coin toss and chose to defend the end zone first.

Black’s fumble recovery gave Crane a chance to make up for the lead that Cisco gobbled up in the second half by taking away the Golden Cranes’ running lanes on the edges.

“They knew we were trying to get on the perimeter,” head coach Naldo Esparza said. “We wanted to give Cody the ball a little more, and they just kept coming up with the big play.”

Until Black recovered the fumble, then carried four consecutive times to the Cisco 1-yard line.

Esparza called a timeout to get the right personnel on the field.

Then Cisco called a timeout to ice Moreno.

Except the Loboes simply gave the kicker a chance to focus. Moreno didn’t head to the sidelines. Instead, he stayed on the field to focus on the kick.

“That first timeout, my teammates settled me down,” Moreno said. “That second timeout worked in my favor.”

Moreno’s kick split the uprights. 

>> Crane 31, Cisco 28 (OT) 

Crane                             7  14    0    3       3 —                         31

Cisco                             0    7    7  14       0 —                         28

First Quarter

Crane — Jordan Cavazos 11 run (Fabian Moreno kick), 9:21. Drive: 3 plays, 32 yards, 0:54. Key play: Cody Black 20 run on second play of drive.

Second Quarter

Crane — Cody Black 10 pass from Jordan Cavazos (Fabian Moreno kick), 10:39. Drive: 13 plays, 80 yards, 6:03. Key play: David Contreras 16 pass from Jordan Cavazos on third-and-8 at the Crane 32.

Crane — Cody Black 1 run (Fabian Moreno kick), 3:31. Drive: 8 plays, 72 yards, 4:29. Key plays: Cody Black 69 pass from Jordan Cavazos on third-and-18 at the Crane 20;  Jordan Cavazos 1 run on fourth-and-1 at the Cisco 2.

Cisco — Colton Conger 1 run (Jordan Stovall kick), 1:38. Drive: 5 plays, 62 yards, 1:46. Key plays: Vegas Hastings 27 run on second play of drive;  Vegas Hastings 25 run on second-and-9 at the Crane 27.

Third Quarter

Cisco — Cody Joyner 31 pass from Colton Conger (Colton Conger kick). Drive: 2 plays, 34 yards, 0:36.

Fourth Quarter

Cisco — Vegas Hastings 12 run (Colton Conger kick), 10:41. Drive: 5 plays, 35 yards, 2:18. Key plays: Vegas Hastings 9 run on second play of drive.

Crane — Jordan Cavazos 62 run (Fabian Moreno kick), 9:24. Drive: 3 plays, 72 yards, 1:10. Key play: Cody Black 4 run on second-and-4 at the Crane 34.

Cisco — Colton Conger 2 run (Colton Conger kick), 6:17. Drive: 7 plays, 69 yards, 2:55. Key plays: Vegas Hastings 16 run on second-and-6 at the Cisco 47; Vegas Hastings 18 run up the middle on first-and-10 at the Crane 37.

First Overtime

Crane — Fabian Moreno 19 field goal, 0:00. Drive: 4 plays, 24 yards, 0:00. Key plays: Cody Black 17 run on first play of drive.

———

TEAM STATISTICS

                                       Crane               Cisco

First downs......................... 19                    11

Total yards....................... 453                  272

Rushes-yards............. 36-286             44-229

Passing............................ 167                    43

Comp-Att-Int.............. 11-20-0               3-4-0

Sacked-Yards Lost............ 0-0                   1-6

Punt Returns..................... 1-7                 1-14

Kickoff Returns................ 5-45                 4-68

Punts-Avg..................... 1-35.0              3-30.7

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

Penalties-Yards.......... 14-115                 2-25

———

INDIVIDUAL STATISTICS

RUSHING

Crane

Cody Black 20-159, Jordan Cavazos 14-122, Justin Mendoza 1-3, Dalton DeGraffenreid 1-2.

Cisco

Vegas Hastings 23-167, Tanner Garcia 12-41, Colton Conger 6-17, Jesse Rodriguez 2-5, Ryan Draper 1-(-1).

PASSING

Crane

Jordan Cavazos 10-19-0-162, Dalton DeGraffenreid 1-1-0-5.

Cisco

Colton Conger 1-1-0-31, Tanner Garcia 2-3-0-13.

RECEIVING

Crane

David Contreras 5-58, Cody Black 4-94, Garrett Wilson 1-10, Jordan Cavazos 1-5.

Cisco

Cody Joyner 1-31, Jordan Stovall 1-9, Colton Conger 1-4.

INTERCEPTIONS

Crane

None.

Cisco

None.