By Matt Tasler/sports@trcle.com
November 30, 2008 07:44 pm
—
After pulling out a 36-21 victory over the Callisburg Wildcats on Saturday afternoon at Roughrider Stadium, the Grandview Zebras — and their fans — didn’t want to leave the field.
The players and coaches were receiving congratulations from family, friends and fans when stadium officials finally blew a whistle and asked the contingent to exit the stadium about 15 or 20 minutes after the game had ended.
The masses did what was asked of them and orderly filed out of the complex, but their reluctance to leave was well-intentioned.
The Zebras had just scored 16 points to rebound from a 21-20 deficit entering the fourth quarter and the elation on the faces of the fans, players and coaches was noticeable.
Grandview made several big plays on both sides of the ball as the teams slugged it out in a rainy, windy atmosphere.
The game began with nearly ideal conditions, aside from a brisk wind out of the north.
The wind played a major role in Saturday’s game, as the Zebras were unable to score in the first quarter while heading into the wind.
The Zebras, who had several big plays in the passing game in wins over Hamilton and Lone Oak in the first two rounds of the playoffs, finally got on the board via the big play late in the second quarter as Golson tossed a 38-yard scoring pass to Justin Burdick to take a 14-7 lead.
Last week against Lone Oak, Golson accounted for seven touchdowns, with six coming through the air.
Callisburg scored into the wind before the half was over and added another touchdown in the third when the Wildcats’ offense had the wind at their backs.
In addition to the wind, the players had to deal with a drizzling rain that pounded the playing surface and the track surrounding the field throughout the second half.
The wet field forced Grandview to be more methodical on offense as opposed to last week’s game, when Golson completed scoring passes of 48, 32, 18, 55, 37 and 7 yards in a 62-32 victory.
In that contest, Golson threw for more than 400 yards and Cochran added 131 on the ground as the Zebras racked up more than 600 yards of offense.
In Saturday’s game, Grandview managed 383 total yards, with Golson completing 14-of-26 passes for 220 yards.
The Zebras’ defense limited Callisburg to 208 yards and put the ball back in Golson’s hands a couple of times after stopping the Wildcats on fourth down.
If Grandview continues to come up with big plays on both sides of the ball in Saturday night’s game against Pottsboro, another official might have to come out and break up the party again.
Matt Tasler can be reached a 817-558-2855, ext. 2334.
Copyright © 1999-2008 cnhi, inc.