WEATHERFORD — The adage about the last team with the ball winning the game rang true Friday as the Burleson Elks drove 80 yards and scored with 20 seconds left to down the Weatherford Kangaroos in a District 3-5A match, 30-27.
The 19-play march burned up eight minutes off the fourth-quarter clock, and featured fullback Blake Smith, who had 14 carries in the drive, including the 4-yard plunge to paydirt.
With a paltry 14 seconds left on the clock after the Burleson kickoff, the Kangaroos failed to make a dent in the 64-yard gap between themselves and the goal line in three tries before time expired.
Weatherford, for the first time this season, failed to make a late comeback as they had in five victories previously.
The Burleson go-ahead drive was in answer to a 16-play, 88-yard campaign by Weatherford, which chewed up nearly seven minutes and gave the Roos their first lead of the night, at 27-23.
Colton Kamper had third-down runs of 15 and 13 yards to keep the drive alive. The march culminated with a 1-yard Mitchael Rucker sneak. Josh Blanton’s extra-point was good.
Smith finished the night as the game’s leading rusher, covering 235 yards of real estate with 36 touches and was responsible for all of the Elks’ touchdowns.
Though the Weatherford defenders kept the fullback in check from big runs much of the night, Smith broke a 65-yard touchdown run in the opening quarter. The score was the second touchdown for the Elks, as they took a 14-0 lead into the second period.
Weatherford answered with a pair of touchdowns of its own in the second quarter, but failed to convert any point-after attempts. A blocked kicked foiled the first attempt, and a rare runback marred the second try. When a faulty exchange left the ball on the ground in the Roos’ 2-point conversion attempt, the Elks’ Brandon Reid scooped up the ball and ran 95 yards to claim the two points for Burleson.
The teams went into the locker room with Burleson holding a 16-12 advantage.
The contest was a display of running by both teams, and the stats attest to the equality of the contest.
Weatherford held the edge in total yards of 317, all on the ground, while the Elks gained a total of 291, also without benefit of any passing yards. The Roos had 14 first downs, Burleson had one less.
Smith’s performance leaves the fullback with nearly 2,000 yards rushing on the year.
The Kangaroos reverted to spreading the rushing yards among four different backs, much as they have done all year. With the win, Burleson moves into postseason play, while Weatherford’s season draws to a close.
Weatherford (3-3 in district play, 5-5 overall) looked to get into the playoffs after missing an opportunity a year ago, also in a deciding match against the Elks. A weird twist of fate, and numbers, would have given the Roos a path to postseason had they lost to Burleson by more than 14 points. Haltom’s 34-30 Friday night comeback win over Richland would have made the tie-breaker possible for Weatherford. The Roos were intent only on winning their way into the playoffs, but could not stop the Elks running game in the last drive of the night.
Burleson (3-3, 7-3) is set to meet Arlington High (5-1 in District 4-5A, 8-2 overall) Friday at Texas Stadium in Irving. Kickoff is set for 9 p.m.
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