Llano football pulls out all the stops in win against Goliad
CAPTION: Llano football head coach Matt Green hands a trophy symbolizing the Yellow Jackets’ victory against Goliad in the Class 3A Division I regional semifinals Nov. 29 to his players. Staff photo by Jennifer Fierro
The Llano High School football team won a thrilling 30-29 contest against Goliad Nov. 29 in the Class 3A Division I regional semifinals.
Next up is Edna (13-0, 7-0 District 15-34 Division I champion) at 7 p.m. Friday, Dec. 6, at Heroes Stadium, 4799 Thousand Oaks Dr. in San Antonio, in the state quarterfinals.
“It was a fight all night long, it was a struggle,” head coach Matt Green said. “We led for 23 seconds, What matters is we led when the clock said zeros, and it’s just a complete tribute to our kids and our coaching staff and this community behind us. Nobody left, nobody failed out.”
For three quarters and 10 minutes and 50 seconds, the Yellow Jackets (12-1, 5-0 District 13-3A Division I champions) trailed or were tied with the Tigers.
But it’s what they did in the final 70 seconds that is etched in Llano glory.
After Llano tied Goliad 22-22 on a hard-fought one-yard touchdown and two-point pass, the Tigers responded with a 12-play drive that ate up about 5 minutes in the final stanza resulting in a two-yard touchdown run by quarterback Cord Zamzow. The extra point gave Goliad a 29-22 lead.
But on the kickoff return, senior athlete R.J. Coplin got the Jackets to their own 46-yard line thanks to a pass from junior Jose Sillas.
“Put our two throwers over there,” Green said. “Wherever they kick it, throw it back across and set the wall and let’s go. Great blocking by the wall. I saw Austin Humphries throw a huge block in there. I hate to point one guy out, but I saw him get a big block and it sprung us.”
On first down, sophomore quarterback Luke Davis hit senior running back Trey Mote with a swing pass that resulted in a four-yard gain. Then Davis found Coplin on a seven-yard pass and called his own number for a 10-yard run.
On first down with about 40 seconds left, Mote ran for three yards and Davis went for the kill on a perfectly thrown ball on a go route to sophomore receiver Cash Lynch, who ran down the sideline that dropped in his hands between three Tigers for the 30-yard touchdown.
Losing 29-28, the Jackets could have gone for the tie and played in overtime or go for the win in regulation. They decided to go for the win.
When the ball was snapped, Davis rolled to his right and threw to the back of the end zone with the Tigers packing the area. Out of nowhere, as the ball looked like it was going to sail incomplete, Lynch snatched it out of the air and had the presence of mind to stay inbounds for the two-point conversion and the heart-stopping 30-29 advantage with 23 seconds still to play.
“We worked that play so many times because they knew that we were going to run that comeback all night long,” Davis said. “And we knew they would bite on that comeback so hard, and (Lynch) would curl it right behind them to catch this unbelievable catch. I threw it a little high. I didn’t mean to, but he came down with two feet in. And it was an incredible catch.”
Green said it was the first time he called for that play since he was on the Lake Travis staff more than a decade ago in the playoffs. Not wanting to leave anything unturned, Lynch double checked the route with coaches and was in prime position to complete the play, the coach said.
Davis said no one on the Llano sideline considered kicking the extra point.
“We knew we were going for two,” he said. “We wanted to win right away, we didn’t want to go into overtime. We wanted to come out here victorious as soon as possible and get on the ride home.”
“I just knew that this game, there were too many turns and twists and I just knew right then we had the momentum,” Green said. “I just knew we had the mojo, and everything was in our favor at that point. And I said, ‘Let’s beat them right now,’ and our kids believe. What a throw by Luke, what a route by Cash.”
Empowered once more, the Jacket defense played with even greater intensity and focus and didn’t allow the Tigers to get a play for a positive yard. The final play was an interception by senior linebacker Colton Bailey.
Before the Jackets thrilled the community, it first had to survive a determined Goliad squad that featured strength, speed and skill.
Llano received the opening kickoff and reached the Goliad 26-yard line. But after a Mote three-yard run, the Yellow Jackets turned the ball over on downs.
The Tigers needed only one play — a 72-yard run by junior Lamont Franklin — to take the lead.
The Jackets fumbled on their next possession on their own 34-yard line.
Goliad again needed only one play, a 34-yard run to paydirt by junior Donovan Perry. The extra point was blocked, but Goliad led 13-0, which is how the opening stanza ended.
Perry added his second touchdown, this one on a 44-yard run. The two-point pass was missed, but the Tigers led 19-0.
Mote got the Jackets on the board with a tough run to the end zone from four yards out. Junior kicker Francisco Parravano added the extra point and Llano cut into the lead 19-7 with 6 minutes and 42 seconds left in the half.
Goliad responded by connecting on a 27-yard field goal for a 22-7 advantage.
Llano attempted a 27-yard field goal on the last play of the half, but it was blocked.
At the intermission, the Jackets looked to regroup.
“Our kids at halftime were obviously struggling, I’m struggling with what do we do, but there was not an ounce of quit in them,” Green said. “There never has been, and there never will be. But you could just see they were struggling to process what we got to do. We made a few adjustments on both sides of the ball. But we just told them, ‘All I can tell you — you gotta play better.’ We just simply have to play better, but we did tell them that we were wearing them down. In the second half, it became very noticeable, very quick that we had worn them down and they were tired. We were flying around and you could see that they weren’t. Our kids outplayed them in the second half. They outplayed us in the first half, we outplayed them in the second half. And we made more plays than they did when it mattered the most.”
After the two teams exchanged punts, Goliad forced a strip fumble and recovered on the Llano 41-yard line.
The Tiger offense reached the Llano six-yard line. And on third-and-goal from the 3, a high snap went over the quarterback’s head. Three Jackets flew to the ball, but junior defensive back Gavin Hays picked it up and returned it for a touchdown. But a block in the back and a personal foul happened during the play. Therefore, the touchdown didn’t count, and Llano got the ball on its 30-yard line.
No matter to Davis and company. They set out on a 12-play, 70-yard drive that ended when he hit Coplin on a two-yard pass in the end zone on fourth down. The extra point made it 22-14 with 59 seconds left in the third quarter.
The Llano defense forced a punt to give its offense another possession.
The Jackets covered 68 yards in 12 plays highlighted byMote’s two-yard run to the end zone on fourth down. Needing to get two points, Davis hit Sillas in the left side of the end zone to tie the game at 22-22 with 7:08 left to play in the game. The drive took 4:23 to complete.
“What a play — he was open,” Green said. “What a catch, what a throw. We had not shown the touchdown that we scored to make it 22 all and then the two-point conversion. We had not shown (the two-point plays) all year. We had held it and held it and held it, so two big plays, and we burned them tonight. If you’re going to burn them, that’s how you burn them.”
As he thought back between the two halves, the coach said he didn’t see the Jackets playing poorly; he saw a lot of Tigers playing well. And his message at the intermission was direct.
“Guys, we’re going to have to want it more than they do,” he said. “We’re just going to have to play better and we pointed out some things specifically we could do better. Our kids responded.”
“We just gotta have heart,” Davis said. “Coach said it in the locker room. If we don’t have heart, we’re not going to come out with the win. We all believed that we could do it. They just had heart in themselves and everybody came as a team. And when we come as a team, we come out with the win.”
Davis completed 20 of 34 passes for 196 yards with two touchdowns and had 15 carries for 78 yards. Mote had 25 rushes for 100 yards and two scores, and Coplin caught seven passes for 98 yards and a touchdown
“We knew that if we kept going and kept going, they would slow down and tire out,” the quarterback said. “We just kept pushing and pushing. Some things didn’t go our way, but a lot of things did. We just love that.”
During his postgame huddle with the players, coaches and others, who part of the program, Green reminded his players that they were told it was going to be tough to win, especially in the third round of the playoffs. .
“You’re going to have to stay with it,” he recalled saying. “Never quit, never give up and fight your way back into it, And they did — they did exactly that. Hats off to the kids and the coaches. There’s no way around — that was a team win and our kids showed the heart of a champion.”
