Gatesville wins barn burner over Yoe

Yoe Field had seen its fair share of thrilling finishes over the years.  In 2017, there may be none that tops what we saw when Gatesville traveled to Cameron on Friday night.  

Down 31-26 with 1:27 to go in the fourth, the Yoemen had one more chance to try and pull out a win.  Cameron proceeded to march down the field quickly, ending up at the 1 after a 27-yard pass from Zack Andress to receiver Ka’Zirrius Holt.  

On the very next play, it appeared that the Yoemen had crossed the goal line on a run up the middle.  However, an illegal motion (two-men in motion) penalty was called, moving the ball back to the 6.  On the very next play, Nico Vargas took a low snap and veered to his left.  The sophomore appeared to be on his way into the endzone, with only safety Anthony Costas in his way.  The smaller Costas decided to go low, and it payed off, as Vargas was undercut and fumbled.  A fellow Hornet fell on the ball for the touchback, and one kneel down secured the 31-26 road win for Gatesville.  

“I had just dropped an interception on the previous play,” said Costas.  “I was thinking, I have to redeem myself.   He was obviously way bigger than me and I tried to cut him.  I did and he flipped over me and fumbled.”

The win improves Gatesville to 2-0 on the season - a complete 180 from their 0-2 start a season ago.  A win over the number one team in 3A is also a pretty big deal.

“I feel like right now, we are underdogs,” said Costas.  “I don’t believe any team is prepared for us to come out and beat them.  Beating the number one team in the state in 3A shows that we are a team to beat.”

For Cameron (1-1), it was a game riddled with miscues that just seemed to keep piling up.  Those are hard to recover from, especially against a quality opponent.  

“We made too many mistakes,” said Yoe head football coach Tommy Brashear.   “When you play a good football team, it’s hard to win.  I believe we had three turnovers, and I don’t want to even know how many penalties that ready killed us.”

Both teams traded a couple of empty possessions to start, but it was the Hornets that were winning field position. After only a 26-yard punt, Gatesville was already set up in four-down territory at the Yoe 32.  Hornet QB Jett Truss ended the drive with a one-yard run to put his team up 7-0 in the first.  

On Cameron’s next drive, quarterback Zack Andress threw an interception, which was returned to the Yoe 38.  Hornet receiver Zach Mueller proceeded to catch quite possibly his easiest pass of the year, as no Yoe defender was in the vicinity on the 21-yard walk-in score.  

“Football is still a field position deal,” said Gatesville head coach Kyle Cooper on the two drives.  “We were not able to get it at times in our special teams.  It’s tough to kick to Cameron and we didn’t get that done at times, but our defense made up for some of that field position, and it was huge.”

Cameron’s defense would stiffen up from that point forward, but down the stretch Gatesville got the yardage and points they needed via the tight power run formations.  After Cameron had scored to go up 26-25 with 7:05 left in the game, Tress and the offense answered right back with a 62-yard drive that took just under 6 minutes.  

“My dad is the offensive coordinator, and he said it’s about to get real in the a-gap,” said the quarterback on the game plan heading into that final drive.  “I knew exactly what that meant.  We were going to mash them and trust me and the other running backs to run behind the offensive linemen.  They were doing their best to create holes for us.  

Tress finished the drive with a 10-yard TD run, with the offensive line clearing the path for the quarterback.  

Cameron did get their offense moving in the second, as Andress connected with Holt for a 9-yard touchdown pass to cut the deficit to 14-7 at the half.  The Yoemen then scored first in the third with a 16-yard pass from Andress to Kadrian Hammond, but the extra point attempt failed to keep Gatesville up, 14-13.  

Holt had the most productive evening of any Yoe receiver, scoring his second TD on a 7-yard pass.  That gave Cameron its first lead of the night at 19-17 with 1:21 remaining in the third.  

However, the bright spot for the offense was the rushing attack, which had the 165-137 advantage over the pass in total yards gained.

DJ Fripp finished with 9 carries for 74 yards, which included a 18-yard run at the 7:05 mark of the fourth to put Cameron back up, 26-25.  Andress also had 64 yards on 13 carries.

“I was very proud of the o-line,” said Brashear.  “The running game is really there.  We have to get a little better in the passing game and a little better in pass protection.  They had two really good defensive front guys that were tough to handle.”

In Cameron, it’s always tough to lose.  But, at the same time, playing solid competition in non-district and losing could prove to be more beneficial than playing games that are essentially walkovers.   

“You can get a little better from that, but you gain a lot of improvement from games like this playing people like Gatesville,” said Brashear.  “They are a much improved football team this year.”

STATS

Cameron Yoe

First Downs: 18

Rushing: 31-165 yards

Passing: 15-26-2, 137 yards

Punts: 3-29.3

Fumbles/Fumbles Lost: 1-1

Penalties: 10-75

Individual

Rushing: D.J. Fripp, 9-74, Zack Andress, 13-64, Iverson Westbrook, 4-14, Nico Vargas, 3-9

Passing: Zack Andress, 15-26-2, 137 yards

Receiving: Kadrian Hammond, 6-59, Ka'Zirrius Holt, 5-50, Iverson Westbrook, 2-20, Dondrick Moore, 1-8

Gatesville

First Downs: 19

Rushing: 35-196 yards

Passing: 11-19-0, 138 yards

Punts: 2-58

Fumbles/Fumbles Lost: 1-1

Penalties: 9-75

Individual

Rushing: Jett Truss, 21-126, Zack Miller, 8-38

Passing: Jett Truss, 11-19-0, 138 yards

Receiving: Derrick Bayer, 4-48, Tyler Lewis, 3-41, Zach Mueller, 2-37