The Lake Highlands football team waited an hour and twenty minutes through a weather delay to play Garland in Thursday night’s game at Williams Stadium. Then they waited for almost 47 minutes of game time to score. But that score, a touchdown with 1:02 left, was enough to thwart Garland, 7-6.
Coming off last week’s disappointing loss to Mesquite Horn, the Wildcats were a determined team against Garland. That determination went unrewarded after a blocked field goal and four fumbles – all in Garland territory.
LH started its final drive on its own 11 yard line with 4:10 left. The Cats pounded the ball with quarterback Ricky Zorn and running back Desmond Roland during the final drive – save for one 22-yard completion to Deondre Glover on a third down. Zorn’s one-yard run with 1:02 left, followed by Jason Dann’s extra point, gave LH the win.
For some postgame reaction from the jubilant LH team, click on the jump.
"It’s all about perseverence," LH coach Scott Smith said. "The guys were getting the job done and persevering through mistakes."
Smith said the team was focused during the final drive.
"With 4:10 left to go, you’ve got your captain quarterback [Ricky Zorn] and captain running back [Desmond Roland] telling people in the huddle, ‘We’re going to get it done,’" Smith said. “And that’s what they did between the two of them. And our offensive line did a great job the whole drive."
After the third and fourth turnover, it would have been easy for the team to say, "That’s it, we’re snakebit."
"We never said it once," Smith said. "Guys kept fighting hard. All it did was tighten down their resilience a little bit. It made them mad… It was us shooting ourselves in the foot and our defense stepping up."
Defensive back David Green made a clutch interception to end Garland’s final drive. That made up for an interference call on Green that helped Garland get its second field goal. Green also picked up a big first down on a fake punt.
"David’s a tremendous player," Smith said. "Most of the time they don’t throw it over there because he’s a great cover guy and the fastest guy on the field."
Zorn gave credit to the offensive line, saying it dominated Garland’s defensive front.
"We’d been so close the whole game," Zorn said. "We were so fortunate the defense gave us a chance to punch it in at the end."
Dann, the kicker, said there were no butterflies when he lined up for the game-winning extra point.
"I’ve worked so hard on fundamentals, that [an extra point] is the easiest thing you can do," Dann said. "I wasn’t nervous at all."
