High School Sports

By JIMMY HICKS
Staff Writer

Football fans were treated to an exciting final minutes of the fourth quarter Friday night at McCallum Stadium as the West Rusk Raiders defeated T.K. Gorman, 29-23.

After Beau Bower's 2-yard touchdown run, Santoz Gonzales carried the ball in for the two-point conversion to build the Raiders' advantage to 23-9 with 9:00 left in the contest.

After the two teams traded possessions, the Crusaders' Michael Mueller recovered a fumble at the Raider 45-yard line.

Gorman scored on four consecutive runs from Kevin Navetta. The last carry, a 4-yard run, cut the deficit to 23-15 with 4:51 left in the fourth quarter.

With the home crowd standing, Gorman's defense smacked a Raider runner and Justin Harris caught the fumble in mid-air and returned it 41 yards to the Raider 6-yard line.

After two consecutive running plays lost two yards for the Crusaders, quarterback Alex Fergerson found Nick Brunson in the end zone for an 8-yard scoring strike. Fergerson bootlegged around the corner for two points and the tie at 23-23.

On the Raiders' next play from scrimmage, Daniel Thompson scampered 80 yards around the visiting sideline to put West Rusk up 29-23 with 2:33 left in the contest.

The Crusaders drove to the Raider 38 before the drive stalled and time ran out.

West Rusk rushed for 457 yards and Thompson had 204 yards on 17 carries. Josh Patin added 160 yards for the Raiders.

Navetta was held in check for most of the game and finished with 69 yards and two touchdowns.

He startled the crowd in the waning moments of the first half. Navetta took the pitch from Fergerson and stopped and started down the home sideline and received a nice block from Harris to score from 35 yards out for a Gorman 9-7 advantage at halftime.

-- -- --

West Rusk 29, T.K. Gorman 23

At McCallum Stadium, Tyler

West Rusk 0 7 8 14 -- 29

T.K. Gorman 2 7 0 14 -- 23

First Quarter

TKG -- Safety, punter kicked ball out of end zone, 2:35.

Second Quarter

WR -- Josh Patin 13 run (Chris Johnson kick), 9:19.

TKG -- Kevin Navetta 35 run (Peyton Lumley kick), 1:24.

Third Quarter

WR -- Jorge Barios 1 run (Daniel Thompson run), 6:26.

Fourth Quarter

WR -- Beau Bower 2 run (Santoz Gonzalez run), 9:00.

TKG -- Navetta 4 run (kick blocked), 4:51.

TKG -- Nick Brunson 8 pass from Alex Fergerson (Fergerson kick), 2:49.

WR -- Thompson 80 run (kick blocked), 2:33.

EST. ATT.

-- 1,100.

WR TKG

First Downs 20 13

Rushes-Yards 59-457 23-28

Passing Yards 0 121

Comp.-Att.-Int. 0-3-0 12-25-1

Punts-Avg. 2-31.0 4-36.2

Fumbles-Lost 2-2 1-0

Penalties-Yards 11-100 9-90

JOSH PATIN of West Rusk celebrates after sacking T.K. Gorman quarterback Alex Fergerson during the first series of the game Friday night at McCallum Stadium.
(Staff Photo By Tom Turner)