The Shiner St. Paul football team rallied from 14-0 down to defeat Fort Worth Lake Country Christian School 29-21 on a cold and wet Saturday afternoon at Hewitt’s Panther Stadium in the TAPPS IV state championship game. The championship is the Cardinals’ third in the last four seasons. [ NOTE: click photo to enlarge ]

photo by Lori Raabe

HEWITT — Two third-quarter turnovers for the St. Paul defense were absolutely huge.

The Cardinals captured their third state championship in the last four years with a 29-21 win against Fort Worth Lake Country Christian Saturday afternoon ( December 8, 2018 ) at Panther Stadium.

St. Paul kicked off in the third quarter with a pooch kick that they were able to recover and then got another turnover later in the quarter.

“Coming out of halftime, instead of taking the wind, Sam (Benes) has done a good job of high pooch kicks and that was huge,” St. Paul head coach Jake Wachsmuth said.

The Cardinals got three turnovers on the day while giving up just one.

“We have struggled with turnovers and we did have one today. Earlier in the year, we were struggling with turnovers. But the ones we got today helped us,” Wachsmuth said.

St. Paul had a strange path to the championship; they lost all seven non-district games but won two of three in district (only loss was to eventual champions Sacred Heart 28-7) to qualify for the playoffs.

St. Paul won a home playoff game against Woodlands Christian, beat Beaumont Legacy Prep in The Woodlands and rallied to win a rematch against the Indians 24-17.

“You just keep plugging away at it. I thought the schedule was really tough,” he said. “Then it got tougher as we got beat up. Some of these guys out here today missed two, three, four games.

Garrett Wauson hunts down a loose ball in St. Paul’s 29-21 win over Lake Country Christian in the state game. [ NOTE: click photo to enlarge ]

photo by Lori Raabe

"I think the turning point was when we got beat by Sacred Heart in district because that was a pretty good thumping and sometimes you need one to get your attention.”

It was the final game for seniors Jared Pesek, Kellen Opiela, Dalton Jahn, Joseph Natal, Cole Brown, Patrick Green and Garrett Wauson who have helped the Cardinals win three state titles.

“When you are 0-7 as seniors, you might be thinking time for basketball but our seniors just stuck with it,” Wachsmuth said. “Our seniors won three championships during their time and my guess is they are the first group to have done that. We have had lots and lots of good kids and teams; the way we did it this year is something they will always remember. Trophies and medals go away, but not memories.”

The game was the second straight comeback win for the Cardinals.

“It was that way in the semifinals against Sacred Heart. I guess they like that. I don’t really like it; I could go for being ahead 30-0 at halftime,” Wachsmuth said. Not really many adjustments; they got out attention and we just played better. Lake Country Christian really came out and hit us in the mouth.”

Natal led St. Paul on offense as he ran for 149 yards and two touchdowns. “We just never gave up down 14-0 and I knew we would not,” he said. “We just kept fighting the whole way. I knew I had to do what I had to do to help.”

After forcing the Cardinals to punt on their first possession, the Eagles went 65 yards in five plays and scored on a 5-yard run by Hayden Whites.

St. Paul head coach Jake Wachsmuth recoils a little bit from the tradtional Gatorade/water bath following the end of St. Paul’s win over Fort Worth Lake Christian School in the TAPPS IV state title game. [ NOTE: click photo to enlarge ]

photo by Mark Lube

St. Paul drove past the 50 but turned the ball over on downs on an incomplete pass at the 37. LCCS then took three plays to score, getting a 59-yard run by Koby Haynes for a 14-0 advantage.

Later, the Cardinals stopped the Eagles on fourth down at the St. Paul 33 and two plays later, Kai Giese had a 38-yard pass to Brown, a few plays later, Natal had a 12-yard run to get St. Paul on the board, down 14-6.

A 1-yard run by Natal on St. Paul’s next possession capped a 50-yard drive but the two-point run was no good and St. Paul was down 14-12.

On the next drive, LCCS failed a fourth-down conversion and the Cardinals got inside the 20, getting help from a 16-yard pass from Giese to Jahn. The Cardinals soon faced fourth down at the 17 near the end of the first half and Benes connected on a 38-yard field goal to give St. Paul its first lead, 15-14.

The pooch kick recovery early in the third gave St. Paul the ball at the 23 and Giese ended the drive with a 5-yard touchdown run on a bootleg for the 22-14 Cardinal lead.

The Eagles had a fairly long drive that ended in the Cardinals getting a fumble at their own 38. Nine plays later, Giese had a 10-yard touchdown strike to Jahn for a 29-14 Cardinal lead at the 11:52 mark of the fourth frame.

Haynes had a 54-yard touchdown run with just over 10 minutes left in the game. LCCS’s defense picked off Giese on the next drive and ran it in for an apparent touchdown that was negated on a penalty. That drive ended as St. Paul forced another turnover and missed a 38-yard field goal try that resulted from the takeway.

The Eagles made one last attempt to get a score but turned the ball over on downs with a minute left, leaving St. Paul to kneel down and confirm the victory.

GAME STATISTICS

  Shiner St. Paul 29, Fort Worth Lake Country 21
    TAPPS Division IV State Championship Game
    Saturday, December 8, 2018, 12:00 noon
    Panther Stadium, Hewitt Midway ISD (South Waco)


  SCORING SUMMARY

                     1    2    3    4      F
    St. Paul         0   15    7    7  -- 29
    Lake Country    14    0    0    7  -- 21


  SCORING DETAILS:

    First Quarter
      LCC - Hayden Whites 5 run (Landry Graves kick), 7:41 1Q.
      LCC - Koby Haynes 59 run (Graves kick), 1:59 1Q.

    Second Quarter
      SSP - Joseph Natal 12 run (kick failed), 9:03 2Q.
      SSP - Natal 1 run (run failed), 2Q.
      SSP - Sam Benes 34 FG, 2Q.

    Third Quarter
      SSP - Kai Giese 5 run (Benes kick), 9:07 3Q.

    Fourth Quarter
      SSP - Dalton Jahn 10 pass from Giese(Benes kick), 11:52 4Q.
      LCC - Haynes 54 run (Graves kick),10:35 4Q.


  TEAM STATISTICS:

                      St. Paul   Lake Country
    First downs             17             13
    Rushes-yards        50-251         32-204
    Passing yards           67            117
    Passes              4-13-1          10-18
    Penalties-yards       3-38           6-73
    Fumbles-lost           1-0            4-3
    Punts-aver          2-23.0         1-27.0


  INDIVIDUAL STATISTICS:

  Rushing
    SSP: Joseph Natal 31-149, Kai Giese 6-58, Noah Boedeker 10-46, Zak Johnson 1-2, Team 2-(-6).
    LCC: Koby Haynes 9-123, Hayden Whites 19-97, Ryan Hollingsworth 4-(-16).

  Passing
    SSP: Giese 4-13-1-67.
    LCC: Hollingsworth 10-17-0-117, Caden Price 0-1-0-0.

  Receiving
    SSP: Dalton Jahn 3-29, Cole Brown 1-38.
    LCC: Marcus Rodriguez 2-46, Connor Donathan 2-35, Price2-19, Whites 2-7, Matt Stephens 1-9, Haynes 1-1.