TEXAS BOWL
Class 2A
Division I
Paul Pewitt Brahmas (11-3)
vs.
Brookshire Royal Falcons (12-1)
7 p.m., Saturday, Pennington Field, Bedford
HERE'S HOW THEY GOT HERE
PAUL PEWITT BRAHMAS (Dist. 14-2A)
Arp Won 44-6
Clarksville Won 34-8
Hooks Lost 0-7
Mount Vernon Lost 14-20
Linden-Kildaire Lost 8-13
Pattonville Prairiland*Won 69-0
Paris Chisum*Won 54-0
Cooper*Won 61-14
Bogata Rivercrest*Won 46-6
Honey Grove*Won 48-7
Farmersville (Paris) Won 47-21
Scurry-Rosser (Memorial, Mesquite) Won 35-0
Boyd (Pennington, Bedford) Won 38-32
Canadian (Wichita Falls) Won 55-19
BROOKSHIRE ROYAL FALCONS (Dist. 27-2A)
Sealy Lost 12-20
Houston KinkaidCanc.Frances Hempstead Won 57-0
Van Vleck*Won 53-12
East Bernard*Won 20-6
Ganado*Won 33-22
Boling*Won 56-14
El Maton Tidehaven*Won 31-10
Wallis Brazos Cons.*Won 62-0
Schuleburg (Rhodes, Katy) Won 53-39
Troy (Pflugerville) Won 35-7
Comfort (Alamodome) Won 28-8
Mart (Westlake, Austin) Won 23-21
Don't be fooled by the four losses on these teams' records. They all came against upper-crust 3A programs -- by a grand total of 26 points.
Paul Pewitt expected to be here, and despite a three-game non-district losing streak against some North East Texas powerhouses, the Brahmas have had little problem getting here.
Likewise, the Brookshire Royal Falcons have been stopped by nothing but the four-time defending 3A state champ and a hurricane.
Pewitt was ranked No. 3 overall and No. 2 in Division I in the Pigskin Prep Class 2A preseason poll.
Royal was ranked No. 8 overall and No. 4 in D-I. The Falcons took over the No. 1 ranking in Week 3 and have not relinquished it.
With no test of any kind coming in district, Paul Pewitt lined up three heavyweights to close non-district.
The first saw the Brahmas face Hooks as seven-point underdogs. Hooks returned the opening kickoff for the game's only score in a 7-0 Hornet win.
What followed was a 20-14 loss to Mount Vernon and a 13-8 loss to Linden-Kildaire. Pewitt entered district at 2-3 but was still ranked in the Top 5 by Pigskin Prep.
The Brahmas' only real challenge since early October has was their 38-32 win over Boyd.
What was supposed to be a tough road trip turned into a mini-vacation with a 55-19 pasting of 12-1 Canadian in Wichita Falls.
Brookshire Royal opened with a 20-12 loss to 3A champ Sealy, and the Falcons' next game against Houston Kinkaid was cancelled by Hurricane Frances.
But while Schulenburg fell from grace with an 0-3 start, Royal moved to the top of the ratings. And nobody has been able to knock the Falcons off their perch yet.
Not that there haven't been qualified challengers.
First came district play with heavy-hitters like East Bernard, Ganado and El Maton Tidehaven. Royal beat all three by an average score of 28-13.
Schulenburg got its act together and ran into Royal in bi-district. The Falcons took a wild 53-39 decision.
A rout of Troy was followed by a 28-8 win over previously-unbeaten Comfort. Then came last week's much-anticipated showdown with Mart, won by the Falcons, 23-21.
We're sticking with Royal in a close game. But we'll hedge our bet with this warning: If Royal suffers a couple of turnovers and Paul Pewitt gets ahead by 10 or more, that's the ballgame and it could get ugly from there.
(Note: Don't discount the disadvantage Brookshire Royal has in long travel.)
Prediction:
Brooshire Royal 24, Paul Pewitt 23.
News-Journal.com: East Texas Sports
Brahmas sack Brookshire-Royal in 2A final
By Bob Ward
Sports Editor
BEDFORD, DEC. 14 -- Da Bulls are champions. But it was the biggest member of the 1998 Class 2A, Division I state champion Paul Pewitt Brahmas who made the 28-26 victory stand up as 370-pound junior tackle Melvin McGary ended Brookshire-Royal's title hopes with a sack on a two-point conversion attempt in the closing minutes.
The win Saturday night at Pennington Field marked Pewitt's first-ever state championship. It had been to the finals once before in 1993, but lost a 21-8 decision to Goldthwaite.
It also ended the Brahmas' season where they had started, as the No. 1 team in Texas. Pewitt was the preseason top-ranked team. It finished the year with a 12-3 mark, while Royal closed out at 12-2.
A Kenny Boyd 6-yard fumble return for a touchdown, Jimmy Wilkerson's 4-yard quarterback keeper and Ben Johnson's run of 59 yards rallied Pewitt from a 14-7 halftime deficit.
It was the run by Johnson straight up the middle of the field that gave the Brahmas a 28-20 advantage with 4:47 to play.
However, Pewitt and its fans had to withstand the running of Royal's Thomas Tarver, who ground out 257 yards on 40 carries. The Falcon senior tailback became only the 11th player in state history to rush for over 3,000 yards in a single season.
Tarver carried on 18 of the Falcons' final 21 plays from scrimmage.
Quarterback Ivan Vaughn scored twice in the fourth quarter, both from 5 yards outs as Royal tried to force overtime. Vaughn's third score of the game closed the gap with 1:14 remaining as the Falcons drew within two at 28-26.
However, on the two-point conversion, McGary broke through the line and sacked Vaughn. Pewitt then ran out the clock.
Boyd, who scored on offense and defense, finished with 193 yards on 12 carries, while Johnson gained 121 on 15 totes.
Tarver lived up to his billing in the first half, picking up 174 yards on 19 carries. The Falcons ran 26 rushing plays as a team. An 80-yard burst up the middle by Tarver staked Royal to a 14-7 halftime advantage. He also tacked on the conversion as the Falcons went for two with 1:49 still to play in the first quarter.
Just 12 seconds earlier, Boyd had taken the Brahmas 69 yards as they rallied to tie the game. Jarvis Hill's point-after gave Pewitt what would be a short-lived 7-6 advantage with 2:01 left in the opening quarter.
Boyd's romp up the left sideline came after Royal had taken a 6-0 lead. Both teams combined for 21 points in a span of 30 seconds. The Falcons opened the scoring as Vaughn ran a bootleg to the left side of the field untouched into the end zone.
The brief two-play, 21-yard scoring drive followed a Pewitt fumble.
However, McGary stopped Vaughn short of the goal line as the Falcons went for the two-point conversion with 2:19 showing on the clock.
The Brahma miscue came three plays after they appeared to catch an early break as Royal's Joy Lewis had fumbled into the end zone for a touchback. A shanked punt by Wilkerson for only four yards had set up the Falcons with a first down at the Pewitt 20-yard line.
But on third-and-goal from the five, Royal missed a golden opportunity. The Falcons also missed another scoring chance when Willie Sierra's 35-yard field goal attempt was tipped at the line of scrimmage and missed wide to the left right before halftime.
December 12, 1998 - Texas Football's streak of picking at least one state champion during the preseason was extended to 15 straight years, with Paul Pewitt's 28-26 victory over Brookshire-Royal in the Class 2A Division I Texas Bowl tonight in Bedford.
Pewitt's 370-pound nose guard Melvin McGary, one of our five finalists for the Fox Sports Southwest Class 2A Player of the Year Award, tackled QB Ivan Vaughn on a two-point try with 74 seconds remaining to preserve the victory.
Kenny Boyd rushed for 286 yards on 11 carries to lead the Brahmas, scoring on a 69-yard run and on a 6-yard fumble return.
Brookshire-Royal's Thomas Tarver rushed for 258 yards and one TD on 40 carries, to finish the season with a state best 3,316 yards for the '98 season, with 43 TDs.
Houston Chronicle
Date: FRI 12/11/98
Section: SPORTS
Page: 10
Edition: 3 STAR
PILING UP THE YARDS / Tarver sets Royal 's pace entering clash with Pewitt
By BRIAN McTAGGART Staff
BROOKSHIRE - The weight room at Royal High School is a converted automobile shop garage. The football stadium sits behind the campus in the middle of a windy cow pasture.
You might say it's a tough place to field a winning high school football program, much less the kind of surrounding that's likely to produce one of the state's few 3 ,000-yard rushers. Just don't say it to Thomas Tarver.
Tarver, a senior running back, has led the Royal Falcons (12-1) to Saturday's Class 2A Division I state-title game in Bedford against Omaha Paul Pewitt (11-3 ) with shifty feet, great acceleration and incredible balance. Tarver combined all those tools to become just the 13th player in state history to get 3 ,000 yards rushing (3 ,058 yards and 42 touchdowns) in one season.
"Thomas makes you a pretty good coach," Falcons coach David Walthall said. "I didn't know how many people had gone over 3 ,000 yards, and I really didn't know it was such a milestone. To be honest, we really didn't worry about how many yards he had. We were just trying to win football games."
Royal dropped down from Class 3A before this season and expected to make a run at the state title after competing in the same 3A district as four-time state champion Sealy and state-ranked Hitchcock for two seasons. The Falcons finished third and out of the playoffs both times.
Royal began the season losing 20-12 to Sealy but has won 12 games in a row since, including a perfect 7-0 mark in highly-competitive District 27-2A.
"We played Sealy extremely well and Hitchcock beat us with less than a minute left last year to knock us out of the playoffs ," Walthall said. "So we felt like going into 2A with the returning kids we had we were going to be pretty good. But these kids have played extremely well and verified what we believed all along that we can make a serious run at the state championship."
After outlasting Schulenburg 53-39 in the first round of the playoffs , the Falcons beat three undefeated teams - Troy (35-7), Comfort (28-8) and Mart (23-21) - to reach the state finals. And with every Falcons win, the yards began to pile up for Tarver.
"We expected to go this far," Tarver said. "Everybody's real happy. We played a whole bunch of champions already so one more won't hurt."
Walthall, a former assistant at Elsik, compares Tarver to former Rams running back Kalief Muhummed, who enjoyed a successful career at Baylor.
"He can make people miss," Walthall said. "He does a good job of getting down the field in a hurry. He can accelerate real well and he's got excellent balance. He's got all the tools.
"His biggest drawback in terms of college recruiting is he's not a very big kid. He's about 160 pounds and he's hopefully 5-7. About 100 pounds of that is his heart, though. He's a great high school football player, and I'm hoping someone will give him a chance to play in college."
Tarver wasn't really aware he had joined such an elite group of rushers until he read about it in the newspaper. "I didn't set it as a goal," he said. "But who wouldn't mind having 3 ,000 yards in one season? It feels good. I have to give thanks to the offensive linemen. They really worked hard all summer and coach has been pushing us hard all summer and all year round. It's been a good season." A good season that can turn great with a victory over Pewitt on Saturday.
Although the Brahmas aren't unbeaten like Royal 's last three opponents, Walthall has warned his team about their tough schedule. "They were similar to us in their non-district schedule," Walthall said. "They played 3A schools to get ready for their district and playoffs and came out 0-3 , but they can play. They're probably the most athletic team we've seen this year in the playoff run. We're happy with the level we're playing at.
"We beat three undefeated teams and this is going to be another war, we know that."
But the Falcons have the secret
weapon
in Tarver.
(But the weapon wasn't
explosive enough to blow out the BULLS)
*Parenthesis is my add()
News-Journal.com: East Texas Sports
Playoff doubleheader for Morris Co. teams
From staff reports
BEDFORD, DEC. 7 -- Morris County should certainly be well represented here Saturday at HEB's Pennington Field, showcasing two of its teams - the Daingerfield Tigers and Paul Pewitt Brahmas.
The Tigers (13-0) will open the doubleheader against Childress (12-2) at 3 p.m. in a 3A semifinal game to be followed by the Class 2A Division I (big school) State Championship game between Pewitt and Brookshire Royal at 7 p.m.
Tickets bought prior to the games cost $6 for adults and $5 for students. All tickets at the gate the day of the games will cost $8. One ticket is good for both games.
HOUSTON CHRONICLE ARCHIVES
Date: SUN 12/13/98
Section: SPORTS
Page: 9
Edition: 4 STAR
Omaha Pewitt nips Royal for title
By SCOTT KAISER
Staff
BEDFORD - Royal found out that the little things make the difference in big games.
The Falcons failed on three of four extra-point plays, and that proved to be the difference as Omaha Pewitt prevailed 28-26 Saturday night in the Class 2A Division I championship game at Pennington Field.
Royal rallied within two points with 1:14 left on a five-yard touchdown run by quarterback Ivan Vaughn, but 370-pound nose guard Melvin McGary broke through and stopped Vaughn on the two-point attempt to douse the Falcons' title hopes.
"I was just going for the ball, baby," McGary said. "I had no idea what they might be running. I was just looking for the ball."
Vaughn was trying to run the dive option to the right side, but McGary never gave the play a chance to develop.
"We probably didn't block the thing right, and I'll take responsibility for that," Royal coach David Walthall said. "That's been a good play for us throughout the year, but he came through and made a good play. You have to give the kid credit."
Royal's 3 ,000-yard rusher, Thomas Tarver, was again spectacular as he ran for 265 yards on 39 carries. But he was offset by Pewitt 's 1-2 punch of Kenny Boyd and Ben Johnson. Boyd , who also stripped Tarver for a touchdown on defense, had 193 yards on 11 carries, and Johnson gained 120 yards on 15 carries.
"You don't have bad players when you get this far," Walthall said. "Everybody can play."
Tarver had 173 yards in the first half as the Falcons grabbed a 14-7 lead. The opening 24 minutes were relatively quite with the exception of a 30-second span in the first quarter when three touchdowns were scored.
The Falcons struck first after a fumble recovery by Demetrius Brown at the Brahma 21. A seven-yard run by Tarver and a facemask penalty moved the ball to the nine, and on the next play Vaughn faked the dive handoff, then cut back through a big hole and raced into the end zone to make it 6-0.
On the next play from scrimmage, Boyd took a pitch around the right side and raced 69 yards for a touchdown. Jarvis Hill added the kick to give Pewitt a 7-6 lead.
Tarver answered with an 80-yard scoring run. The 160-pound senior took a simple handoff over the right side, made a sharp cut upfield and went untouched to the end zone. Tarver then added a two-point run for a 14-7 lead.
The Falcons threatened to score late in the second quarter after driving from their 27 to the Brahma 18, but Willie Sierra's 35-yard field goal try with 31 seconds remaining was wide left.
Pewitt drove from its 32 to the Royal four on the first possession of the second half but was stopped short on fourth-and-two. On the next play, Tarver was stripped by Boyd while fighting for extra yards, and suddenly the game was tied at 14.
"We've been real fortunate all year, and I don't think we've turned the ball over the last three ballgames," Walthall said. "The law of averages catches up with you sooner or later."
The teams then exchanged touchdowns twice, with the difference being that Hill was perfect on his four extra-point kicks. When Royal pulled within 21-20 on a scoring run by Vaughn, Sierra's kick was blocked by Michael Kelley.
"Our kids played their guts out," Walthall said. "We just came up two points short, and it wasn't because we weren't trying. We just ran out of time."
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