Hondo Anvil Herald

Harper runs past Cowboys

 

     Harper -- A dominating ground game carried the Harper Longhorns to a 48-8 win over D’Hanis last Friday, Oct. 16, in District 14-2A-II play.

     The Longhorns rushed for 445 yards and seven touchdowns, while the defense intercepted four D’Hanis passes.

     The Cowboys, now 6-2 after opening the year with six straight wins, are 2-2 in district play, and will go on the road once more this Friday, Oct. 23, with a 7 p.m. game at Brackett. 

    Harper (6-1, 2-1) needed only three plays to get on the board, with Jace Helfrich going 47 yards for the first of his five rushing touchdowns, just 80 seconds into the game.

     The Longhorns intercepted a D’Hanis third-down pass to set up a 32-yard, five-play drive. Helfrich scored from a yard out, and Garrett Ressmann added his second PAT for a 14-0 lead.

     The Cowboys’ next two possessions both ended with interceptions, and in between, D’Hanis stopped Harper on downs.

     To open the second quarter, the Longhorns drove 79 yards for their third score, a three-yard run by Marcus Hernandez. The two-point try failed.

     D’Hanis got on the board with a 10-play drive after the Harper kickoff. Most of the drive was on the ground, with Julius Sandoval doing the carrying. Then on 3rd-and-21, Evan Craft found Kase Braden for a 35-yard scoring pass. The conversion pass to Josiah Rodriguez cut the Harper margin down to 20-8 with 4:42 left in the half.

     The Longhorns overcame a 3rd-and-26 with a 47-yard gain on a screen pass, their only completion of the night.Five plays later, quarterback Braydon Lake kept it for a six-yard score, then followed that with a two-point conversion run, to make it 28-8 with 1:22 on the clock.

     D’Hanis had enough time to drive to the Harper 25 before halftime, but the Longhorns’ fourth interception of the half ended the Cowboys’ threat.

     Harper scored on its first three possessions of the second half, with Helfrich taking it to the endzone from 3, 4 and 63 yards.

    The Cowboys’ best drive of the half lasted five minutes at the end of the third and start of the fourth quarter. The drive was almost exclusively through the air, and got as far as the Harper 9 after a roughing the passer penalty. But a fumble three plays later ended the march.

     Braden had 109 yards receiving on seven catches, while Rodriguez had 66 yards on six receptions.