Football: Highlanders let late lead slip away in 35-31 playoff loss to Skyline

WACO – Playing against a team ranked first in the state and seventh in the country, there’s no need for The Woodlands to hang its heads after losing a fourth-quarter lead.

But no doubt, the Highlanders will be hurting from this loss for a while.

Dallas Skyline scored with under three minutes left and stopped a late Highlander rally to take a 35-31 win in the Division I, Region II-5A final Saturday night at Waco ISD Stadium. The Woodlands led for most of the game, but could not get a big play late in the game to salt it away.

“If you watched (Skyline) last week (against Klein Oak), you saw that in the second half is where they pulled away,” Highlander coach Mark Schmid said. “You knew they were going to come out with guns a blazing. We just needed to respond and get a couple of stops.”

The Woodlands tried to stop the Raiders with less than nine minutes left in the game, but a 34-yard run by running back David Greene early in the drive got the offense going and got it to the Highlander 10-yard line. The defense did force a loss on a Greene run, but was wiped away on an offsides penalty. Then after holding them to four yards on three plays, quarterback Devante Kincade scored on fourth down to put Skyline ahead for the first time in the game.

On the Highlanders’ ensuing possession, a penalty and a sack put them at fourth-and-22, but a pass interference penalty gave them life. But with under a minute remaining, the Raiders played tough pass coverage and knocked away three passes to end the game.

In the fourth quarter, Skyline brought a lot of pressure on quarterback Lance Miles and at the same time, tightened the coverage on receiver Blake Webb.

“They brought backers and a bunch of stunts, and they came out and played,” Schmid said.

The first score came off of Skyline’s first drive of the game, when a Kincade pass was intercepted by Highlander defensive back Kolbi Brown, who ran 66 yards down the sidelines for a touchdown.

Skyline recovered on its next possession, as the Raiders drove 80 yards on 11 plays, which included a 21-yard scramble by Kincade on a fourth down play. Running back Ellis Onic took it in from three yards out to tie the game at seven.

The Woodlands regained the lead on its next drive, relying on a 20-yard pass from Miles to Webb and a big run by running back Randy Cooper. Webb then scored on an end-around play from three yards out, just getting inside the pylon.

Marshall Bainton added a 24-yard field goal near the beginning of the second quarter to increase the Highlanders’ lead to 10. But Skyline responded thanks to a couple of nice runs by Green that set up an 8-yard touchdown run by Kincade to make it 17-14.

With under a minute left in the half, Miles had a pooch punt that pinned the Raiders back at their own 1-yard line. Then an interception by defensive back Lane LeBouef gave The Woodlands great field position that resulted in an 11-yard touchdown strike from Miles to receiver Houston Brown to put the Highlanders up 24-14 at halftime.

Skyline (14-0) forced a three-and-out to start the third quarter and took five plays to score. Kincade found receiver Thomas Johnson for a 10-yard touchdown to cut the lead to three.

The Woodlands responded with an 11-play, 69-yard drive that featured Cooper getting runs of 13 and nine yards before scoring from three yards out to make it 31-21. On its next drive – thanks to a 35-yard pass from Miles to Webb – the Highlanders got as close as the Skyline 25 before a couple of incompletions and a screen play that was snuffed out by the Raider defense gave the ball back to Skyline on downs heading into the fourth quarter.

The Raiders began its fourth-quarter comeback with a big 35-yard touchdown run by Onic to cut the lead to 31-28. The Highlanders

“When we got to their 25 and we didn’t get anything out of it was a critical point in the game,” Schmid said. “Our kids did an awesome job. They played hard, came to practice every day excited, they liked the game and each other. This was a great year. ”

Despite the disappointment, The Woodlands players have had a great season. A 13-1 record and advancing to the state quarterfinals after three straight years of being eliminated in the first or second rounds of the playoffs exceeded goals for the season.

But coming so close to making it to the state semifinals will be a feeling the players and coaches will ponder all offseason long.

“I’m extremely proud. I felt this was a winnable game for us, and we let it slip away,” Schmid said. “I can’t fault the effort that was there, but at certain points, they just had better people on the field.”