Football: Oak Ridge wins wild one over College Park

SHENANDOAH, Texas - Christmas and New Year's came early to the Oak Ridge High School football team. The War Eagles earned a crazy, wacky 23-20 victory over the College Park Cavaliers on Friday night at Woodforest Stadium.

Two touchdowns in the final 49 seconds highlighted a back-and-forth contest between Conroe ISD schools.

Xavier Richardson returned a kickoff 87 yards for a touchdown with 35 seconds to play, giving the War Eagles their first victory under new head coach Dereck Rush.

It followed a gutsy touchdown drive by College Park that appeared to have pulled out the clash between neighboring rivals. The Cavaliers drove the length of the field with quarterback Brett Buckley completing a 38-yard touchdown pass to Charrod Henry to give the Cavs a 20-16 lead with 49 seconds to go.

But Richardson swung the momentum one last time with his electrifying kick return.

Oak Ridge led 10-0 early and threatened to pull away before College Park's Ryder Lucas returned an interception 96 yards for a touchdown and the game was on.

Francisco Ashford extended Oak Ridge's lead to 13-7 with less than a minute to play in the first half. But as it proved at the end the game, that was still plenty of time for College Park to strike. The Cavaliers took the lead with 12 seconds remaining in the first half on a 33-yard touchdown pass from Buckley to Henry.

College Park lost four fumbles and Oak Ridge turned it over twice.

Ashford regained the lead for Oak Ridge early in the third quarter with a 24-yard field goal and the War Eagles were clinging to that 16-14 lead until the wild finish.

Oak Ridge quarterback Braden Letney threw for 119 yards (8-12-1) and rushed for another 66 yards on 17 carries to lead the War Eagles' attack. Richardson and Jason Simmons combined for 76 yards rushing.

Buckley was outstanding in drives that ended each half for College Park. He finished with 132 yards passing and added 70 rushing yards on 12 attempts. Nick Black added 68 rushing yards on 10 carries.

Henry led all receivers with 116 yards on four catches.

The War Eagles (1-5, 1-1) will bask in the victory for an extra week. They are idle while College Park (3-2, 0-1) visits Conroe for a 7:30 p.m. Friday clash at Buddy Moorhead Stadium.