Dayton ends El Campo's season
Print- •
-
Share
- Share this item
-
Grab the link
Copy and paste the link:
- Blog about it
- Close
- •
-
Post a Comment
- •
Favorite- •
Class 4A, Division II regional
Dayton 17, El Campo 16
HOUSTON - Dayton couldn't stop El Campo running back D'vonte Wells in the first quarter. But at the end of the game, the Broncos had stopped the entire Ricebirds' season.
Dayton, which trailed 16-7 at halftime on the back of explosive running from Wells, charged back to win 17-16 in a Class 4A, Division II regional game at Darrell Tully Stadium on Friday.
"I was running with my head up early in the game, but for some reason I started going with my head down," said Wells, who ran for 174 yards and both of El Campo's touchdowns in the game. "That's when they started stopping me and I fumbled."
Wells began the game with a 51-yard run to set up a 3-yard touchdown and then scored on a 63-yard touchdown four minutes later. The junior, who ran for 178 yard and two touchdowns in El Campo's area win over Houston Yates last week, would average 2.7 yards on his final 14 carries. Wells also fumbled in the fourth quarter to set up the game-winning 29-yard field goal from Dayton freshman Juan Carranco.
"We never have been a team that relied on big plays," said El Campo head coach Bob Gillis. "We are a four or five yard at a time team. They really never stopped those yards in the second half, we just stopped ourselves with our turnovers."
El Campo finishes the season with a 9-3 record, while the Broncos (10-2) advance to the quarterfinals to face the winner of Saturday's Brenham-Angelton game.
El Campo had 197 yards of offense in the first half but could only gain 29 yards in the second half. The Ricebirds also had two interceptions to finish the game with three turnovers - all coming in the second half.
"I thought we could come out and do what we did in the first half the entire game," Gillis said. "We had our opportunities in the second half to keep it going, but the turnovers really hurt us. They made some big plays to stop us and to get their offense going."
Dayton starting quarterback Andres Herrera finished the game 17-for-30 passing for 267 yards, while Payton Ploch ran for a touchdown and 62-fouth quarter yards in the Wildcat-formation. Ploch was 3-for-3 passing, including a 63-yard pass to Gamal Fowler to help seal the win.
"He is a fast kid but we knew they had those plays in there," said Gillis of Ploch. "They just did a great job of executing their plays."
Notes
Defensive standouts: El Campo's Rosalino Salgado recovered a fumble for the Ricebirds for Dayton's only turnover. Bryan Sparks led the Ricebirds' defense with 1.5 sacks, while Salgado and Joey Hunt also brought down Herrera in the game.
Kicking it: Devan Luedecke bounced back from missing his first extra-point attempt to hit his next one and also added a 22-yard field goal to give the Ricebirds their 16-7 halftime advantage.
Appling's night: El Campo senior Landon Appling finished his high school football career with 51 yards rushing on 13 carries in the loss. Appling also had one reception for three yards. He finishes the season with 1,380 yards rushing and 18 touchdowns.
Dayton running: The Broncos finished the game with 134 yards on the ground, including 125 from Xavier Frank. The senior scored Dayton's first touchdown of the game on a 17-yard run late in the first quarter.
