Nederland beats Willis
HUMBLE -- Willis won respect, but Nederland won the game.
Even though renowed running back Erick Hatchett ran for 140 yards and one touchdown Friday night, the Wildkats could not stop the clutch passing of Kirk Dean.
Nederland's junior gunslinger riddled the Willis secondary with key completions in the fourth quarter -- including a clinching 30-yard TD throw to Jake Askew -- to secure a 24-17 Class 4A Division II bidistrict triumph before 8,000 at Turner Stadium.
The 8-3 Bulldogs had to overcome a slew of holding penalties, dropped passes and a scrappy Willis defense. But the bottom line is they punched their ticket into next week's area around against 10-1 Killeen Harker Heights.
Heights, the champion of 17-4A, was an easy 49-21 winner over Waller.
After the game, Nederland head coach Larry Nuemann caught himself picking apart his team's performance.
"Hey, this is the playoffs," he said. "You don't have to worry about margin of victory or what somebody else is doing. We live to fight another day. The final score is all that matters."
Not quite for the District 19-4A champion Wildkats, who entered the state playoffs with little fanfare but exited with an 8-3 record and a feeling of redemption.
"Nederland was extremely confident at the beginning, you could tell it," said Willis quarterback Andrew Edwards. "But they knew they were in a fight. They know we can play with them."
Dean, who completed 8 of 17 for 163 yards, agreed.
"They played us tougher than we thought they would," said Dean, who ran for touchdowns of six and one yards.
The Wildkats had Nederland's full attention when the Kats opened the second half with a 13-play march culminating with James Schiller's 38-yard field goal. His kick tied the score at 10 with 5:10 remaining in the third quarter.
After an exchange of three-and-outs, Nederland began at its 40 with 1:06 left in the quarter. On second down, Dean connected with Josh Atterberry for 41 yards to the Willis 19. On third and three, Dean raced around left end to the one. He bulled into the end zone on the next play with 10:19 remaining in the game for a 17-10 lead.
Willis faced fourth and three from its 46 on the next series. But more than eight minutes remained. After calling a timeout, Wildkats head coach Stan Labay opted to punt.
"We debated (about going for it on fourth down)," Labay said. "We felt like we could stop them and make them kick it back to us."
That never happened. The Bulldogs promptly rolled out a 10-play, 79-yard procession that ended with Askew's reception.
Along the way, Dean exploited a weakness the Bulldogs uncovered on film earlier in the week. He hooked up with tight end Johnny Pittman for 26 yards to the Willis 44.
Then, facing third-and-15, Pittman made a sliding catch of Dean's toss on the run for 19 yards.
"We knew they (Willis) didn't cover the tight ends well," Askew said.
Said Willis' Labay: "We relied on coverage, rather than trying to put heat on him. He didn't throw many bad passes."
Three plays later, Askew was wide open at the goal line. But he had to wait for Dean's floater, which arrived just ahead of a Willis defender with 2:30 left in the game.
"I was thinking, 'Hurry up and get here,'" said Askew of the TD throw. "Fortunately, I was open enough that I had the time."
Maybe all Dean's throws weren't perfect, but they were good enough for Neumann.
"He made the big plays when we needed them," the coach said.
Nederland's last scoring drive was sheer torture for the Wildkats offense.
"We kept waiting for the defense to stop them," said Edwards. "That was a horrible feeling standing on the sidelines."
Willis used only 50 seconds for its final touchdown drive. Edwards connected on consecutive passes of 16 and 25 yards. The Kats caught the defense napping with receiver Justin Ellis' 23-yard score to Michael Hatcher. Edwards had lateraled out to Ellis, who hit a wide open Hatcher in the end zone with 1:40 left.
Willis attempted an onside kick, but Pittman recovered. Nederland ran out the clock to celebrate its bidistrict victory.
Both teams came away optimistic after a bizarre first half.
Nederland led 10-7 but felt it had wasted excellent field position. Willis, on the other hand, felt confident it could improve on a shaky first-half effort down only by three.
Willis' offense was only on the field for nine minutes, but Hatchett's classic 74-yard run midway through the second quarter was the great equalizer.
Sweeping to his right, the junior skirted around right end and, suddenly, it became a footrace between Hatchett and Nederland's Atterberry. Weaving behind the blocking of teammate Justin Ellis, Hatchett reached the end zone with 5:43 remaining.
"If I had tried to outrun him (Atterberry), he would've tackled me," Hatchett said. "I just used Justin as a shield and got the other guy out of position."
Hatchett finished the season with 2,091 yards and 27 touchdowns.
Nederland started three first half drives at midfield or closer. But the Bulldogs managed Curtis Parks' 30-yard field goal on the final play of the first quarter and Dean's six-yard run at 6:09 of the second.
The Bulldogs overcame a holding penalty on the six-play, 27-yard scoring drive.
"The score didn't indicate the way we played in the first half," said Nederland's Neumann. "But you have to give some of the credit to Willis."
By halftime, Dean had completed just 4 of 12 passes. The Bulldogs had difficulty handling the smaller, but quicker, Willis defense.
"That's probably one of the quickest teams we've faced," said the quarterback.
That respect was only partial compensation for the Wildkats.
"Nederland has some outstanding receivers and a good quarterback," said senior defensive tackle Jason Thomas, who was a factor for the Kats all night long. "They didn't expect such a battle. But we fought down to the last minute."