pirate4state
12-24-2006, 02:20 AM
Panthers boot Celina from 3A title game, win Division II crown
In his only attempt of the season, Liberty Hill kicker nails winning last-second field goal :eek: :clap:
By Richard Tijerina
AMERICAN-STATESMAN STAFF
Sunday, December 24, 2006
WACO — Two years ago, Gio Magallon decided to quit football.
A select team soccer player who had played for Liberty Hill since the seventh grade, Magallon wanted to take a break from football.
http://img.coxnewsweb.com/B/09/47/86/image_4986479.jpg
Kenny Reeves celebrates with kicker Gio Magallon after Magallon nailed a field goal in the final seconds to give Liberty Hill its first title.
Duane A. Laverty
WACO TRIBUNE-HERALD
http://img.coxnewsweb.com/B/05/46/86/image_4986465.jpg
Liberty Hill's Sammy Post, left, is brought down by Celina's Josh Green during the second quarter. Post was held to just 43 yards in the win.
Duane A. Laverty
WACO TRIBUNE-HERALD
But last year around Christmas time, he approached head coach Jerry Vance and asked for his spot back on the team.
Vance said fine — if Magallon put in the time and effort, including working out on his own, to prove himself to his teammates that he deserved to come back.
Magallon did.
And on Saturday, with 10 seconds left in a 19-19 game against a team that had won 31 straight times, Magallon felt all the pressured you'd expect a kicker to feel with a state championship on his shoulders.
He hadn't attempted a field goal all season. One of his extra points had already been blocked. Celina's kicker had already missed two extra points himself. It was cold and wet and windy. And this was not only the biggest kick of his life, it was also the biggest kick in the history of Liberty Hill High School.
Magallon nailed the field goal, and in a matter of seconds, mighty Celina's winning streak had been snapped, and Liberty Hill had won the Class 3A, Division II state title in a 22-19 thriller that left players, coaches and fans screaming, yelling, hugging and, yes, crying.
"This is the way to go out, Gio!" said assistant coach Brian Herman, hugging Magallon.
The kick came at the end of a wild back-and-forth game pitting two state-ranked teams that boasted plenty of firepower. Celina quarterback Seth Davis, who was injured earlier in the playoffs, returned for the state final. There was Celina's 31-game winning streak. There was the impressive Liberty Hill (13-2) rushing attack, a three-back arsenal of Brent Bode, Doug Allman and Sammy Post.
But, in the end, the state championship was won by a defense that largely has been overshadowed by the offense, and by a kicker who made the most of his only field-goal attempt of the season.
Bode got his yards — 194 of them, 79 coming on a second-quarter touchdown run — but Allman largely was held in check, save for a huge fourth-down carry that went 61 yards for a third-quarter score, and Post was held to 43 yards and fumbled three times.
For the defense, it was the little things that went a long way.
It was defensive back Brandon Cardenas killing a Celina (15-1) scoring threat in the first quarter by batting down a fourth-down pass at the 10-yard line. It was stopping another Bobcats scoring threat by wrapping up on Dru Prosser on a fourth-down carry at the 13-yard line. It was turning back a fourth-and-1 at the Liberty Hill 12-yard line with five minutes left in the game.
And it was perhaps the biggest defensive play of all, a fourth-and-1 for Celina with 1:14 left in the game at the Liberty Hill 40-yard line, on an all-out blitz by the Panthers. Charley Waldrep — who was so brilliant all afternoon, rushing 21 times for 180 yards — tried to squirt to the left-hand side. But junior safety Dustin Gonzales, taught to tackle the first thing he sees on that particular all-out blitz play, nailed Waldrep for a 3-yard loss.
"We've played these people all year long, the Wimberleys, the Cueros, the Huttos, the Cameron Yoes," Vance said. "We've had to make those kinds of plays, or we wouldn't be where we are."
It set up the game-winning drive — Liberty Hill practices a two-minute drill every day in practice — and the Panthers made the most of it. Quarterback Thomas Perrin used a pump fake to scramble for 13 yards. Bode rattled off a huge 30-yard gain that set the Panthers up at the Celina 13-yard line with 57 seconds left.
It set up Magallon to be the hero, a 31-yard kick. One play earlier, just before a short Perrin run on third down, Vance tried his best to prepare Magallon for the biggest kick in his life.
This is what you practice to do every day, Vance told him. It's no big deal. You've got the leg — Magallon once booted a 55-yarder in practice — and it's time to use it.
"He smiled at me," Vance said. And then he went in.
What was Magallon feeling?
"Numbness," he said. He couldn't hear a thing.
"He's an awesome kicker," Bode said. "He's probably hit 90 extra points this year, so we knew he could do it."
Kenny Reeves, the holder, bobbled the snap ever so slightly. But the senior recovered, placed the ball down, and Magallon kicked it true.
http://img.coxnewsweb.com/C/07/95/85/image_4985957.jpg
Liberty Hill coach Jerry Vance holds up the Class 3A Division II football championship trophy after his team defeated Celina 22-19 Saturday in Waco
LINK (http://www.statesman.com/sports/content/sports/highschools/index_football.html)
In his only attempt of the season, Liberty Hill kicker nails winning last-second field goal :eek: :clap:
By Richard Tijerina
AMERICAN-STATESMAN STAFF
Sunday, December 24, 2006
WACO — Two years ago, Gio Magallon decided to quit football.
A select team soccer player who had played for Liberty Hill since the seventh grade, Magallon wanted to take a break from football.
http://img.coxnewsweb.com/B/09/47/86/image_4986479.jpg
Kenny Reeves celebrates with kicker Gio Magallon after Magallon nailed a field goal in the final seconds to give Liberty Hill its first title.
Duane A. Laverty
WACO TRIBUNE-HERALD
http://img.coxnewsweb.com/B/05/46/86/image_4986465.jpg
Liberty Hill's Sammy Post, left, is brought down by Celina's Josh Green during the second quarter. Post was held to just 43 yards in the win.
Duane A. Laverty
WACO TRIBUNE-HERALD
But last year around Christmas time, he approached head coach Jerry Vance and asked for his spot back on the team.
Vance said fine — if Magallon put in the time and effort, including working out on his own, to prove himself to his teammates that he deserved to come back.
Magallon did.
And on Saturday, with 10 seconds left in a 19-19 game against a team that had won 31 straight times, Magallon felt all the pressured you'd expect a kicker to feel with a state championship on his shoulders.
He hadn't attempted a field goal all season. One of his extra points had already been blocked. Celina's kicker had already missed two extra points himself. It was cold and wet and windy. And this was not only the biggest kick of his life, it was also the biggest kick in the history of Liberty Hill High School.
Magallon nailed the field goal, and in a matter of seconds, mighty Celina's winning streak had been snapped, and Liberty Hill had won the Class 3A, Division II state title in a 22-19 thriller that left players, coaches and fans screaming, yelling, hugging and, yes, crying.
"This is the way to go out, Gio!" said assistant coach Brian Herman, hugging Magallon.
The kick came at the end of a wild back-and-forth game pitting two state-ranked teams that boasted plenty of firepower. Celina quarterback Seth Davis, who was injured earlier in the playoffs, returned for the state final. There was Celina's 31-game winning streak. There was the impressive Liberty Hill (13-2) rushing attack, a three-back arsenal of Brent Bode, Doug Allman and Sammy Post.
But, in the end, the state championship was won by a defense that largely has been overshadowed by the offense, and by a kicker who made the most of his only field-goal attempt of the season.
Bode got his yards — 194 of them, 79 coming on a second-quarter touchdown run — but Allman largely was held in check, save for a huge fourth-down carry that went 61 yards for a third-quarter score, and Post was held to 43 yards and fumbled three times.
For the defense, it was the little things that went a long way.
It was defensive back Brandon Cardenas killing a Celina (15-1) scoring threat in the first quarter by batting down a fourth-down pass at the 10-yard line. It was stopping another Bobcats scoring threat by wrapping up on Dru Prosser on a fourth-down carry at the 13-yard line. It was turning back a fourth-and-1 at the Liberty Hill 12-yard line with five minutes left in the game.
And it was perhaps the biggest defensive play of all, a fourth-and-1 for Celina with 1:14 left in the game at the Liberty Hill 40-yard line, on an all-out blitz by the Panthers. Charley Waldrep — who was so brilliant all afternoon, rushing 21 times for 180 yards — tried to squirt to the left-hand side. But junior safety Dustin Gonzales, taught to tackle the first thing he sees on that particular all-out blitz play, nailed Waldrep for a 3-yard loss.
"We've played these people all year long, the Wimberleys, the Cueros, the Huttos, the Cameron Yoes," Vance said. "We've had to make those kinds of plays, or we wouldn't be where we are."
It set up the game-winning drive — Liberty Hill practices a two-minute drill every day in practice — and the Panthers made the most of it. Quarterback Thomas Perrin used a pump fake to scramble for 13 yards. Bode rattled off a huge 30-yard gain that set the Panthers up at the Celina 13-yard line with 57 seconds left.
It set up Magallon to be the hero, a 31-yard kick. One play earlier, just before a short Perrin run on third down, Vance tried his best to prepare Magallon for the biggest kick in his life.
This is what you practice to do every day, Vance told him. It's no big deal. You've got the leg — Magallon once booted a 55-yarder in practice — and it's time to use it.
"He smiled at me," Vance said. And then he went in.
What was Magallon feeling?
"Numbness," he said. He couldn't hear a thing.
"He's an awesome kicker," Bode said. "He's probably hit 90 extra points this year, so we knew he could do it."
Kenny Reeves, the holder, bobbled the snap ever so slightly. But the senior recovered, placed the ball down, and Magallon kicked it true.
http://img.coxnewsweb.com/C/07/95/85/image_4985957.jpg
Liberty Hill coach Jerry Vance holds up the Class 3A Division II football championship trophy after his team defeated Celina 22-19 Saturday in Waco
LINK (http://www.statesman.com/sports/content/sports/highschools/index_football.html)