The World Series might have ended two nights ago, but the Magnolia Bulldogs needed its home run hitter in the biggest way.
Colin Leahey is that guy and he was, metaphorically-speaking, swinging for the fences in the second half of the 17th Magnolia Bowl Friday night.
With the Bulldogs trailing at halftime, the senior scored three rushing touchdowns, he surpassed 1,000 yards on the season and 200 yards on the night as the Bulldogs took a massive 27-14 win over rival Magnolia West.
The victory keeps Magnolia’s playoff hopes alive while also ending its home slate with a memorable night, especially for the seniors.
“He’s as solid of a kid that you’ll ever be around,” Magnolia coach Craig Martin said of Leahey. “It’s not surprising that he’s the one that shows up in big moments and makes plays.”
The Bulldogs (5-4, 4-3) snapped a two-game losing streak in the process and won for just the second time at home this season.
“It’s a sad feeling because I love this place, but it was great to end it on a win in the Mag Bowl,” Leahey said after doing the senior walk from end zone to end zone with his classmates. “It’s a sad feeling, but a happy feeling.”
Magnolia West (1-8, 0-7) dropped its seventh straight game and fell below its 19.9 points per game average after throwing up a season-high 42 points on the scoreboard last week in a loss to Tomball Memorial. It’s the second straight season the Mustangs have lost to the Bulldogs, but they still own a 10-7 lead in the all-time series.
The Mustangs led 7-3 at halftime in a penalty-plagued, slow-going and sloppy first half of football for both teams.
“The biggest thing was to quit being our own worst enemy,” Martin said. “We got out of Magnolia West what I expected out of them, which was a typical Mag Bowl rivalry and they came after us. They had nothing to lose and we had a lot to lose, quite honestly. We made a lot of self-inflicted mistakes.
“That was my challenge to them at halftime: if you really want to win and if you really want to continue to play football this season, at some point the men in this locker room had to get that right.”
Leahey certainly accepted that challenge as he scored on a 22-yard run at the 6:28 mark for his longest run of the night at the time and to give his team the 10-7 lead and the Bulldogs never trailed the rest of the night.
After the Bulldogs blocked the Mustangs on a field goal attempt on the ensuing drive, Leahey blasted his way up field for an electric 80-yard score.
Bulldog Stadium shook.
“I give credit to the O-line on that play,” Leahey said. “They made a great hole and I just hit the hole and it worked out. It felt like it was a little bit of a momentum-changer and that’s what we needed. It worked out.”
A Magnolia West bad snap on a punt on the ensuing drive helped set up the Leahey trifecta, his 9-yard run to the house with 11:42 left in the fourth quarter.
Leahey finished with 209 yards on 26 carries.
“That was a challenge to them at halftime was somebody at some point is going to have to step up and make plays,” Martin said. “Not talk about it, but actually do it. Colin has been that way for us for two years and certainly this year carrying the load as a senior. It’s not surprising that a kid like home put us on his shoulders and make that big play.”
Magnolia West got a 10-yard John Sigler score with 3:53 left in the game to make it a 10-point game.
Gavin Gonzales then boomed his second 40-plus yard field goal of the night – this one from 46 yards – to set the final score with 1:47 to play.
The first half featured plenty of smash-mouth football between the two rivals. And also plenty of spotlight time on the punters.
The Bulldogs and Mustangs combined on seven punts and the Magnolia West ran out of time at the 5-yard line with no timeouts left to keep the score 7-3 at the half.
Magnolia was limited to just a booming 41-yard field goal by Gonzales in the first quarter.
Magnolia West had a long 33-yard touchdown by Sam Gomez with 1:10 left in the first quarter.
The Mustangs recovered an onside kick after that touchdown, but that drive was quickly extinguished by the Bulldogs as Grayson Holcomb had an interception three plays into the ensuing drive.
Ty Miller and Josh Garner were among the pass rushers that got to Magnolia West quarterback Bryson Broadway.
Sigler finished with 113 yards for the Mustangs while Gomez had 85.
Magnolia celebrated its first win since October 10 and already starting to think about next week at Klein, which is 7 p.m. Friday.
There will likely be a tangled web when it comes to the final couple playoff spots in District 15-6A and a win will be needed by the Bulldogs that night.
“I still think we need to do a better job with our discipline and not having as many penalties as we’ve had,” Martin said. “You can’t play good football and do that, too. We still have a lot of work to do and we’ll go back to the drawing board on how to get that fixed.”
Magnolia junior Ayden Johnson (22) and junior Jackson Wesneske, right, pose with the Magnolia Bowl trophy after the Bulldogs defeated Magnolia West November 1, 2024 (Noah Mabry/SportCast Media)
