By Rob Tate
SportCast Media
Humble came out battered and beat up this week and made no excuses about it.
The Wildcats turned up another strong performance, this time revisiting a program they beat in the playoffs back in 2019 in George Ranch.
At Traylor Stadium on a humid Saturday evening, the Wildcats improved their record to 3-0 for their best start in five years after getting one last stop with their depleted defense for a 24-22 win.
Humble was missing guys all over the field while others played a little banged up, most notably senior McArthur Baker III with an injured hand and quarterback Tristian Bernard took a hard landing on his throwing shoulder in the second quarter, but remained in the game.
“The biggest thing I’m excited about is we moved up three JV kids this weekend,” Humble coach Robert Murphy said of a defense that was missing leading tackler Demoy Carr as well as Juan Lolesio among others. “We had some young kids that had to come up because of injuries. We were banged up on defense, so what I’m most proud is of the young kids. Because they could have easily folded in the first half when they hit us with a come big runs and big plays.”
Bernard threw what turned out to be the winning touchdown with 11:21 left in the fourth quarter when he found Stanley Deams open from 20 yards out to make it 24-16 at the time.
“It was a beauty,” Bernard said. “It hurt, I ain’t going to lie. I was really surprised with how open he was because he’s never that open. He got open that time and I’m glad we got the win.”
George Ranch (1-2), which has dropped two straight after falling to Clear Falls a week ago, moved down the field and scored on a 20-yard pass from quarterback Hagan Linebeger to Jaden Mays with 5:23 left. After a penalty negated a two-point conversion reception on the first attempt, Humble was stopped them the second time as it tried to tie the game up.
The Wildcats pieced together a seven-play drive to eat up some clock before punting down to the George Ranch 18. Humble halted the Longhorns on four straight plays to end the game.
“Great job by George Ranch came out with some formations we hadn’t seen,” Murphy said. “With young guys, we had to make adjustments. I’m just excited about those JV kids getting moved up.”
After a sluggish and scoreless first quarter for both teams, business picked up in the second.
Humble emerged first with a Kevin Long interception to stop George Ranch’s opening drive of the second quarter, which set the Wildcats up at the Longhorn 20.
The Wildcats offense was stalled after 11 yards picked up and seven plays as Ernesto Avila broke the scoreless tie with a 28-yard field goal.
That lead was very short lived – 55 seconds to be exact.
That’s because George Ranch workhorse junior running back Hayden Drinkard finally found some space to work with.
Drinkard, who came in with 353 rushing yards through the first two games, dashed up the left side of the field for a 60-yard score and a 7-3 lead.
After an Humble three-and-out, Drinkard broke free again for a 53-yard touchdown run on the seventh play of the ensuing Longhorns drive.
Humble put together its best drive of the first half when they needed it the most.
Facing an 11-point deficit and kicking off to begin the second half, Humble marched five plays to the end zone, capped by a 13-yard shoestring catch by Cory Thomas with 27 seconds to go before the break. Bernard hit Deams for a 32-yard gain to set up the scoring play. Bernard also had a couple nice runs, but was hit hard and stayed down after one of them. He was still loosening up his shoulder postgame.
Humble had just a handful of yards leading up to the drive and totaled 83 at the break to George Ranch’s 194.
Humble immediately took the lead at the 8:30 mark of the third quarter as Baker scored his sixth touchdown of the season from two yards away to go up 17-14.
Baker was quiet this week with 45 yards rushing.
“It changed the offense a lot,” Murphy said of Baker’s injured hand, which was in a cast. “We didn’t even know until Wednesday if he was going to play. He finally got some reps in on Thursday. This week has been a week.”
The teams exchanged possessions when Humble was held on a three-and-out. The long snap on the punt went to the back of the end zone and the Wildcats punter Avila was unable to get a clean kick off and it was blocked into the back of the end zone for a safety, making it a 17-16 game.
Bernard was proud of the effort. Of the 177 yards of offense, Bernard threw for 76 and ran for 15. Not spectacular numbers, but enough to get the job done.
“I’m just grateful and humble,” Bernard said. “I just thank God. Without him, none of this is possible. Baker had an injury last week, so I had no choice but to go hard this week and come with it.”
Deams led with 54 receiving yards while Marcus Bourda Jr had a single catch for 38 yards on a trick play from the arm of Jahran Willmore on a reverse.
“I was excited for him,” Murphy said of Bernard’s performance. “I talked to our receivers before the game and I said tonight we’re going to be leaning on offense with all those defensive guys banged up. He came out and made some big time throws and just had a good game. I’m proud of him.”
Murphy hopes his team can use the bye this coming week to heal up some. State runner-up North Shore awaits on Sept. 26 to start District 23-6A.
“It’s going to be some games that we get into where you just gotta scrap it out and find a way to win,” Murphy said. “Tonight, we just had to come together as a collective, strap our boots on and come and figure out a way to get it done. It wasn’t pretty, but we’ll take it.”
