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Har-Ber Loses Heartbreaker

Last updated Friday, November 28, 2008 11:28 PM CST in Prep Sports

By Matt Jones
SPECIAL TO THE MORNING NEWS

"I thought we had a better chance of scoring from the 3 than the 10 in overtime."

Dixon, who had just one catch going into the final drive, had three catches for 60 yards for the Rebels (10-2) on the final drive, including twice on third down conversions.

"He's really come up big for us all year long," Williams said. "Har-Ber made some plays and we made some plays, but we made them at the end and got it done. We're thrilled to death about getting out of here with a victory."

On the preceding play, Welbern found Spencer Tooley for 13 yards to the Har-Ber 24 on fourth down to keep the drive alive. Tooley finished with eight catches for 109 yards.

Following the Southside score, Har-Ber took over at its own 42. After a 10-yard completion from Faust to McKinney and a 15-yard pass interference call, the Wildcats had just three seconds left before the final horn.

Wood said sending field goal kicker Oscar Escobar on the field for a 50-yard attempt wasn't really an option.

"His range is about 40 to 42 yards," Wood said. "With the situation there we weren't going to take a chance. We came up pretty close -- just not quite close enough."

Har-Ber's defense, which ended the game allowing just 48 rushing yards, drew praise from both coaches.

"The defense was lights out all night," Wood said. "Southside had to make some plays on that drive. If I had to do it over again, I'd let anybody try to drive 70 yards to get it. They did tonight."

The Wildcats had held Southside's passing game to 137 yards before the final drive, which started at the Southside 32 with 2:49 left.

"Har-Ber's got a great football team, defensively," Williams said. "They might be the best in the state."

The defense allowed Har-Ber (10-3) to lead throughout the game following a 34-yard touchdown pass from Faust to McKinney in the first quarter.

Har-Ber had multiple chances to increase its lead, but turned the ball over on a fumble inside the Southside 20 in the third quarter and again on downs in the fourth quarter to set up the Rebels' game-winning drive.

"We opened the second half like we wanted," Wood said. "You can't turn it over there."

The Wildcats controlled the ball for the first 6:32 of the second half before Faust fumbled a quarterback keeper at the Southside 13.

Brinker who finished the game with 136 yards on 35 carries to eclipse the 1,500-yard mark for the season.

"He had an outstanding game," Wood said. "He ran hard and played his butt off. They knew we were going to go to him -- he's the guy we've counted on all year and we counted on him all night."

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