STORY BY: TIM SCHNETTLER
– NAVASOTA – It was a game between the second and third ranked teams at Navasota’s Rattler Stadium on Friday night, and it lived up to all of the pregame hype as the Rattlers and the Coldspring Trojans treated the packed house to an entertaining high school football game.
On the strength of 29 unanswered points, the third-ranked Rattlers knocked off the second-ranked Trojans, 36-8 for their second victory of the season.
“I was very proud of our defense,” Navasota head coach Lee Fedora said. “We played a great opponent tonight and to hold them to 8 points tells you a lot about your defense.”
It was a night where the Navasota defense surrendered its first points of the season and the Rattles found themselves trailing for the first time this season. But two second-quarter scores less than a minute apart helped the Rattlers take control.
After watching Coldspring grab an 8-7 lead, Navasota battled back, reclaiming the lead on a dazzling 43-yard scoring run by Howard Horn on a fourth-and-7 play. Horn took an option pitch, went right and got a great block from Hunter Sparkman then raced down the sideline before cutting inside at the 10 to leave the last Coldspring defender in his wake.
The Rattlers went for 2 following the touchdown and the conversion pass from Kadarius Baker to Terrance Creeks was successful making it 15-8.
The Rattlers didn’t need long to add to their lead, when Solomon McGinty recovered a fumble on the Trojans’ first play from scrimmage following the Rattlers’ touchdown.
Coldspring running back Douglas Johnson was fighting for extra yards when the ball was knocked free and it bounced right into the hands of McGinty at the Coldspring 36. One play later McGinty went up between two defenders to haul in a 36-yard pass from Baker to add to the Rattler lead.
Michael Martinez’s extra point made it 22-8, a lead the Rattlers took in to the locker room at the half.
Neither team managed any points in the third quarter, but in the fourth, the Rattlers again scored twice in a short span — 1 minute and 3 seconds — to put the game out of reach.
Both fourth-quarter scores came on passes to Austin Collins who finished the night with six catches for 185 yards.
The first was a 72-yarder off a bubble screen that Collins turned into a long gainer. The senior hauled in the pass, juked a pair of receivers and then turned on the jets to outrace the defense to paydirt.
On the ensuing kickoff the Trojans mishandled it, and the Rattlers fell on it at the Coldspring 25. Three plays later Collins grabbed his second touchdown catch of the night for the final score of the game.
For the game Baker completed 19-of-30 passes for 359 yards and four touchdowns. McGinty had five receptions for 114 yards, while Horn finished with eight rushes for 54 yards.
Coldspring fished with 206 total yards with 167 of them coming on the ground and 29 in the air.
The Rattlers return to action next Friday when they welcome the Houston Sterling