Caldwell holds off Navasota
NAVASOTA - Xavier Canto rushed for 261 yards and four touchdowns, and the Caldwell Hornets withstood a furious third-quarter rally by the Navasota Rattlers to clinch one of District 23-3A's playoff berths with a 44-29 victory Friday night at Rattler Stadium.
Canto carried 26 times to power Caldwell (6-1, 3-1 in 23-3A), which also got 141 yards and two touchdowns from Farrin Sims, who had 22 carries.
Dexter Pratt had 150 yards and a touchdown on 23 carries for Navasota (6-3, 2-2), which must beat La Grange next week to qualify for the playoffs.
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Eagle Photo/Dave McDermand
Caldwell's Xavier Canto runs through several Navasota defenders for a touchdown
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Caldwell took advantage of three Navasota turnovers to build a 24-point lead in the third quarter. Canto scored on a 15-yard touchdown run on the Hornets' first drive of the second half, and after forcing the Rattlers to turn the ball over on downs, Chris Supak kicked a 26-yard field goal to give Caldwell a 37-13 lead.
Trailing by three scores, Navasota's rally pumped life into the home crowd. Jacolby Stokes hit Brandall Jackson for a 33-yard gain on the next drive, and Pratt covered the final 29 yards on the ground as well as punching in the two-point conversion to cut the score to 37-21.
Kicker Carlos Barron recovered his own onside kick to give Navasota the ball back. The ensuing touchdown drive ended with Stokes sneaking in from 1 yard out and calling his own number on the two-point conversion to pull Navasota within 37-29.
The play of the game might have been Caldwell's version of the fumble-rooskie. On a third-and-12 from their own 18, the Hornets snuck the ball to Canto, who waited until the Navasota defense followed the offense away from him. Then he ran 17 yards down the Hornet sideline for a key first down.
That kept a 15-play, 80-yard drive alive, and Canto capped it with a 7-yard touchdown run for the final points of the game.
Both teams started quickly, needing only four plays each to put two touchdowns on the board in the game's first 3 minutes. Navasota coach Lee Fedora went into his bag of tricks and called a reverse pass from Gordon Lamascus, who found a wide open Kye Hilldreth in the end zone. Sims then covered the last 4 yards of the ensuing Caldwell drive to tie the score at 7.
Turnovers hurt Navasota in the first half, with the Hornets scoring six plays after Pratt had the ball stripped from him in a huge scrum.
at the Caldwell 39. Canto took an inside handoff on a counter play, hit a huge hole and went into the endz one untouched on a 36-yard touchdown run.
After Sims went over from 1 yard out to make the score 21-7 Caldwell, Navasota responded with another reverse pass for a touchdown as Lamascus hit Antron Harris wide open from 17 yards out to cut the score to 21-13.
Caldwell needed less than a minute to score again. Canto ran up the middle and broke three tackles on his 25-yard touchdown run to make the halftime score 27-13.