Preston comeback bid falls short against Hampshire
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KINGWOOD - After a sluggish first half, Preston High came up short Friday night in its comeback bid, as Hampshire held on for a 24-19 victory in te season opener for both teams.
Hampshire (1-0) took the opening kick and drove 80 yards in 16 plays to take a 6-0 lead. The Knights defense stiffened on first-and-goal from the four-yard line, forcing a fourth-and-goal from the 7, but a slick middle screen pass from Mason Chenoweth to Roscoe Dean found paydirt. Preston (0-1) responded immediately with their own 16-play drive, but it stalled at the Trojans 16. Taking over on downs, two long Hampshire passes, one to midfield and - after a critical roughing the passer penalty that would've gotten the Knights defense off the field - a pretty 26-yard flag route scoring connection on fourth-and-6 from Chenoweth to Dean doubled the Trojans lead to 12-0 at the break.
After a frustrating first half, Preston looked to reestablish a running game that had produced success early, but two drives ended in punts. And when another long, grinding Hampshire drive ended with Carter Laffey's 5-yard TD run with under a minute left in the third quarter, the Knights, down 18-0, looked to be down for the count.
Not so fast, not when lightning fast William Lilly fielded the kickoff at the numbers on the near sideline, cut through the middle, picked up some key blocks, then angled to the far sideline and outraced the coverage for a scintillating 90-yard TD return.
But the Trojans came right back with a 12-play, 68-yard drive capped by Dean's 3-yard buck to push the lead back to 18 points midway through the fourth.
Still, PHS would not yield, and a quick drive ended with quarterback Rowan Cramer powering in from the 5, slicing the lead to 24-12. With under three minutes remaining, the Preston defense forced a crucial three-and-out, and Cramer's 52-yard punt return and a late hit set the Knights up for another quick score, and they cashed in with a 15-yard pass from Cramer to a wide-open Kaleb Stone, and when Brady Taylor's extra point bounced on the crossbar and over, suddenly it was a one score game with 2:12 left.
However, Dean leaped high to secure the onside kick, the Trojans milked all but 15 seconds off the clock, and the Knights simply ran out of time.
After the game, PHS head coach Mark Deep took some of the blame for his team's slow start, but with a reasonable caveat.
"We didn't scrimmage for the past two weeks," he admitted, "and maybe in hindsight, it might have left us not quite as ready as we would like. But after our first scrimmage, we had 14 guys hurt, and we felt like we had to prioritize getting healthy.
"I thought we were fresher late in the game," he continued, "but after our first drive, we really didn't get it going until Lilly's big return. That kind of woke us up, as you'd expect, but in the end, they made more plays than we did."
When asked about his team's comeback, Deep was pleased, but only to a point.
"Look, we've been asking this team to have heart, to have pride," he explained, "and they showed they aren't going to quit. Down 24-6 late, we could easily have folded, but we kept fighting and gave ourselves a chance. But there are no moral victories. We need to get better in all phases, and we will get to work on cleaning things up. We'll learn and move on."
The Knights host Class AAA powerhouse North Marion, at 7 p.m. Friday.
Box score
Hampshire 6 6 6 6 – 24
Preston 0 0 6 13 – 19
SCORING SUMMARY
H–Roscoe Dean 7 pass from Mason Chenoweth (kick blocked)
H–Dean 26 pass from Chenoweth (kick missed)
H–Carter Laffey 5 run (kick missed)
PHS–William Lilly 90 yd kickoff return (kick missed)
H–Dean 3 run (try failed)
PHS–Rowan Cramer 5 run (try failed)
PHS–Kaleb Stone 15 pass from Cramer (Brady Taylor kick)
INDIVIDUAL STATISTICS
PASSING: Hampshire–Chenoweth 8-11-0 103 2TD. Preston–Cramer 6-10-0 23 TD
RUSHING: Hampshire–Dean 19-98 TD, Chenoweth 14-60, Ayden Blomquist 3-10, Laffey 8-51 TD. Preston–Cramer 12-80 TD, Zaden Peddicord 10-40, Connor Savage 1-5, Lilly 2-0, Stone 1-4.
RECEIVING: Hampshire–Dean 4-61 2TD, Willy Crawford 1-(-2), Blomquist 1-31, Tanner Netzer 2-13. Preston–Peddicord 1-(-5), Stone 3-19 TD, Max Huggins 1-2, Jake Gibson 1-7.