The 15th-ranked Trinity Valley Community College Cardinals had a tough Halloween with a 24-21 loss to the Kilgore Rangers in overtime in the regional semifinals Saturday at Bruce Field.
A 24-yard field goal by Kilgore kicker Troy Duran sent the Rangers to the regional championship game. Kilgore will play Navarro in Corsicana at 3 p.m. Saturday. Navarro was a 29-10 winner against Tyler in the other semifinal.
"It was brutal, absolutely brutal. Give them credit because they made the plays," TVCC coach Brad Smiley said. "Their defense came out and stopped us and held us to 21 points and got three scores on the defensive side of the ball."
The Cardinals fell to 7-3 overall and are hoping for a bowl invitation in two weeks to see if the season continues. They had a seven-game winning streak snapped after sealing the Southwest Junior College Football Conference crown last week.
"It is tough because the kids have worked extremely hard. The coaches have worked extremely hard," Smiley said. "Hopefully we have to wait a couple of weeks to see if we can get a bowl game out of this. I would hate for this to be the last game that this team gets to play together. It is a really good football team with some strong character kids."
Trinity Valley's first possession of the overtime period saw the Cardinals get the ball down to the Rangers 10-yard line. On the next possession, TVCC quarterback Rayjohn Austin-Ramsey was picked off to end the game.
Austin-Ramsey finished the night 22-of-45 for 270 yards passing and five interceptions. Three of the interceptions were returned for touchdowns.
"I thought we played well in the second half," Smiley said. "In the first half, he missed some things and they made their plays on their side of the ball in the second half."
The defense held Kilgore to 271 yards of total offense and no touchdowns.
Smiley said with the Cardinals down, 14-0, after the first half the momentum was still strong for his team.
"Defensively, we had pitched a shutout and they had scored two defensive touchdowns," Smiley said. "We knew offensively we had not played a good offensive half. Anything that could go wrong went wrong. It was tough to spot a defense 14 points as good as they are."
Kilgore's Jerrell Sykes returned his first of two interceptions on the night on a 68-yard score with seven minutes remaining in the opening quarter. Duran booted the point-after touchdown good.
With 7:37 remaining in the first half, Kilgore's Dante Lovilotte had a 51-yard interception return for the 14-0 lead at the half.
The score stayed at 14-0 until the 13:36 mark of the fourth quarter when Le'Vonte Owens powered his way in on a eight yard touchdown run for the 14-7 deficit. Caden Novikoff booted the kick good.
Kilgore's Will Smith returned a 34-yard interception return for a touchdown with 8:19 remaining for the 21-7 lead.
TVCC found a way to score 14 unanswered points to send the game to overtime with under eight minutes remaining.
Emmanuel Harris cut the deficit to seven with a 10-yard touchdown reception from Austin-Ramsey with 7:27 remaining.
With just over a minute remaining, the Cardinals made a big defensive stop to hold Kilgore to a missed field goal on their 26 yard line.
TVCC drove the ball down the field and with no time remaining, Andre Wilson caught a five-yard touchdown pass from Austin-Ramsey. Novikoff sent the game to overtime with the extra point.
"I was proud of this whole team for the way they came back from being down 14-0 at the half," Smiley said. "We were able to score and then we got down 21-7 and scored 14 unanswered points. This team never flinched and our team believed that they could win the game. It did not go our way today and give credit to Kilgore."
The two teams combined for 15 punts, six interceptions and four missed field goals.
(Article courtesy of Joe Elerson, Athens Daily Review)
