The Valley Patriots surprised the Spur Bulldogs 66–54 on Friday night in Ralls.
Going into the game, Valley was 8–3 and Spur was 10–1. Dave Campbell’s Texas Football had Spur ranked number 10 in the state, and Valley unranked.
The visitors’ bleachers assigned to Bulldog fans at Jackrabbit Field were packed with Spur spectators ready to cheer on the team who had won district for the first time in a generation. Many arrived at 6 p.m. for a 7 p.m. kickoff. They could not wait to see their Dawgs claim a second gold ball in the postseason.
But penalties and turnovers proved too much for the Bulldogs to overcome.
Spur jumped out to a 15–0 lead with the rapid darting and dashing down the sidelines of tall, lanky back senior Le’Zhane Walker.
But, then Valley’s tall, lanky senior back Jaxon Edwards ran back a punt for a touchdown, and penalties and turnovers put Valley’s offense in good shape for Edwards to run in two more TDs. When the dust settled, Valley had scored 32 unanswered points, and the score was 32 to 15 with 8:32 left in the first half.
Before the half Spur would bring it really close with three touchdowns rushing, two by Walker and one by Corey Hamilton to Valley’s one by Edwards. At halftime, the score was Valley 40, Spur 38.
Make no mistake, for most of the game, it seemed as though the Bulldogs might break through at any moment and come away with the win.
This was a close contest throughout as both teams traded blows the first three quarters. The game was tied 46-46 early in the third quarter before Valley took off scoring 20 unanswered points for a commanding 66–46 lead. In the interim, Walker had a touchdown called back in the third quarter due to a penalty.
Ultimately Valley’s running game got the best of the Bulldogs. Valley’s Jaxon Edwards and junior Blake Beard combined to amass 455 yards and six touchdowns. Edwards piled up five scores on 237 yards with 17 carries, while Beard piled up 218 yards on 13 totes, and a TD.
Walker paced Spur with 282 yards and five touchdowns.
The Valley defense came away with five turnovers. Parker Hartman was key on defense with nine nine and two interceptions.
Win, lose or draw, 2021 was a special season for the Spur football team. Head football coach Tate Clark summed it up this way: “It’s been amazing to see the growth from last year to the start of the season, and then how we progressed through the year. I’m proud of every one of the boys, and how they have worked for me.”
He added, “We talked about a district championship six years ago when I got to Spur and to finally achieve it has been awesome. The boys faced adversity and always found a way to keep themselves in the mix.”
Clark said he was looking forward to seeing how the younger kids grow and develop around the juniors who will be coming back.
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