Burnet falls to China Spring 42-16
Burnet High School's Ian Carter evades a China Spring defender in the Bulldogs' 42-16 loss Oct. 23. Photo by Luedecke Photography
EDITOR DANIEL CLIFTON
BURNET — For the Burnet Bulldogs, Friday the 13th’s chills didn’t include Jason Voorhees but a big dose of Cayden Johnson, Erik Hart, and Brayden Mathis, and a dash of Tyrick James.
Those aren’t characters in a 1980’s movie but a cadre of China Spring Cougars who brought their own house of horrors to Bulldog Field on Oct. 13 in a 42-16 win over Burnet.
“That’s a good team, and they’ve been a good team for awhile,” Burnet head coach Kurt Jones said of the Cougars. “But I was proud that our kids just continued to fight through the whole game.”
The Bulldogs start District 13-4A with an 0-1 record (4-2 overall) after the loss. The road forward isn’t much easier as three of the district teams (including China Spring) are ranked among the top 10 in the state.
“They knew this is a tough district,” Jones said of this Bulldogs. “It’s going to be tough every week.”
The Bulldogs jumped out to a 6-0 lead on the second drive of the game when sophomore quarterback Chandler Galban dropped a nice pass into the arms of his brother, senior wide receiver Sterling Galban, for a 68-yard touchdown. The point-after attempt failed, but Burnet showed they could score on China Spring.
The celebration lasted less than three minutes. China Spring’s Erik Hart capped of a 68-yard drive by rambling 15 yards in for a touchdown and 7-6 Cougars lead.
Then, it was pretty much all Cougars from there.
Johnson connected with a receiver for a 70-yard touchdown pass play, and Hart added another touchdown run, this time from 11 yards out, to lift China Spring up 21-6.
The Bulldogs found glimmers of hope here and there. One came following a China Spring interception that set the Cougars up in Burnet territory. The Cougars worked their way down to the Burnet 9-yard line, but the Bulldogs’ defense shut the door on them, forcing a fourth-down situation.
China Spring opted to go for it, only to fall short and give the ball back to Burnet.
It wasn’t an ideal situation, sort of like getting stuck in a canoe on Crystal Lake, but the Bulldogs weren’t giving up the fight.
Burnet slugged their way down the field with a heavy dose of Ian Carter and the Galbans, even overcoming a fourth-down situation to claw to the 17-yard line. But then, with the second quarter winding down, the Bulldogs found themselves in another fourth-down situation. This time, they turned to the leg of Tyler Torres, who nailed a 34-yard field goal.
The two teams went into the locker room at the half with China Spring leading 21-9.
Unfortunately for the Bulldogs, the second half wasn’t much different. China Spring added three more touchdowns: an 8-yard run by Mathis, a 20-yard run by James, and a 30-yard Johnson-to-James pass.
The Cougars held a comfortable 42-9 lead.
But as Jones said, the Bulldogs didn’t surrender.
Early in the fourth quarter, the Bulldogs dug into China Spring territory, eventually landing on the 36-yard line. On a first-down possession, Chandler Galban hit Sterling Galban. The senior receiver turned between a couple of defenders who were just about to wrap him up, but before the Cougars could fully get their claws into the Bulldog, he pitched the ball to Ian Carter, who was racing down the Burnet sideline.
Carter kept racing, with the ball in his hands, all the way to the end zone.
“In this district, you have to execute at an extremely high level every week,” Jones said. “But the most important thing you have to do the entire game is fight and put out the effort, and I felt our kids did that.”
The Bulldogs travel to Gatesville on Friday, Oct. 20, for a 7:30 p.m. kickoff. The Hornets (6-0 overall, 1-0 in district) are coming off a 49-13 win over Lampasas. Listen to the game on KMPN 95.9 FM or at KBEYFM.com starting with a 7 p.m. pregame show.