ALICE, Texas — The Calallen Wildcats (5-2, 3-1) entered a hostile and loud Alice Memorial Stadium, only to be stifled by the Coyotes in our week 8 Game of the Week. Alice (5-1, 3-0) takes control of District 16 in 4A-1 with a 21-7 victory.
Alice defeated Calallen for the first time since 2012. Now the Coyotes are (3-29) against Calallen dating back to 1992.
IYMI: @AliceAthletics1 celebrating their victory over Calallen. The first time the Coyotes beat the Wildcats since 2012 and third time in program history. @joe_richard10 @j_arellano2024 https://t.co/eISy3RumYw
— KRIS 6 Sports (@KRIS6sports) October 16, 2023
The match started in a similar fashion in how Alice began their district game against Tuloso-Midway: a turnover by each team in their first posession.
First play of the game, Jude Hernandez took a hand-off up the middle, taking a pop and coughing up the ball. Coyotes' Damian Alviar recovered it.
Very next play, Alice trying to go with an early kill shot with a long pass down field. Except, Lucian Cruz's pass was intercepted by Callalen's Elias Timbs.
It took some time for both teams to settle in, nerves getting the best of many with several false start calls.
Eventually, Alice would strike first moving the ball down field to set up Cruz on a short rushing touchdown. Alice would take their 7-0 deep into the second quarter.
Wildcats struggled mightily to move the ball. Thy only picked up a handful of first downs in the first half. All because of penalties and the Alice defense clogging up the running lanes.
With a minute to go before the half, Alice moved the ball to the Calalen 35 yard line. Cruz hit his trusted wide receiver Justin Arellano in the flat. He turned on the jets to make it down the sideline and shoved out around the 4 yard line.
Enter the Coyote pack leader Cruz to glide in for another touchdown. Coyotes took a 14-0 lead into the break.
A different story in the third quarter. Alice's offense wasn't clicking like before, mixed with a more intense wildcat defense coming out of the locker room.
That intensity was matched on the offensive side for the Wildcats. They finally connected on a down field pass. Running back Luke Medina followed it up with his longest run of the day, breaking tackles, putting Calalllen in the redzone for the first time.
They'd take advantage, Jude Hernandez redeems himself with a three yard rumble into the endzone to get within one score.
Into the fourth quarter, Coyotes really tried draining the clock by keeping the ball in their quarterbacks hands as he was effective on the ground.
After a botched Calallen punt, Coyotes were set up deep in Wildcat land, however they were stopped three straight times.
Faced with a fourth down, Cruz went back to the air only to be picked off by Hernandez.
It looked to be Callen's best shot to get back in the game, but the Alice defense was relentless. Fumbled snaps, penalties and the Coyotes edge rushers doomed the Wildcats.
Cruz would cap the game off with about 2 minutes left with his third rushing touchdown of the game.
Alice now controls their destiny in the district and can claim the crown that Calallen has kept locked away for so long.
Alice travels down to Hidalgo for their next district game, on Oct. 21. Calallen with take on Tuloso-Midway at Phil Danaher Stadium on the same night.
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