CORPUS CHRISTI, Texas — It was a historic night in Calallen (3-1) on Thursday, but not for the home squad. The Carroll Tigers (1-3) defeated the Wildcats for the first time in their school history 27-21 in KRIS 6 News' Game Night South Texas.
The Tigers led wire to wire, but it wasn't convincing the whole way through.
They dominated the first half, opening up the scoring with a Nick Cantu perfectly placed pass to Ignacio Arrellano for a 62 yard pitch and catch. Arrellano sprinted out of the back field on a wheel route, up the sideline. The Wildcat defender tried to jump the pass and swat it, but missed. It took a finger tip catch by Arrellano to create the magic.
Second quarter, Calallen used the deficit as motivation. They drove down the field, but settled for a field goal try. Ian Perez's kick went wide left.
A few drives later, The Tigers went back to the passing game and picked up big yards over the middle to Braylen Swanson.
That set up a 15 yard quarterback keeper for Cantu, stunning the Wildcats to go up 14-0.
It didn't stop there.
Next Carroll drive, they used the same formula: big pass play leads to rushing touchdown. This time Robert Muhammed muscled his way through the line from 18 yards out. 21-0 Carroll.
The Tigers took a 24-0 lead into half.
Calallen Head Coach Charlie Reeve said his team just didn't execute, as they struggled to get any run game going.
That changed on the other side of the break.
Senior Jude Hernandez busted off a 59 yard touchdown run to start the third quarter.
Carroll tacked on a 22 yard field goal to make it a 20 point lead, 27-7.
The following Wildcat drive required heroics. They picked up a huge fourth down and six yards to go with a quick pass to Reese Rusher.
Then came the trickery. Connor Klostermann, who stepped in Thursday night at quarterback for Sebastion Dennis, threw it to his right for Drayson Gamez in the flat. Gamez launched it 30 yards to a wide open Carson Klostermann who just snuck in the front pylon on for the touchdown.
That brought the Wildcats some hope, down 27-14.
Into the fourth quarter, Carroll was trying their best to kill the game, but Calallen's run defense showed up late to the party. So, the Tigers turned to the air and that's when Cantu was picked off by Colby Elzner deep in Wildcat territory.
Calallen stalled out around midfield and turned the ball over on downs.
Again, the Tigers got nowhere running. Cantu this time was picked off on a floating pass by Michael Viera and he took it to the house.
With just over four minutes left in the game, the Wildcats put themselves in a great spot to come back. They also had two time outs left.
However, Carroll had consistently gotten pressure on Connor Klostermann all night with big sacks from Kaiden Garcia. The fourth quarter was no different. The Tigers stood tall and shut the Wildcats down on their final two drives.
Carroll Coach Cal Neatherlin was emotional after the game and said how proud of his boys he was. Since he took over the program, Carroll has been building to something, getting better each year.
In the previous four meetings between Carroll and Calallen, the Tigers scored 14 points in total.
Up next, Carroll will host Tuloso-Midway at home on Friday Sept. 27.
Calallen will have two more tough road challenges before district play begins. They travel to Rockport-Fulton on that same Friday. The following week they travel to Sinton on Friday Oct. 4.
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