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Creekview remained unbeaten after putting together a thrilling second-half comeback to beat W.T. White, 21-17, Thursday at Standridge Stadium to stay perfect. Creekview improved to 6-0 overall, 4-0 in District 6-5A Division I. W.T. White fell to 4-2, 2-2.
It is the first time since 2008 Creekview began the season 6-0. Creekview had lost 21 straight games entering the season. All of that’s changed now.
“We’re ready to win,” Mustangs quarterback/running back DeAndre Richardson said moments after scoring the game winning touchdown. “We’ll do whatever it takes to go to the playoffs to win the first game ever. Whatever it takes, we’re going to go march and do it.”
With 2:57 to go, Richardson scrambled to his left, sprinted ahead, took a hit, spun and dove for the end zone for the go-ahead score. It came after kicker Corey Simon recovered the previous kickoff, which he blasted off W.T. White’s front line at the 36-yard line.
Richardson ran for 88 yards and a touchdown and passed for 101 and a score. His nine-yard touchdown pass to Isaiah Holliday on 3rd-and-9 pulled the Mustangs within 17-14 with 4:23 remaining.
“It’s momentum,” Richardson said. “It shows that we can fight. It shows that a good team, coming in 4-1, we’re still better than a lot of these teams that think they’re better than us.”
Just less than 4:00 into the second half, Creekview’s Daevon Harris returned an interception 15 yards for a score to get the Mustangs on the board. That cut the Longhorns’ lead to 10-7. W.T. White answered on its next possession, going 72 yards in 11 plays for a score. Ben Ebeke capped the drive with a 10-yard touchdown run to make it 17-7.
Ebeke scored from three yards out with 10:53 to play in the first half to give W.T. White a 7-0 lead. Ebeke rushed for 204 yards and two TDs on 29 carries.
Alejandro Barahona kicked a 22-yard field goal on the last play of the first half to send the Longhorns into the intermission leading 10-0.
White’s defense came up big in the first half. With Creekview driving in the first quarter, White’s Ardon West intercepted a pass at the 6-yard line to keep the game scoreless.
At the 7:30 mark of the second quarter, White’s Jamarious Jones finished off two straight sacks, the second with help from Manuel Rodriguez, to halt the Mustangs’ drive just outside the red zone. The Longhorns’ defense came up with another stop one possession later, following a fumble recovery by Creekview’s Jude Marlin. The Mustangs elected to go for it on 4th-and-1 from their own 19, but were stopped.
In the second half, the Mustangs turned the tables.
Creekview first-year coach Dusty Ortiz has resurrected the Mustangs program, and the players have bought in.
“They believe in us,” Richardson said. “They’re smart. They put us in positions for us to execute, and that’s all it comes down to.”
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