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ANNA — The officials had to have been winded.
Separated by one score at halftime, Anna and Prosper Walnut Grove put up a combined 96 points and 1,225 yards of offense in their big District 4-5AII matchup on Friday night at Coyote Stadium. But Anna had just a few more plays in a 55-41 win.
Senior running back Edward Chumley powered Anna with 29 carries for 173 yards and five touchdowns. Three-star junior quarterback Ziondre Williams finished 22-of-31 passing for 339 yards and three touchdowns. Anna finished with 601 yards of offense to Walnut Grove’s 624 and forced two turnovers.
Chumley’s two touchdown runs of 10 and 32 yards in the third quarter helped Anna distance itself from Walnut Grove after halftime, when Anna held a 35-28 lead.
Anna (4-3, 3-2), which started 0–2 in district play after a 66-62 loss to Lovejoy and a 21-18 loss to Melissa, sits in fourth place in District 4-5AII. A 44-31 win over Frisco Emerson last week put Anna in good position heading into Friday’s game, and now that the challenging front half of its schedule is complete, last season’s 4A Division I state champion looks on pace to secure one of the district’s four playoff spots.
“We have a motto: ’So what, now what,’” said Chumley, who scored four touchdowns on 201 yards rushing last week. “Whether good things happen, bad things happen. Win a game, lose a game, it’s in the past now.”
“I’m proud of them for being able to bounce back and being so close a couple times, it speaks a lot to their character,” Anna coach Seth Parr said. “We’re trying to get better every week and they’ve done a good job, especially with a new group. Just gotta keep on fighting and getting better.”
Walnut Grove (6-1, 4-1), the area’s top-ranked 5A offense entering this week, dropped its first game of the season and fell to second place in the district. More tests await the program in its first UIL season, with contests against Lovejoy and Melissa in the next two weeks.
Both Anna and Walnut Grove scored on each of their first two drives Friday. The first drive without a score came with just under two minutes remaining in the first quarter, when Walnut Grove’s failed conversion on fourth-and-3 from Anna’s 43-yard line resulted in a turnover on downs.
With 54 seconds remaining in the first quarter, Anna’s Williams connected with Michael Kennedy on a 57-yard touchdown to take a 21-14 lead.
A 33-yard interception return by Anna’s George Rogers with 7:24 remaining in the fourth quarter put an end to Walnut Grove’s comeback attempts. After the interception, Anna scored its final touchdown of the night — a 5-yard pass from Williams to Roaen Nylander.
Walnut Grove scored one last time with 1:27 remaining in the fourth quarter on a 14-yard pass from quarterback Hayes Hackney to Hayden Cooley. Junior running back Cam Newton carried the ball 27 times for 265 yards and three touchdowns.
Anna visits Denison next week. The 4-5AII gauntlet is over, but for Anna, the work continues.
“You can’t count nobody out,” Williams said. “You always go out there and give it your all.”
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