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ARLINGTON — Arlington Seguin is headed to the playoffs.
Seguin beat Mansfield Summit 36-28 Thursday night at Sam Houston’s Wilemon Field to secure the fourth and final playoff spot in District 3-5A Division II.
Seguin will meet Prosper Walnut Grove in next week’s bi-district round.
“It feels great. We had big stops at the end to clinch the playoff spot,” Seguin senior edge rusher Lacorian Hodge said after recording four sacks. “We’re going to go back to the locker room and celebrate.”
Despite finishing in a three-way tie for third, Mansfield Summit (5-5, 5-3) missed the final spot based on the head-to-head tiebreaker with Seguin (7-3, 5-3).
Seguin’s Kohen Peeler hauled in a 20-yard touchdown pass from Chevy Andrews on fourth-and-18 with 2:02 to play to give the Cougars a one-score cushion.
“That was big, and that’s everything that we talk about,” Seguin coach Joe Gordon said. “Just one play at a time, next-play mentality. Don’t be afraid to be great.”
Hodge then put the finishing touches on a disruptive effort when he got into the backfield, forcing an interception to seal the deal. Adrian Contreras picked off a pass on second-and-20 at the 22-yard-line on Summit’s final possession.
Andrews passed for 145 yards and two touchdowns and completed 11 of 14 passes.
Kadarius Trotter capped off a 16-play, 74-yard drive that lasted just over nine minutes to open the second half with a 1-yard scoring run that gave Seguin the lead for the second time, 29-28.
Trotter’s 1-yard touchdown run at the seven-minute mark in the second quarter pushed Seguin ahead for the first time, 22-21, after Leontay Bowman-Hunt caught a 2-point conversion pass from Andrews. Summit responded 3:23 later when Ian Gebhardt scored his second touchdown — a 4-yard run to put the Jaguars up 28-22.
Gebhardt also scored on a 20-yard run with two minutes left in the first quarter to give the Jaguars a 21-14 lead. That came only two minutes after after Seguin’s G’Mani Smith tied the score on a 12-yard run up the middle. Hodge recovered a fumble on a strip sack to set up Smith’s touchdown.
Hodge had two sacks and helped Seguin hold Summit to 1 yard rushing in the opening half.
Smith ran for 136 yards on six carries for Seguin, and Malachi Meche had 68 yards on 14 carries. SMU commit Carterrious Brown caught two passes for 50 yards and a touchdown. His 6-yard TD reception from Andrews in the first quarter came 40 seconds after Bird threw a 74-yard touchdown to Domonique Young a minute into the game.
Summit quarterback Demarus Bird was 7-of-15 for 213 yards, two touchdowns and two interceptions. Adarion Nettles had 50 yards on 13 carries for the Jaguars. Gebhardt added 43 yards and the two scores on six carries.
“We came in here to win. When you come in with that mindset, you can be free,” Gordon said. “That’s what we did.”
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