By Tony Eierdam

STEPHENVILLE - For the past two years, the Aledo Bearcats suffered crushing last-minute defeats at the hands of the Stephenville Yellowjackets.

And with just over two minutes remaining in another tight contest between the rivals at Memorial Stadium on the campus of Tarleton State University, it appeared state-ranked No. 4 Stephenville would have just enough at the end to seal another close victory.

Leading 20-17 and facing a fourth and one at their own 34 with 2:30 left in the game, the Yellowjackets, after calling a pair of timeouts, incredibly disdained the obvious punt situation and instead tried for the first down that would seal their fifth straight win over the Bearcats, who had not defeated the ‘Jackets since 2003.

However, the Bearcats defense had other ideas, and when Stephenville running back Brad Mills tested the middle of the Aledo defense, all he saw were white jerseys.

Beacats safety Chase Rutherfrod and a host of AHS defenders drove back Mills and turned the ball over to the offense, and led by senior quarterback Tanner McDonald, went on a four-play, 34-yard drive that ended with a McDonald keeper for 15 yards for the winning score in a 24-20 Bearcats win Saturday, Aug. 30, over the stunned Yellowjackets.

“We beat them in ’03, and it has been a long, long time,” an elated Bearcats head coach Tim Buchanan said. “It is nice. We had some luck, and it’s nice to have a little luck in Stephenville, but hey, you make your own luck.”

Buchanan admitted he wanted Stephenville to go for a first down on the game-turning, fourth-down play.
“I wasn’t surprised they went for it in that situation,” Buchanan said. “I would have done the same thing. We had some big defensive kids just crash the line from the inside, and Chase Rutherford made a good play by getting to Mills. Again, I was hoping they would go for it. I don’t know that we could have driven the ball 60, 70 yards in that amount of time and scored.”

After holding the ‘Jackets on downs with the huge fourth-down stop, the Bearcats were still 34 yards away from the end zone against a stout Stephenville defense.
On first down, McDonald hit senior wide receiver Aaron Corby with an eight-yard pass to the hosts’ 26 as the clock wound down under two minutes.

On second and two, senior running back Joel Hasley, who rushed for 42 yards on four carries in the second half, was stopped a yard short of a first down on a run off left tackle.
Facing a third and one from the Yellowjackets’ 25, McDonald fired a bullet over the middle to junior tight end Forrest Cook, who made a diving catch at the SHS 15.

On the next play – and with the click winding down under a minute - McDonald called his own number and sprinted to the right side, breaking a tackle and cutting to the middle between two would-be tacklers and into the end zone for a touchdown with 47 seconds left to play. Rutherford booted the extra point to give the Bearcats a 24-20 lead.

Stephenville, out of timeouts, drove to their own 46 on a pass and a run.
But facing second and 10 from its own 46, SHS quarterback Brad Picha was sacked by Bearcats junior defensive lineman Cy Wilson.

After spiking the ball to stop the clock with three ticks remaining, Picha’s desperation pass on the last play of the contest was intercepted by AHS senior defensive back Justin Peters to seal the season-opening victory.

The Bearcats (1-0) will continue non-district action at 7:30 p.m. Friday, Sept. 5, at Grapevine.

For the complete game story, please see the Sept. 5 edition of The Community News.