Pair of TD runs gives Hallettsville 14-7 win over Gonzales

What is the difference between a win over Hallettsville and a Gonzales Apache loss? Just two plays.

The Brahmas used two long TD runs by quarterback Mycole Pegoda — one on a broken play with a fumbled snap — to pull off a 14-7 victory over the visiting Apaches at Brahma Stadium in Hallettsville Friday, Sept. 6, in a non-district match.

“This was a game we could and should have won,” Gonzales coach Joey Rivera said. “They scored twice on bad plays for us. One was a broken play in which they had a mishandled snap and managed to turn it into a touchdown run and the other was a long run in which we had chances to make the tackle and missed. Other than that, we had opportunities to win this game and we just didn’t get it done.”

Gonzales (0-2) had four possessions inside the Hallettsville 35-yard line, but could only manage a single TD on the first play of the fourth quarter when freshman Ayden Ramirez bullied the ball in from a yard out to even the score at 7-7.

After the two teams exchanged punts on each of their next possessions, the Brahmas got a 64-yard TD run at from Pegoda with 8: 12 left in the game on a quarterback read option play in which several Apaches got their hands on his jersey, but were unable to make a tackle on Hallettsville’s field general.

Gonzales could only get a yard on their next possession before punting. The defense stiffened up and forced a Hallettsville punt with 5:25 to go, putting the Apaches 71 yards from the tying score.

However, Gonzales could not get a first down and a potential game-tying long pass from quarterback Tyler Hoffman to wideout Damion Hunt caromed off the latter’s hands incomplete on third down, leading to an Apache punt to the Brahma 31 with 3:08 left.

The Apaches would force the Brahmas into a fourth and 1 at midfield with 1:14 left in the game, using their final timeout to stop the clock. If Gonzales could have stopped Hallettsville on fourth down, they would get the ball 50 yards from the end zone with about a minute to play. However, the Apaches were penalized for offsides, giving the Brahmas the opportunity to run out the clock.

In the first half, the Brahmas scored the first points of the game on their third possession of the game. After converting a fourth and 1 at the Apache 32 on the first play of the second quarter, Hallettsville had a bad long snap from the center to Pegoda. The quarterback picked up the ball, scrambled to his left toward the sideline and found an opening, rambling 31 yards to paydirt. A PAT kick made it 7-0 with 11:13 to go to halftime.

Gonzales didn’t get its first first down until their next drive and would move the ball to the Brahma 34, but turned the ball over on downs. They got the ball back on the next play as Jermane Upshaw made the first of his two fumble recoveries. The Apaches would move to the Hallettsville 6 before attempting a field goal. Although it appeared the Brahmas jumped offsides, no flag was thrown and the kick was no good with 4:48 left in the half.

Hallettsville tried to convert a fourth and 7 at its own 39 but the pass was no good and the Apaches got another chance to score in the first half with 2:01 to go to intermission. Unfortunately, a fourth and 1 pass attempt at the Brahma 17 went incomplete and Hallettsville would run out the last 30 seconds of the first half.

Upshaw had a second fumble recovery on Hallettsville’s first possession of the second half and Brealien Jones had an interception in the third quarter which set up Gonzales’ only TD drive.

This week, the Apaches will travel to Marion for a rare Thursday game on the road. Kickoff is at 7:30 p.m.

“We’ve played some good games the past few years against Marion and we’re looking forward to another one next week, so we hope the fans will come out and support us Thursday night,” Rivera said.