North Crowley takes down No. 1 DeSoto in a back-and-forth battle for the ages

The North Crowley football team had heard all week about how they wouldn’t be able to stay on the field with DeSoto, the state’s top-ranked team in Class 6A and two-time defending 6A D2 champions.

But the Panthers were having none of it. North Crowley punched the Eagles right in the beak at the start to set the tone and played neck and neck with DeSoto pulling out a 57-51 victory on Friday night in a non-district game at Eagle Stadium.

North Crowley (2-0) ended a 24-game winning streak by DeSoto (1-1).

North Crowley, No. 5 in Class 6A in Dave Campbell’s state rankings and No. 1 in the Star-Telegram 6A rankings, recovered a fumble on the opening kickoff and got a tremendous pass and catch from quarterback Chris Jimerson, Jr. to Quentin Gibson, who made a diving catch in the end zone, from 35 yards out to take a 7-0 lead with just 12 seconds gone off the clock.

“We keep receipts. Everybody was saying that we were going to get beat by 28,” said Gibson, who had a stellar night with seven receptions for 180 yards and four scores. “We’ve really been waiting since our freshman year, they beat us our freshman year. We just beat the defending state champions and ended their streak.”

The game went back and forth the entire night as neither defense could stop the opposing offenses. Gibson repeated his catch to open the game with another diving catch in the right corner of the end zone, this time from 33 yards out that gave North Crowley a 43-41 lead with 3:07 left in the third quarter.

Jimerson and Gibson connected for four touchdowns on the night from 35, 36, 36 and 33 yards. Jimerson went eight of 16 for 177 yards and Gibson hauled in seven of the passes for 180 yards.

The North Crowley running game was on the mark as well as Cornelius Warren ran 16 times for 153 yards and three touchdowns (21, 5, 66) and Daniel Bray picked up 128 yards on 14 totes behind the Panthers offensive line.

Following Warren’s 66-yard scoring run that made it 49-44 Panthers with 10:55 left in the game, North Crowley finally got the stop they needed. The defense bowed up and forced DeSoto’s first punt of the game that gave the Panthers the ball back with 8:48 left in the game.

Two plays later Bray darted off left tackle for a 63-yard score to give North Crowley a 57-44 lead with 7:50 remaining. After the kickoff, the Panthers got another big play from their defense as Gaylon McNeal picked off a DeSoto pass at the North Crowley 22 and returned it to midfield.

“I saw the play coming, read it, lurked and caught the pig,” said McNeal of his pick that helped secure the game. “It was a hard fought, close game all night and we knew that all we needed was a stop and we got it.”

North Crowley was able to take almost 3:30 off the clock before losing the ball on downs at the DeSoto 10 yard line with 3:50 remaining. The Eagles drove the length of the field and quarterback Kelden Ryan, who accounted for six scores for the Eagles, ran it in from a yard out to cut the lead to 57-51, but only 25 seconds remained on the clock.

The ensuing onside kick by DeSoto went out of bounds allowing North Crowley to run out the clock.

“Words can’t explain how proud I am of my kids and my coaches,” said North Crowley coach Ray Gates. “They (DeSoto) have some of the best talent in the country and they’re going to be able to move the ball and score on anybody. For us to be able to match that with our intensity on offense is what we’re going to need to make a big playoff push.”

It was a wild first half with 63 points being scored between the teams.

It was the Jimerson-Gibson show for North Crowley with the pair connecting three times for touchdowns through the air. Scoring passes of 35, 36 and 36 yards, the latter giving the Panthers a 21-14 lead with 9:55 left in the second quarter.

But DeSoto answered each time. Ryan accounted for five touchdowns in the opening two quarters with the first three coming on runs of five, 30 and 37 yards.

Ryan’s 37-yard TD came on a fourth down and 9 and tied the game at 21 with 8:23 left before the intermission. Following an interception by Eagles’ defensive back Caleb Holmes, Ryan threw the first of his two first-half scoring passes.

Ethan Feaster made a terrific catch, twisting behind him, to put the Eagles up 28-21. North Crowley retook the lead when Cornelius Warren ran it in from 21 yards out and then ran in the two-point conversion to give the Panthers a 29-28 lead with 2:24 left in the second quarter.

North Crowley left too much time on the clock, however, when DeSoto drove from its own 30 and scored six plays later on a Ryan to SaRod Baker pass from 13 yards out. The play gave DeSoto a 34-29 lead with four seconds left before halftime.

“They’re kids just like us,” said Jimerson of DeSoto. “They wake up in the morning and put their clothes on just like us. We went out there and just played good football.”