Whitehouse defended its right to advance - when deep inside its territory, that is.
Despite allowing Frisco inside its 30-yard line eight times, the Wildcats yielded the Raccoons only two touchdowns. The result was a 28-14 Whitehouse victory in a Class 4A Division II area football playoff before about 7,000 fans Friday night at Pizza Hut Park.
The Wildcats’ (10-2) bend-but-don’t-break performance moves them to the third round versus Waco next week in either Garland or Mansfield. Frisco ends its season 9-3.
Playing their fourth game at Pizza Hut, home of FC Dallas of Major League Soccer, this season, Frisco had no problem driving the ball down the field. But, of course, the Raccoons struggled tremendously at putting points on the board. On three occasions, Whitehouse stopped them inside its 30 with fourth-down sacks.
The Wildcats, meanwhile, scored a pair of touchdowns in the last minute and 22 seconds of the second quarter to take a commanding 21-7 lead into halftime.
With the score tied 7-7, the Wildcats began the push on their 45 with 2:46 remaining. A 16-yard completion from sophomore quarterback Brady Attaway to sophomore receiver Seth Cashion moved them into Raccoons territory.
But then, after a first-down run by senior running back Jimmy Kennedy, the Wildcats faced fourth-and-1 from the Frisco 18. And even though senior kicker Paul Metzner has been good on a field goal from 46 yards this season, Whitehouse elected to go for it.
The decision paid off, as Attaway hit senior Evan Beaton - one of the team’s top defensive players — wide open for an 18-yard score with 1:22 showing before halftime.
Right after that, Whitehouse received a gift when Frisco muffed the kickoff at its 31. It took the Wildcats five plays to make their lead 21-7 on a 1-yard run by senior running back Luke Shivers.
Attaway finished 13 of 21 for 170 yards with a touchdown through the air, while Kennedy rushed for 98 yards on only nine carries.
Whitehouse’s first touchdown also came after a Frisco special teams error.
Late in the opening quarter, Metzner blasted a punt 58 yards to the Raccoons end zone. In a haze of confusion, a Frisco player was ruled to have touched the ball. That meant the ball was live, and junior Matt Ponce jumped on it in the end zone for a 7-0 lead with 2:53 remaining.
In the third, Metzner caught his first touchdown of the season (35 yards) to stretch the Wildcats lead to 28-7 with 5:38 showing.
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