PORT ARTHUR — The Port Arthur Memorial Titans football team’s historic season came to an end Friday night against Fort Bend Hightower.
A go-ahead touchdown pass by Fort Bend Hightower quarterback Ja’Kolby Longino with 10 seconds remaining sealed the 41-34 win for the Hurricanes over the Titans.
What looked like a blown lead for the Hurricanes after a Titans game-tying 34-yard touchdown run by senior running back Adrian Hayward with about a minute left in the game, ended up being a gut-wrenching end to the Titans’ season.
“Their kids made one more play than we did tonight,” Titans head coach Brian Morgan said after the loss. “We made some plays too but they made the last one.”
On third-and-10 from the Hurricanes 49-yard line, Longino found junior wide receiver Kaleb Johnson down the left sideline for the game-winning touchdown. Johnson hauled in two touchdowns for 117 yards on six catches. Longino added 122 passing yards and three touchdowns.
Despite a lackluster first half, the Titans scored 28 second-half points in large part because of junior quarterback Jah’Mar Sanders. Sanders threw for 211 yards, rushed for 163 and three touchdowns — two rushing and one passing. He also threw two interceptions.
His ability to extend plays kept the Titans in the game.
“I mean he plays his butt off every week, but he’s the reason we’re in that game,” Morgan said of his quarterback. “He plays hard… and tonight was just sheer will. He took some punishment out there and you got a guy who will put his all into it.”
Surprisingly, it was the Titans’ defense that came up short as it was unable to stop the Hurricanes running back Charles Shelling. The senior running back gashed the Titans’ defense all night long and finished with 224 yards rushing on 19 carries and three touchdowns.
Shelling averaged 11 yards per carry and had runs of 55, 67 and 40.
“Usually when you give up long runs, it means someone is not doing something right,” Morgan said. “It’s little things here and little things there — that’s typically what it boils down to.”
Before the Titans and Hurricanes exploded in the second half offensively, the Hurricanes' ability to convert its possessions in the red zone proved pivotal.
The Hurricanes opened up the scoring with a 25-yard passing touchdown by Longino. The senior quarterback found Johnson late in the first quarter. The Hurricanes quarterback connected with Pearson before finding him for the touchdown.
Memorial responded early in the second quarter with a seven-yard touchdown run by Chaney capping a seven-play drive — the Titans most cohesive drive up until that point. But three plays before the touchdown, Sanders evaded a sack, extended the play and found a receiver downfield in the Hurricanes’ half for a 25-yard pickup.
Hightower needed just 1:39 to take back the lead as Shelling capped off the drive with a seven-yard touchdown run and gave Hightower a 14-6 lead with 7:19 remaining in the half.
On the ensuing drive, the Titans marched 75 yards on 18 plays and took over seven minutes off the clock only to be stopped inches before the goal line. On fourth-and-goal from the Hurricanes' nine-yard-line, the Hightower defensive pressure flushed Sanders out of the pocket and off his back foot the Titans quarterback found junior wide receive Illijah Williams for what looked like a touchdown.
But the officials ruled the reception short by inches and as a result, the Hurricanes took over on downs with 30 seconds left in the first half.
After a valiant effort in the second-half by the Titans, Longino's game-winning touchdown closed Memorial's historic season.
"It was definitely a tough way to lose it, but the kid just made an unbelievable play," Morgan said. "I thought if we went to overtime, we'd have the momentum with the crowd and all. Their guy just made a better play than ours."
The Hurricanes will take on the winner of Seguin and Hendrickson in the area around.
jorge.ramos@beaumontenterprise.com