Allen returns to form, grinds way to fifth state championship

ARLINGTON – The game ended as so many Allen victories do, with a long, grinding drive that knocked out a wobbling opponent. But Allen’s 35-33 victory over Lake Travis in the Class 6A Division I final was anything but typical. How rare is it for a team to lose its starting quarterback on the first play and then nearly rally for a victory? And how often can you leave a game thinking that a team’s early success was nearly a devastating blow to its championship hopes? It felt that way for Allen (16-0), which clinched its fifth state title Saturday in front of 43,191 at AT&T Stadium. Allen scored three touchdowns in the first 7:20, and then the Eagles couldn’t do much of anything again until they were trailing 24-21 early in the third quarter. Lake Travis (13-3) obviously deserves some credit for that. “We didn’t panic,” Lake Travis coach Hank Carter said. “We settled down and we just kept chopping. We talked about that with the kids. Let’s just right the ship and keep playing.” Lake Travis kept playing, and did it without senior quarterback Matthew Baldwin, an Ohio State signee whose knee gave out on him as he tried to pass on the first play of the game. Backup Hudson Card did a more than serviceable job as Lake Travis put together a 24-0 run that included two big plays: a kickoff return for a touchdown and a pick six for a score on Allen’s first play from scrimmage in the second half. During the 24-point spree by Lake Travis, Allen punted twice, turned the ball over on downs and threw an interception. The Eagles weren’t complacent, but they seemed to have lost something in their early rush. It’s the momentum shift that the Allen coaches told their players was going to come. “You know when you play a team like Lake Travis, it’s going to take four quarters,” Allen head coach Terry Gambill said. “That’s what you’ve got to withstand.” Allen found its way again with a 13-play, 74-yard touchdown that gave it the lead back at 28-24. After a field goal by Lake Travis, Allen put together another touchdown drive to take a 35-27 lead late in the third quarter. Lake Travis cut the lead to 35-33 with a touchdown two minutes into the fourth quarter, but Allen’s defense sniffed out a reverse on the two-point conversion to keep the Eagles in front. “That’s another one of those one-play momentum shifts,” Gambill said. The momentum never swung back to Lake Travis, which won the 6A Division I title last year and has won six state championships in the last 11 seasons. Allen defensive back Taj Bickham made a tremendous interception, and the Eagles got into a position they are familiar with, leading down the stretch and wiping out the clock with their big offensive line and the running of Brock Sturges. Sturges finished with 32 carries for 176 yards and three touchdowns, and Allen finished the game with 11 runs that drained the final six minutes off the clock. The final three runs were actually kneel-downs as Lake Travis helplessly watched the clock expire. When the momentum comes, Gambill told his players, you’ve just got to ride with it. “If it’s negative and there’s adversity, you’ve got to go through it,” he said. “If it’s positive, don’t get too high, and just stay together as a team. It’s one of the things that helped us all year – staying together as a team.”