A rare fumble wasn’t going to ruin the day for Trenton Kennedy and the Cy-Fair Bobcats.
Although Kennedy had been instrumental in Cy-Fair building a 17-7 fourth-quarter advantage with two early touchdowns, it was his fumble that enabled District 17-6A rival Langham Creek (11-2) to slice the deficit to 17-14 with 9:41 left in the Class 6A Division II Region III championship game at Cy-Fair FCU Stadium.
“I thought I was down personally, but the refs had to make a call,” Kennedy said. “I just had to bounce back from it (fumble). I said to myself this is going to be the only one so let me make it up to my teammates. I cannot let them down.”
Kennedy’s fumble led to Chris Mehn’s 10-yard touchdown run that brought the Lobos within three points. Then the Langham Creek defense forced a Cy-Fair three-and-out and got the ball back with 7:57 left.
That’s when the Cy-Fair defense came to the rescue. Langham Creek was forced to punt on fourth-and-26 and Kennedy had a reprieve.
The senior scored on a nine-yard TD run with 2:46 remaining for a 24-14 Bobcats’ advantage. After the Lobos turned the ball over on downs Kennedy added a 36-yard TD run at the two-minute mark.
Kennedy finished with 182 yards on 32 carries and four touchdowns. The Bobcats advanced with a 31-14 victory before a near-capacity crowd. “I wasn’t expecting that much of a workload,” he said. “But the coach set the challenge and I had to ride it.”
Now the 13-0 Bobcats are in the state semifinals for the first time since 1985. They will face Austin Westlake Dec. 16 at NRG Stadium with a 3 p.m. kickoff.
“He (Kennedy) bounced back from that fumble,” said Cy-Fair head coach Ed Pustejovsky. “I told him we still had the game in our hands to win or lose.
“That was a big turnaround right there. We were able to get the ball back and put some points on the board,” Pustejovsky said.