WACO — Belton and Waco University met a year ago, each looking for their first district win. The teams traded blows Friday night while attempting to stay unbeaten in 10-5A-II play.
The Tigers looked well on their way while building a nine-point halftime gap by utilizing a rugged ground game, though the offense stagnated in the second half when the Trojans put on the clamps to claim a hard-fought 33-27 victory.
Belton (3-4, 1-1) bottled up University standout London Smith most of the night — he had no catches and 5 yards rushing in the first half — but the Baylor-committed senior made up for it by notching two fourth-quarter touchdowns, the last of which gave the Trojans their first lead since the first 2 minutes of the game.
Smith snared a 2-yard TD catch from Savoy Nichols on the first play of the fourth to pull University (4-3, 2-0) within 27-25 then intercepted a halfback pass on Belton’s ensuing drive after the Tigers advanced inside Trojans territory.
Smith, who wound up with 65 yards rushing and three catches for 5 yards, later capped his team’s longest drive of the night with the game-winning points.
The Trojans — who outgained Belton 443-312 — covered 95 yards in 14 plays while converting four third downs on their final scoring drive, which Smith finished with a 4-yard TD run up the middle on third-and-2 with 1:40 remaining.
Nichols’ 2-point run gave University a 33-27 lead and, two plays later, Jeremiah Green intercepted a deflected Will Shepard pass to seal the win.
“We were shooting ourselves in the foot (in the second half),” said Belton head coach Brett Sniffin, whose team scored four TDs on five first-half possessions but was shut out over the final two periods. “(The running game) was working and it was working at the beginning of the second half. We just got ourselves behind the chains sometimes and couldn’t get it done. It’s frustrating.”
The Tigers led 27-18 at the break and received the second-half kickoff before advancing to the Trojans 21-yard line in eight plays. Shepard then found Gavin Ross for a 10-yard gain to move the chains on fourth-and-2, though a personal foul penalty negated the play and Shepard’s next pass fell incomplete.
Belton went three-and-out on two of its next three marches, with Smith’s interception ending the other one.
“We were rolling and then boom. First drive of second half we were going down to score and I didn’t see what happened. I don’t know what happened. I don’t know if anybody knows what happened,” Sniffin said. “But we have to deal with it. We have to overcome and we can only control what we can control.”
Belton had 184 yards rushing in the first half when it led for all but a couple minutes, but had just 30 the rest of the way.
Shepard, Gino Zecca and Javid Planz each found the end zone on the ground as Belton averaged 8.3 yards per carry over the game’s first 24 minutes, while Ross danced in on an 11-yard catch-and-grab to account for the remainder of his team’s first-half points. Ross finished with seven catches for 84 yards as Belton passed for a season-low 98 yards overall.
Zecca took a 7-yard carry in for Belton’s first TD to cap an opening drive that used only 1 minute, 1 second to respond to the Trojans’ first score on the game’s initial possession with a 7-6 Tigers’ edge.
Belton’s defense followed by getting its first of two three-and-outs in the first half, each of which led to touchdowns. Shepard cashed in the Tigers’ next score with a 2-yard TD plunge on the last of two straight “tush push” plays.
Nichols followed with a 4-yard touchdown run on the Trojans’ ensuing possession to pull his team within 14-12, where it stood at the end of the first quarter, after which Ross struck less than 2 minutes into the next frame.
The junior grabbed Shepard’s pass behind the line of scrimmage and shed three University defenders with spin moves to ping across the goal line for a 21-12 Belton lead.
Planz later capped the Tigers’ first-half scoring by finding the right edge and churning up 39 yards along the sideline before diving for the pylon to mark a 27-18 gap with 2:33 left.
jbrooks@tdtnews.com
