Aledo routs Red Oak in top-5 playoff matchup

Nov. 25—ARLINGTON — The Aledo Bearcats are officially at the halfway point of completing their quest to repeat as Class 5A state champions.

In a heavyweight, top-five matchup Friday night at Choctaw Stadium in Arlington, the No. 1 Bearcats squared off against the No. 5 Red Oak Hawks. The two schools each entered this regional semifinal matchup with undefeated records of 12-0, but Aledo flexed its muscles with its healthier roster and explosive playmaking to capture the victory over Red Oak by a final score of 59-35.

"We're 13-0 at this point and we've continued to get better and better throughout the season," Aledo star senior quarterback Hauss Hejny said. "We've had rocky spots but adversity is always good and we have been able to bounce back from that . We handled Killeen Shoemaker, we handled Lubbock-Cooper and now we handled Red Oak. The offense did great and the defense made some big-time plays. We're a good football team that plays for each other, we have a great coaching staff that's going to prepare us to hopefully win a state championship. Now, it's on us to take things day by day and not taking this time we have left for granted."

After capturing last year's state championship, the Bearcats are hungry for another one after feasting against a talented Red Oak team at the postseason's halfway point the day after Thanksgiving.

"We don't let the outside noise get to us," Aledo senior Davhon Keys said. "There's a lot of stuff that goes on Facebook, Twitter, YouTube — all of that — and we just ignore it. We take practice one day at a time and we take our games one week at a time. We just focus on playing the way we can play as the Aledo Bearcats."

Star sophomore running back Ray Guillory, who returned from an injury, opened up the scoring with a 28-yard touchdown run that gave Aledo a 7-0 lead with 4:58 left in the first. Then, the defense dug its heels in with Red Oak approaching the red zone, forcing Hawks quarterback Chris Martinez, Jr. to throw an incompletion on 3rd-and-9 from the Aledo 29. The Hawks elected to punt, giving Aledo the ball back on its own 16 with 1:24 left in the opening quarter.

On the very next play, star senior quarterback Hauss Hejny connected with talented sophomore wideout Kaydon Finley over the middle for a catch-and-run score of 84 yards, which pushed Aledo's lead to 14-0 with 1:14 left in the quarter. Hejny's growing connection with Finley, son of former NFL tight end Jermichael Finley, could be huge this postseason as the sophomore wideout is finding his stride both with his quarterback and his health.

"It all comes down to the coaches' preparation. They spent long hours this week making us a game plan that we could come out and execute instinctually," Hejny said. "The offensive line blocked their butts off tonight and made huge gaps for our running backs to basically have a track meet. ... Finley was a big part of our offense tonight down the field, and we were very versatile in doing everything tonight. It was very fun to watch and to play in."

On Red Oak's ensuing possession, it faced 4th-and-10 from the Aledo 19 with 9:39 left before halftime. This time, the Hawks went for it and converted with a 19-yard touchdown pass from Martinez to standout junior receiver Taz Williams, which cut the deficit in half at 14-7 with 9:31 left.

Aledo got the ball back on its own 30, and the quick-strike offense generated another speedy score, thanks to the legs of Guillory. The sophomore raced 70 yards off left tackle to the end zone to stretch the advantage back to 14 points at 21-7 just eight seconds of game time later.

Then, it was the defense's turn to make a play.

Following a strong kickoff return by Red Oak, the Hawks' ensuing possession started at the Aledo 35 and eventually drove into the red zone. However, Aledo's bend-but-don't-break defense held for a key stop, sacking Martinez on fourth down at the Aledo 19, where the Bearcat offense took over with 8:03 remaining in the second.

Following the defensive stop, Guillory capped off another successful Aledo drive with his third rushing touchdown of the game. Guillory's hat-trick score came from 21 yards and gave the Bearcats a 28-7 lead with 3:52 left before halftime.

"It felt great just being there for my team and being a resource they could use," Guillory said. "It's hard to explain — the way I run is just in me. The way I see the field, reading the linemen and knowing where to run is huge. I used to play on the defensive side of the ball, so I know how to do the opposite against opposing defenders based on what I would have done in those situations."

Red Oak showed no quit, though, as Williams caught another pass for a score that trimmed the deficit to 28-14. Then, Hejny connected with Finley again, this time for a 12-yarder, that made it a 35-14 lead with 46 ticks left before halftime. Despite that, Red Oak found the end zone on special teams by returning a kickoff for a touchdown. Aledo held a 35-21 lead with 23 seconds left, and the Bearcats were able to engineer a field goal drive. As the horn sounded, junior kicker Cole Crawford booted a 41-yarder to extend the Bearcat lead to 38-21 at intermission.

"We're at our best when we are balanced throwing the football and running the football," Bearcats head coach Robby Jones said. "It's great to have Ray (Guillory) back as well as having Hawk (Patrick-Daniels) out wide to help us with some deep passes. And, with (Kaydon) Finley, he got hurt earlier in the year against Denton Guyer, and we never really got him going until now, which is definitely a good thing for us."

Jones said the team made adjustments to new wrinkles they hadn't seen before from Red Oak's offense and talented receivers. In addition to that, Jones said they stopped kicking the ball to Brayden Robinson, who had two big kickoff returns for the Hawks. On the opening possession of the third quarter, Aledo picked up right where it left off on offense to open the second half as Guillory found paydirt on a 12-yard score — his fourth of the game — that increased the advantage to 45-21 with 9:03 left in the third.

Then, on its first defensive series, Aledo forced a turnover in the form of an interception by senior defensive back Jaden Allen. The interception gave Aledo the ball back on its own 36, and the Bearcats eventually capitalized on the turnover when senior Hawk Patrick-Daniels sprinted 41 yards for a house call that put the score at 52-21 with 6:29 to go in the third.

"We started off the game hot and then we continued it into halftime. Once we got into halftime, things cooled down a little bit, but we kept our heads on," Keys said. "We didn't let the score get out of hand and we didn't let the lead that we had get to us — we just kept playing hard."

In the end, Aledo's 31-point lead was enough to ensure the win and secure its 10th trip to the regional final in the last 11 seasons.

Guillory paced Aledo's ground game with 14 carries for 188 yards and four touchdowns while Hejny produced 285 yards of total offense. The senior signal-caller collected 40 rushing yards on 10 carries while completing 13 of his 18 pass attempts for 245 yards and two scores to Finley, who caught a total of seven passes for 161 yards to lead the receiving corps.

Moving forward, Aledo looks to fine tune its operation and continue to heal with one more win until the state semifinals in its sights.

"We just need to stay healthy and quit making little mistakes," Jones said. "We had chances to put those guys away all night, but we just kept letting them stay in it. We can't let people stay in the game with us like that."

The Bearcats (13-0, 8-0) will compete for the Class 5A (Division I), Region I title at 7 p.m. Friday against the Abilene Eagles in Memorial Stadium at Tarleton State University in Stephenville.