ROGERS -- The ninth meeting meeting between crosstown rivals Rogers High and Rogers Heritage featured plenty of offense, but defense decided the outcome Friday night.
[HIGH SCHOOL FOOTBALL SCOREBOARD: Full results + recaps, photos and more]
Senior Phillip Necessary blocked Zach Gall's potential game-winning field goal with 22 seconds left to help Rogers High hold on for a 35-34 victory at Gates Stadium.
Rogers High 35, Rogers Heritage 34
Rogers^14^14^0^7^—^35
Heritage^14^0^14^6^—^34
First Quarter
Rog-Horton 1 run (Lopez kick), 8:26.
Hert-Gall 29 pass from Kitterman (Gall kick), 7:05.
Hert-Kitterman 75 run (Gall run), 3:15.
Rog-Hawkins 57 pass from Horton (Lopez kick), :05.
Second Quarter
Rog-McWhorter 4 run (Lopez kick), 9:16.
Rog-Horton 1 run (Lopez kick), 2:52.
Third Quarter
Hert-Kitterman 7 run (Gall kick), 7:49.
Hert-Palacios 21 pass from Kitterman (Gall kick), 2:00.
Fourth Quarter
Hert-Gall 73 pass from Kitterman (kick failed), 10:17.
Rog-Benninghoff 57 pass from Horton (Lopez kick), 10:02.
Heritage, which failed on fourth-and-1 from the Mounties' 34 with under five minutes left, drove from its own 29 to the Mounties' 14 in the final 90 seconds. But Necessary's hand swatted away the War Eagles' last shot at victory.
Rogers coach Mike Loyd said he was looking for someone to step up to make a play late and that's what happened. He was also not shocked that Necessary was the one to do it.
"I told the kids, 'Let's embrace this moment. Competitors step up to the front. Somebody find a way to make a play. It's not time to be tentative.' Phillip is one of our great players. He plays with tremendous heart and pride. But I thought we had a lot of kids that stepped up and did the same thing."
Loyd said he was surprised to see Heritage rally from the 28-14 halftime deficit, but was proud of his team's effort.
"They didn't quit, that's what happens in a rivalry," Loyd said. "You can throw records out. I think both teams played exceptionally hard. You can't get a better high school game than this. I'm proud of our team. Hats off to their coaches over there. They played with class and played hard, too."
Rogers, which improved to 4-1 overall and 1-1 in 7A-West Conference play, had an answer for Heritage much of the evening behind the play of senior quarterback Max Horton, who threw for two touchdowns and ran for two more.
Horton's 57-yard strike to Jake Benninghoff tied the game at 34 and the extra point by Chris Lopez gave the Mounties the one-point lead with 10:02 left in the fourth quarter. That score came 15 seconds after Heritage had taken the lead on a 73-yard pass from Trey Kitterman to Gall. However, Gall missed the PAT and the lead remained just six at 34-28.
Kitterman also enjoyed a huge night for the War Eagles (0-5, 0-2). The junior quarterback threw for three touchdowns and ran for two more.
The Mounties appeared to take control with 21 straight first-half points, keyed by a fumble recovery by senior linebacker Gary Fredrick for a 28-14 halftime lead. But Heritage roared back with 14 fourth-quarter points to tie the game at 28 entering the fourth quarter.
Heritage coach Tony Travis said the second quarter was terrible for his team, but they recovered to have a chance to win at the end.
"Second quarter was awful," Travis said. "We put our defense our there with a couple short fields on two turnovers and a bad punt. That led to the deficit at halftime, but there weren't any huge adjustments or anything. We talked about the mistakes that got us to this hole are created but us.
"I think we showed that in the second half. We came out and moved the ball and got a little fire. We started feeding off each other. We improved again this week. I know I sound like a broken record, but we played a good football team tonight and had our shot at the end to win it."
Sports on 10/01/2016