A Texas high school football team appeared to be in trouble when its starting quarterback left Friday’s game with a first-half injury.
However, the backup quarterback was more than ready to seize the moment.
Lance Reid, a junior quarterback at San Antonio Pieper, guided the Warriors to a stirring comeback win on the road in an important district game. He threw a long touchdown pass with 1:28 left to pull Pieper within one point of Converse Judson; then the Warriors decided to go for two and got it as Reid delivered once again to lift Pieper to a 43-42 win.
And it just so happened that he connected with the same receiver on the key TD and two-point play, junior Carson LaCombe. In addition, it was the exclamation point to a 22-point fourth quarter for the Warriors, who improved to 3-3 overall and 2-1 in District 27-6A play while dropping Judson (2-3 overall) to 2-1 in the district.
“It was definitely intense coming out here. … We expected it and we knew we were going to get it and come out on top,” Reid said in a postgame interview with the San Antonio Express-News.
Taking Over
Reid suddenly found himself in action in the second quarter, taking over when Pieper’s starting quarterback, Chase Lyons, left the game with an injury.
But Reid had to wait to make an immediate impact as Judson was in the midst of pouring it on the Warriors, scoring 28 second-quarter points in taking a 35-21 halftime lead. That score remained the same entering the final quarter.
A Huge Fourth
Pieper’s first big break in the final quarter came when Judson missed a field goal, which would have put the Rockets up by three scores. Instead, the Warriors found a spark.
They put together a touchdown drive when Wade Springer rushed in from 5 yards out, and Jack Blische added the PAT to make it a seven-point Judson lead, 35-28. The Rockets responded on the ensuing drive with a touchdown to put them back up by 14.
On Pieper’s next series, Springer darted in from 20 yards out, and another PAT from Blische cut the Rocket advantage to seven once more. Pieper then tried an onside kick and didn’t get it, and Judson moved the ball into the red zone before fumbling it back to the Warriors with more than two minutes left.
Taking over at its own 23, Pieper quickly moved down the field as Reid threw a long pass to Aaden Williams for a first down at the Judson 39. Moments later, he connected with LaCombe for the 38-yard score, and the two connected again for the go-ahead two-point play.
Judson had the ball inside Pieper’s 40 but turned it over on downs, giving the Warriors the dramatic come-from-behind victory, and making Reid an overnight sensation.
“He practices hard even though he’s not the main guy right now,” LaCombe told the San Antonio Express-News. “He stepped in and did what he had to do.”
‘We had a lot of faith in him’
Pieper coach Eddie Salas was equally confident in Reid’s ability to do the job, even in the coach’s decision to go for two and the eventual win.
“He’s so smart in practice,” Salas said to the Express-News. “He shows us what he did (Friday) all the time. Coming in, we had a lot of faith in him.
“(On the two-point conversion) we believe in our kids, number one, that we can score on offense and our kids wanted it. Our coaches wanted to do it, and we went for it. And we’re glad we did.”
Pieper returns home next Friday night to take on another San Antonio school, East Central.
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