Stepp's No. 7 Game of 2024: Crowley vs Midland
Matt Stepp's No. 7 game he saw in during the 2024 Texas high school football season was between the Crowley Eagles and the Midland Bulldogs.
Midland would open the second half with a different energy and the Bulldogs found the end zone on their opening drive as RB Elijah McCoy would score from eight yards out to cut the Crowley lead to 19-7 with just over eight minutes left in the third quarter.
The MHS defense would get a stop and with momentum the Bulldogs moved into Crowley territory, but disaster struck the Bulldogs as Matthias Martin would scoop up a Midland fumble and race 60 yards for a score to give Crowley what appeared to be an insurmountable lead at 26-7 with 3:37 left in the third quarter.
Midland wouldn’t go away as after a nice kickoff return, the Bulldogs struck quickly as WR Ayden Castillo got behind the Crowley defense to haul in a 48-yard touchdown pass from Stroman Bridges to cut Crowley’s lead to 26-14 with 2:48 left in the third quarter.
Midland needing a stop was unable to get Crowley off the field on the next drive as the Eagles failed to score, but they held on to the ball for over six minutes before punting and pinning Midland on their own twenty.
The Bulldogs would go into their version of a hurry-up offense as they marched eighty yards to score as Bridges connected with WR Cornell Hunt for a 14-yard touchdown pass to cut the Crowley lead to 26-21 with 3:42 left and a pair of timeouts.
Midland decided to go for an onside kick, but Crowley would recover and proceed to run out the remaining 3:42 of the game as CHS converted a pair of fourth down conversions to drain the clock and escape Midland’s late rally to advance to the regional semifinals in 6A-Division II Region I.
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