Newton holds off Canadian rally to go back-to-back

Canadian's defense gave the Wildcats every chance to pull off what would have been the first upset of the 2018 UIL State Championship games. 

Despite trailing 21-0 at the half and struggling mightily against Newton through the first 24 minutes of play, Canadian forced four punts, a safety and a fumble on the Eagles’ six second-half possessions. 

Those stops – the last of which gave the Wildcats the ball back from their own 27-yard line with 2:11 left in the fourth quarter – gave Canadian one final chance to do the unthinkable Thursday night at AT&T Stadium. 

But after moving the ball to the Newton 21-yard line with 51 seconds to go, the Wildcats couldn't convert on 4th and 8 as Cason Cavalier was intercepted by Dominique Seastrunk in the end zone. 

That allowed Newton to kneel out the clock, giving the Eagles a 21-16 win and their second consecutive Class 3A Division II state title. 

“People don’t understand how hard it is to do this,” Newton coach WT Johnston said. “It’s a mental grind. Texas is the hardest place to win a state championship because the football is really good, and you play 16 games. It’s a mental grind that a lot of kids with the talent to do it can’t do. 

“We’ve talked about it since last spring. The first day of practice, we didn’t talk about winning a district championship. We talked about winning a state championship – and we did.”

As good as the Canadian defense played, the Wildcats’ offense quickly discovered why Newton entered Thursday’s Class 3A Division II state championship game as the undefeated defending state champions. 

The Eagles, with a core group of 15 returning starters, again exerted their dominance in the early going at AT&T Stadium. Newton held Canadian to just 56 yards of offense in the first half, forced a pair of key turnovers and appeared to be well on its way to a blowout win.  

After converting on all three of its third down attempts on the game’s opening drive to take a 7-0 lead on a 4-yard run from TCU commit Darwin Barlow, the Newton offense – playing without star ATH Tamuzia Brown – was held in check for most of the night.  

But the Eagle defense forced a missed field goal, two punts and a turnover on downs to start the game before contributing on the scoreboard when Kevin Watson intercepted Cavalier and returned the ball 13 yards for a touchdown with 4:20 remaining in the second quarter. 

Newton made it 21-0 when a Cavalier fumble was recovered by Maliak Metoyer, setting up a 10-yard TD from Barlow with 48 seconds to go before the break. 

“That was the game,” Johnston said. “It was who blinked first, and they blinked. I’m telling you, I can’t say enough good things about their team – they’re very well coached, their kids play extremely hard. It’s just they came out on the short end today, and it’s because of the turnovers.”

The tide briefly turned in Canadian’s favor midway through the third though as the Wildcats’ defense, which put a lot of pressure of Newton quarterback Josh Foster from start to finish, finally forced the Eagles’ first big mistake.

Foster attempted to throw a ball away while standing just inside his own end zone with two Canadian defenders right in his face. He was flagged for intentional grounding, which resulted in a safety and gave the Wildcats’ their first two points with 6:00 left in the third. 

It was all Canadian needed to get something going offensively and the Wildcats drove right down the field and scored their first touchdown on a 5-yard run from Cavalier. The senior quarterback added the 2-point conversion to make it 21-10 with 4:38 left in the third. 

“That for sure caught them off guard,” Cavalier said. “I don’t think anyone expected that [a safety] to be the call there other than us. It was really good to know we had two points and had something solid. We knew if we could get a touchdown, those two points might win us the game.”

After the teams exchanged punts to start the fourth, Canadian’s Cutter Kelton forced a fumble that gave the Wildcats the ball with a chance to make it a one-score game. Canadian lined up a 42-yard field goal attempt but a personal foul extended the drive, and the Wildcats eventually got into the end zone on an 11-yard pass from Cavalier to Garrison McCook. 

But Newton's defense stood tall when it mattered most, giving the Eagles another championship. It was an emotional moment for Johnston, who was told he had just eight months to live back in March after undergoing a double-lung transplant.

Nine months later, Johnston leaves AT&T a champion again. 

“When the Lord is ready to take me is when I’m leaving – not before,” Johnston said. “That’s the way I run my life. Everything I base my life on is the Lord. Now, I think football 24/7 and I can’t turn it off. I’ve always been that way. When they told me that in March, it was kind of surreal this time because I could see it happening and I can see it happening now. 

“My first thing was wanting to make it to August. I wanted the guys who built this team, those other coaches, to be the ones who finished it. I made it to August – so now, I want to make it past Gilmer because if anything bad is going to happen it’s going to be in those three really tough games and I’ll need to handle everything. I made it to Gilmer, and then I was like I might as well make it the rest of the way. The Lord let me see this.” 

- Brady Keane

VIDEO RECAP

Eagles stake claim as the best team in Texas 

A one-loss Canadian team did just about everything possible to hang with Newton on Thursday in the Class 3A Division II championship game.

The Wildcats had their moments defensively against Newton’s high-octane offense, but ultimately succumbed to, after Thursday’s showing, what might be one of the best pound-for-pound teams in the state.

Newton dominated the game defensively and flashed its brilliance on offense early before staving off a late rally to cap another unbeaten season and run its win streak to 30 games while claiming a second straight state championship after running through a gauntlet of elite Class 4A opponents in nondistrict play.

“Some of the things Newton did this year made them probably one of the most dominant teams in the history of 3A football,” Canadian coach Chris Koetting said. “They were scoring 59 points a game or whatever it was, their defense wasn’t giving up much of anything. We didn’t look at any of Newton’s stats, we could see how good they were on film. Our kids weren’t intimidated though. They fought for four quarters.”

To get a true feel of what Newton did this year, one must look at the Eagles’ nondistrict slate and the fact they only played nine regular season games – because they couldn’t find a 10th team to play them.

Over a three-game span, Newton beat Class 4A Division II semifinalist Silsbee by six touchdowns, the team Silsbee beat in the 4A-II quarters, West Orange-Stark, by 14 points and finally perennial Class 4A power Gilmer by 20 points.

The Eagles took all comers and left no doubt.

“When we played Gilmer, they got ahead of us for about 30 seconds, and that was about the only time we’ve been behind this year,” Newton coach WT Johnston said. “But they responded that night. When our backs are against the wall, we don’t panic. There at the end, (Canadian is) throwing in the end zone to win, and our kids are still playing. They play extremely hard and they’re easy to coach.”

Johnston said his players grow up around pressure from the community – sometimes moreso than the pressure and demand from their coaches.

“Have you ever been to Newton? Not a lot of things in Newton,” Johnston said. “There’s 2,400 people in Newton but everyone loves football. In about three weeks, they’re going to be talking about how we’re going to be next year. Football is it. It’s the only show in town. And these guys know they have a responsibility every time they step on that field to represent Newton and to give the people of Newton a show because it’s so big there.”

Senior running back Darwin Barlow said he was nervous before Thursday’s game, and it’s easy to see why. After all, he and his teammates had a second straight title to claim and a win streak to push to 30 games. They didn’t want to let their community down.

Turns out, the Eagles might have added “best pound-for-pound team in Texas” to their resume.

“It just means everything to be 30-0 for [sic] two straight years,” Barlow said. “The hard work paid off, and in the end it showed up.”

- Adam Boedeker

BOX SCORE

Newton 21, Canadian 16

Canadian	0	0	10	6	-	16
Newton	7	14	0	0	-	21

Scoring Summary

1st Qtr. 8:05

Newton – Darwin Barlow 4-yard run (Caleb Colon kick)

2nd Qtr. 4:20 

Newton – Kevin Watson 13-yard interception reutnr (Colon kick)

2nd Qtr. 0:48 

Newton – Barlow 10-yard run (Colon kick)

3rd Qtr. 6:00

Canadian – Saul Escamilla safety

3rd Qtr. 4:38

Canadian – Cason Cavalier 5-yard run (Cavalier rush)

4th Qtr. 3:12 

Canadian – Garrison McCook 11-yard pass from Cavalier (2-point conversion failed)

Team Stats

	Canadian	Newton
First downs	17	13
Rushing yards	32 – 114	51 – 166
Passing yards	230	166
Passing	21-48-2	7-16-0
Punts – Avg.	5 – 36.8	8 – 31.9
Penalties – Yards	3 – 20	10 – 75
Fumbles – Lost	4 – 1	2 – 1
Third-Down Conversions	5-of-19	5-of-16
Possession Time	20:58	27:02

Newton Individual Leaders

Rushing – Darwin Barlow 24-106, Kevin Watson 10-44, Valdarion Fowler 3-19, Zach Gulley 3-2, TEAM 1-(-1), Josh Foster 10-(-4). 

Passing – Josh Foster 7-16-0-87. 

Receiving – Darwin Barlow 2-35, Galen Kellum 2-19, Valdarion Fowler 1-14, Dominique Seastrunk 1-13, Kevin Watson 1-6. 

Canadian Individual Leaders

Rushing –Cason Cavalier 21-95, Trent Evans 1-21, Hayze Hufstedler 8-9, Caleb Martinez 1-3, TEAM 1-(-14).

Passing – Cason Cavalier 20-47-2-206, Josh Culwell 1-1-0-24. 

Receiving – Garrison McCook 12-124, Hayze Hufstedler 3-22, Trent Evans 3-10, Grant McCook 2-50, Bill Koetting 1-24. 

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