Cibolo Steele 35, San Antonio Brennan 34

Alamodome, San Antonio

August 27, 2022

The inaugural KSAT Pigskin Classic in San Antonio’s Alamodome lived up to the hype with three outstanding games to open the season. The finale on Saturday night was the best of the bunch as the two best teams in the Alamo City treated a big crowd to an absolute classic, with young and upstart Cibolo Steele upsetting a favored and senior laden Brennan squad 35-34.

Steele’s defense came to play early on forcing turnovers on Brennan’s first two possessions and the Knights were able to capitalize on the second turnover taking a 7-0 lead with 6:31 left in the first quarter as Jaydon Bailey scored on a 35-yard run. The Knights forced a Brennan punt on the next series and this time Bailey would quickly add to the lead scoring on an 83-yard jaunt to the end zone and with just over three minutes left in the first quarter Steele had raced out to a 14-0 lead.

The second quarter started with an exchange of turnovers, but Brennan would finally get on the board with just over five minutes left in the second quarter as QB Ashton Dubose hit Avron Carter on a screen pass and Carter would do the rest going 24-yards for the score to cut the Steele lead in half at 14-7. Brennan would force a Steele punt and move down the field just before halftime, tying the game up at 14-14 as Dubose connected with Armando Acevedo for a twelve-yard touchdown pass. Brennan who turned the ball over three times in the first half, had to feel pretty good about where they stood going into the locker room tied up.

The Bears defense would force their own massive turnover on the opening series of the second half as after Steele had moved all the way to the Brennan three-yard line, the Knights fumbled and the Bears defense would fall on the loose ball. Brennan’s offense would then drive 95-yards to take their first lead of the game as Aaron Dubose found Ashton Dubose for a twelve-yard touchdown pass to stake the Bears to a 21-14 lead with 3:15 left in the third quarter. Steele would quickly answer with 1:54 left in the third quarter as Bailey would score his third touchdown of the night, this one from three yards out and the game was again tied, this time at 21-21.

After forcing a Brennan punt near midfield, Steele would regain the lead as sophomore QB Chad Warner hooked up with sophomore WR Jalen Cooper for a 69-yard touchdown pass and the Knights had reclaimed the lead at 28-21 with 10:15 remaining in the game. Brennan would move the ball into Steele territory on their next drive, but the Bears would be forced to punt. Steele was unable to capitalize and take a two-score lead as the Knights would lose a fumble on their own eight-yard line and with 5:04 left, Dubose would connect with Carter for the second time on the night on a three-yard scoring toss to tie the game back up at 28-28.

Brennan’s defense would this time take control forcing a Steele punt and setting their offense up with a chance to take the lead and with 1:07 remaining in the game, the Bears did just that as Dubose threw his fifth touchdown pass of the night, a 37-yard screen pass to Jason Love to put the Bears up 34-28 as the PAT was missed, and that would loom large. The Knights were calmly led on a last minute drive by sophomore QB Warner and with just 18 seconds left in the game, Warner after being flushed out found WR Royal Capell in the back of the end zone for an eleven yard touchdown pass and the subsequent PAT would give Steele a thrilling 35-34 win which would jump-start the Knights who won their first eleven games of the season before falling to Lake Travis the area round of the playoffs. Brennan would go on to win their next twelve games, including a third round playoff win over Lake Travis before the Bears would fall to Austin Westlake in the regional finals.