Flour Bluff football edges PSJA North in overtime in battle of unbeatens

Posted by Admin November 2, 2024 Football

(This story was updated to add new information.)

PSJA North looked to have Flour Bluff’s undefeated season and district championship hopes on life support with three seconds left in Friday’s high-profile showdown at Hornet Stadium.

The Hornets used their final timeout to ice Raiders kicker Jorge Alvarez, and when he went out for his second look at a 27-yard field goal try to win the game as time expired, it was sent wide to resuscitate Flour Bluff’s chances and send the game to overtime.

In overtime, the Raiders scored on a 20-yard scamper from Ethan Guerra, but again the kick was off and No. 8 Flour Bluff had a crack in the door.

Cameron Johnson and Ethan Satsky busted it open.

Johnson ran for a 12-yard touchdown and the Hornets kicker atoned for a miss he had earlier in the contest to split the uprights on a game-winning extra-point to give Flour Bluff an improbable 28-27 overtime win against the Raiders.

The win capped Flour Bluff’s comeback after the Hornets fell behind 14-0 to the defensive-minded ball-control Raiders, but a few alignment adjustments made a difference as PSJA North was held to seven points in the third and fourth quarters to enable to comeback.

“When I saw that kick miss, I was like ‘Wow,’ ” Flour Bluff senior linebacker/running back Cameron Johnson said. “I knew we had it in overtime. As soon as I saw it miss, I knew we had it from there.

“I had some great blocks, bounced it to the outside and saw a little gap, and just took off and I knew I was going to get it into the endzone and put us on top.”

The win moved Flour Bluff to 9-0 and dropped PSJA North to 8-1, giving the Hornets a chance at the outright district title next week against rival Veterans Memorial at Buc Stadium in the renewal of the Yorktown Showdown.

Battling back

The high-powered Hornets, one of the top five scoring teams in the state in Class 5A Division I, threw an interception on the third play of the game and eventually fell behind 14-0 as Ethan Guerra and the Raiders rushing attack got on track.

But a late first half touchdown from Jayden Paluseo to Jayce Raines, pulled Flour Bluff within 14-7 at the break. Even with a below average output from the Hornets offense, first-year head coach Clynt Elwood said the team never panicked.

“Our culture in the locker room supports everyone no matter,” Elwood said. “We were down 14-0 and 14-7 at half. It didn’t matter. Everybody stuck together.

“We went in at half, everyone knew what we were capable of. They knew we hurt ourselves in the first half. They kept their composure and knew if we limited mistakes, we’d win the ballgame.”

Clamping down

The Raiders had one touchdown in the final two quarters, allowing Flour Bluff’s offense to find traction as Paluseo threw two touchdowns to Vanderbilt commit Cameran Dickson.

Flour Bluff stopped PSJA North on downs on the Raiders first drive and then sniffed out a fake punt try that allowed the Hornets to take the lead.

The Hornets won despite Guerra finishing a workhorse night with 34 carries for 178 yards, part of the Raiders’ 296 yards on the ground.

Paluseo was 18 of 29 for 235 yards and three touchdowns and had 42 yards rushing. Johnson scored the game winner for the Hornets and Andre Mimms led all receivers with eight catches for 118 yards.

They said it

Flour Bluff head coach Clynt Elwood on defensive adjustments in the second half: “We got everyone back on the same page. We were misaligned a few times. We went back to how we should have lined up and fixed little mistakes. We were misaligned a bunch and that led to some of their longer runs and the touchdown.

“Once we made sure we were sound, we played better in the second half.”

Flour Bluff senior Cameron Johnson on what it took to gut out the win: “We’ve been preparing since Saturday, watching film almost every day. We worked really hard this week. We didn’t expect the outcome to be like this, but we fought through all the adversity and it was a good fight tonight.”

Up next

Flour Bluff (9-0) has a chance to win the distric title outright next week against Veterans Memorial at Buc Stadium. PSJA North will face Brownsville Rivera to cap the regular season.

DISTRICT 15-5A DI

Flour Bluff 28, PSJA North 27 (OT)

PSJA North 7 7 0 7 6 — 27

Flour Bluff 0 7 7 7 7 — 28

SCORING SUMMARY

First quarter

NOR — Daren Garcia 23 run (Jorge Alvarez kick), 6:18

Second quarter

NOR — Ethan Guerra 29 pass from Garcia (Alvarez kick), 2:27

FB — Jayce Raines 4 pass from Jayden Paluseo (Ethan Satsky kick), 0:29

Third quarter

FB — Cameran Dickson 36 pass from Paluseo (Satsky kick), 2:47

Fourth quarter

FB — Dickson 9 pass from Paluseo (Satsky kick), 11:58

NOR — Guerra 6 run (Alvarez kick), 5:34

Overtime

NOR — Guerra 20 run (kick failed)

FB — Cameron Johnson 12 run (Satsky kick)

TEAM STATISTICS

First downs: (N) 22; (F) 18

Rushes-yards: (N) 60-296; (F) 22-79

Passing: (N) 54; (F) 235

Comp-Att-Int: (N) 3-4-0; (F) 18-29-1

Punt-Avg: (N) 2-34.5; (F) 1-26

Fum-Lost: (N) 1-0; (F) 1-1

Pen-Yds: (N) 5-55; (F) 3-35

INDIVIDUAL STATISTICS

Rushing: PSJA North, Daren Garcia 8-39, Ethan Guerra 34-178, Andre Alvarado 15-69, Diego Aparicio 1-3, Nick Torres 2-7; Flour Bluff, Jayden Paluseio 11-42, Cameron Johnson 8-33, Tylor Simpson 2-10, Cameran Dickson 1-(-6)

Passing: PSJA North, Garcia 3-4-0—54; Flour Bluff, Paluseo 18-29-1—235

Receiving: PSJA North, Torres 1-20, Guerra 1-29, Aparicio 1-5; Flour Bluff, Dickson 6-69, Andre Mimms 8-118, Simpson 2-31, Jayce Raines 3-17

Records: Flour Bluff 9-0, 7-0; PSJA North 8-1, 6-1