SAN ANTONIO — It turns out the only team that could slow down the Boerne High football team in Friday’s third-round playoff game against Gregory-Portland was Boerne High itself.
BHS defeated the Wildcats 38-7 to advance to the regional finals against Alamo Heights, but the Greyhounds left a bunch of points on the field.
The rematch with Alamo Heights will be on Friday at Alamo Stadium, 7 p.m.
The Greyhounds had two touchdowns called back, fumbled twice and also threw an interception – with all three turnovers in the red zone – in the first half of Friday’s game but still dominated the Wildcats.
BHS coach Brett Sawyer said he was proud of overcoming the miscues on their way to the win.
“We’re never going to play the perfect game, but we want to get as close as you can to it,” he said. “We have some things to clean up, but for the most part we played a pretty clean game, we executed well.”
Boerne’s first drive ended with a fumble at the Wildcats’ 3-yard line, but the Hounds found the end zone on their next possession after Grant Sweeney hit Zach Freasier on a 46-yard scoring strike.
Boerne’s next trip down the field also ended with a trip into the end zone after Sweeney tossed a 40-yard TD pass to Brock Hierholzer, and it was 14-0 after the Diego Jimenez kick to end the opening stanza.
In the second quarter, Boerne’s next two drives ended with an interception and a fumble and had a TD pass called back on one of those drives, but the Greyhounds closed out the half with a 41-yard field goal by Jimenez for the 17-0 lead at the break.
Boerne held the high-scoring Gregory-Portland offense without a first down in the first quarter and only two first-half first downs.
The Greyhound defense forced five Wildcat punts in the first half, and this against a team that had scored 70 points in its last three games and at least 60 in its last five. Senior Blake Burkholder said the defense did a great job of slowing down Gregory-Portland’s offense.
“We focused on containing their quarterback and our D-line did a great job up front. We had a great week of practice and played really good,” he said. “Every player trusts each other; we all know what we’re doing out on the field and trust that the other guy is going to be in his spot.”
Once the second half started, the Wildcats tried a fake punt on 4th and 4 at their own 38 and the Greyhounds defense stuffed the play for no gain and gave the offense a short field, but unfortunately lost Bobby Jett Wilkinson to injury on the play.
Five plays later, Will Traylor scored after Sweeney found him in the end zone for a 13-yard touchdown toss, and BHS bumped its lead to 24-0.
Later in the third quarter, Sweeney scrambled in from the Wildcats’ 17-yard line, and the Greyhounds were leading 31-0.
At that point, Sweeney had a hand in all four Boerne touchdowns, with three through the air and one on the ground. Sawyer said that when Sweeney plays like that, the Greyhounds are tough to top.
“We were clicking and when Grant Sweeney is clicking and our offense is rolling, we’re tough to beat if we can get into that rhythm,” the coach said.
Sweeney added one more rushing touchdown with 6:48 left in the game and from that point on, Sawyer started moving players in and out.
The Wildcats finally got on the board with a punt return that went for a touchdown with seven seconds remaining for their final TD of the season.
Boerne advances to the regional championship game for the third time in four seasons, and Sawyer credits the kids in the program.
“Being able to play in the regional finals, it’s crazy,” he said. “It starts with the community; our kids have high expectations to succeed in whatever they do, and football is one of those areas.”
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