A couple of district frontrunners slugged it out Friday night in Boerne when Geneva School of Boerne hosted Bay Area Christian.
The teams traded punches early and there were five ties or lead changes in the first 13 minutes alone before the Eagles took control of the game and went on to hand the Broncos their first loss of the season, 52-33.
Geneva and BAC have identical district records at 2-1, but the Eagles own the tiebreaker after the victory. Both are 6-1 overall.
Eagles coach Adam Foren said he knew it would a knock-down, drag-out kind of a game.
“We’re proud of our kids for buying in and handling the ups and downs and then making enough plays to win against a really good football team,” he said.
After Geneva scored on its opening drive on a 37-yard pass from Caleb Quitadamo to Reid Aderholt, the Broncos answered on their first play from scrimmage. Keaten Hall took it to the house from 75 yards and BAC was up 7-6 after they made the PAT and the Eagles didn’t.
After Geneva fumbled on its next drive, Hall made another house call and scampered into the end zone from 51 yards away two plays later. The Broncos had scored twice on just three offensive snaps as Hall had 126 yards on those two carries.
“He’s one of the best backs in the state at our level, he’s big and strong,” Foren said about the 6-foot-1, 190-pound back. “When you play good teams, they’re going to keep coming back and this is one of those teams.”
Quitadamo tied it up after he tossed his second TD pass of the game to Sam Horton and it was 13-13 late in the first quarter. After Geneva forced a punt, the Eagles took a 20-13 lead on Hudson McNew 4-yard run.
The Eagles never trailed from there, but the Broncos were never far behind until Geneva got some separation in the fourth quarter.
Parker Eiland booted a 27-yard field goal for the 10-point lead early in the second, but the Broncos cut it to four points after hitting a 67-yard touchdown pass from Connor Joyce to Beau Bradley.
Geneva answered and bumped it back to 10 points at 29-19 after Quitadamo connected with Aderholt on a 39-yard TD pass. Late in the first half, the Eagles extended the lead after Quitadamo went to the air and hit Walter Teague with a 54-yard bomb and Geneva held a 36-19 lead at halftime.
Just when it looked like Geneva was in control, the Broncos made it a 6-point game late in the third quarter. On one of the BAC drives, Hall busted loose on a 50-yard run before he was stopped inside the Geneva 20 and had totaled 176 yards on three running plays of 75, 51 and 50 yards.
After the 50-yard run, Hall punched it in from the 6-yard line and later scored on an 8-yard gallop as the Broncos outscored the Eagles in the third, 14-3. Geneva’s only points in the period came on a 37-yard Eiland field goal, and it was 39-33 in favor of the Eagles going into the fourth quarter.
“I'm proud of our guys for not flinching and handling adversity and finding a way to make enough plays,” Foren said.
In the fourth quarter, Quitadamo tossed his fifth TD pass of the night, this time to Chase Doran on a pitch and catch of 32 yards and the lead was 45-33 with 9:02 left in the game.
BAC’s next drive stalled after they went for it on 4th and 11 and didn’t get a first down. The Eagles took over at their own 32 and went to work draining the clock. Facing a 4th and 10 at their own 45, they punted, but the Broncos fumbled the punt and Geneva recovered and resumed the drive.
“That’s how you win games like this,” Foren said, “making special teams plays when you need to.”
The Eagles punched it in a few plays later on a Quitadamo QB sneak and it was 52-33 on the drive that chewed almost six minutes off the clock before and after the BAC fumble. Geneva could have gone into victory formation once it reached the 2-minute timeout, but they had tiebreaker considerations, and Foren said they needed to score.
If Bay Area Christian defeats Brazos Christian this coming Friday, those two teams and Geneva would have one loss and be tied for the district lead if Geneva can beat NB Christian this coming week. At that point, the first tiebreaker is point differential in games played against each other, with an 18-point max to keep teams from running up the scores.
Foren said he didn’t want to score but knew they had to.
“I don’t love it, but these are the new rules with the new playoff system,” he said. “I want to make sure if we get in a tiebreaker situation, we’re putting our players in the best position to be ready for the playoffs.”
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