For our second game the weather cleared up even better, sitting around 70 degrees on the field. The Cedar Hill Longhorns and Rockwall-Heath Hawks faced off to see who would advance to the semi-final rounds of the 6A-II UIL State Championships.
Future Tennessee Volunteer, Kaidon Salter, would get the offense going with a huge completion to Javien Clemmer. The Longhorns would have the ball within the Hawks 10-yard line. Rockwall-Heath wouldn’t let it be that easy though, forcing the Longhorns to a field goal attempt.
Rockwall-Heath would come out angry though, rushing the ball down the Longhorns throats. Thanks to a very lucky tipped pass, the Hawks would have the ball inside the Longhorns 10-yard line. Preston Landis would punch in the ball, giving the Hawks a 7-0 lead in the first quarter.
Cedar Hill would get the ball back motivated though. The Horns pounded the ball early, and then hit the Hawks with a deep pass for the touchdown. Kaidon Salter would complete a bomb to Brian Rainey tying up the game 7-7.
Penalties would kill Cedar Hill’s momentum all second quarter. To make matters worse the Hawks would come up with great field position after a Longhorns botched punt. Josh Hoover connected with Jaden Hilgendorf for a 5-yard touchdown reception, retaking the lead 14-7. With one minute left before halftime the Longhorns would be able to tie the game back up. Kris Allen would burst off a 21-yard touchdown run, his first of the night.
Josh Hoover & Preston Landis would help the Hawks score on their opening drive of the second half. Landis would add onto his huge night with his second rushing touchdown of the game. He finished the night with 34 carries for 196-yards and two touchdowns.
The Longhorns offense was still rolling though, and got inside Rockwall-Heath’s 5 line. Cedar Hill head coach Carlos Lynn decided to go for it on fourth-down at the two-yard line down, but that would bite him in the butt. Hawks defense would make a 4th stop, and keep their 21-14 lead with seven minutes in the 3rd quarter. The defenses would continue to show out, keeping the score 21-14 heading into the fourth quarter.
Kaidon Salter would throw his only pick of the night to open up the fourth quarter. Fortunately for the Longhorns their defense would come up big and force a punt. This time Salter would come up big and tie the game with a 15-yard touchdown pass to Javien Clemmer. Cedar Hill would have one last chance to win the game, and even got inside the 20-yard line with under a minute left. Salter would complete a pass to Brian Rainey, but he would end up fumbling the ball at the one-yard line trying to get the touchdown.
We got overtime.
Cedar Hill elected to start on defense as they won the coin toss to start OT. Syncere Massey came up with his biggest play of the night sacking Josh Hoover to force the Hawks to a field goal. Heath would make their attempt, bringing the game to 24-21, a touchdown would win it for Cedar Hill.
And of course that’s what Kaidon Salter would do, scrambling and directing traffic to find a diving Javien Clemmer in the endzone. Suddenly the field was rushed, and pure excitement reigned on the Cedar Hill side of the stadium. Dog piles, taunting, everything you could imagine in an overtime playoff game.
Next week the Cedar Hill Longhorns get to face off against the Denton Guyer Wildcats in the 6A-II semi-finals. We will see another future SEC quarterback battle between the two teams. Denton Guyer High School is 11-2 on the season, and led by four-star Texas A&M commit, Eli Stowers.
