What a difference a year makes.
A season ago, the
Fort Bend Dulles (Sugar Land) Vikings couldn't catch the late-game breaks they needed to win close games. Four different times, games were decided in the final 61 seconds. All four times, the Vikings ended up on the wrong end.
Three of those times, the opposing team put the game-winning points on the board in the final 13 seconds. Once, it came with just a tick on the clock. They were tough, gut-wrenching losses.
Fast forward to this season and games are still coming down to the wire — but the Vikings have reversed their fortunes.
While there are plenty of 2-0 teams in the Greater Houston area two weeks into the football season, none have done it quite as dramatically as Dulles, a team that is quickly mastering the art of the show-stopping comeback.
The Vikings (2-0) have twice fallen behind by more than 20 points and both times they were able to pull themselves out of the hole and earn a win. Both times, they scored in the final 20 seconds to secure the victory.
"We lost four games last year in the last seconds," Dulles coach Jim Creech said. "To think that the same things are happening, but the opposite (that we're winning), that tells me that our kids are tenacious."
Dulles High's Sheroid Evans.
Photo by Tom Lemming
The Vikings already have enough challenges to deal with before they take the field without digging themselves into a three-touchdown hole. With an enrollment of 2,077, they’re one of the smallest Class 5A schools in the area and the state. That is reflected in their depth, as they're dressing just 38 players for games right now, which is also on the low end amongst 5A teams in the area. That means that some players must play offense and defense and an injury can make a huge difference.
In fact, they're dealing with injuries now as they're playing without Texas commitment and track standout
Sheroid Evans, who is recovering from a hamstring injury. Evans, one of the top defensive back recruits in the country, also plays receiver and is on the return teams on special teams.
Still, they've found ways to win despite spotting their opponents three-score leads.
In their season opener against
Alief Hastings (Houston), the Vikings fell behind 23-0 in the second quarter. Things went bad from the outset — they gave up a safety in the first 15 seconds of the game, lost a player to injury on the next drive and committed a turnover soon thereafter.
"It was one thing after another," Dulles starting quarterback
Zach Lathrop McMillian said. "We couldn't get the ball moving."
Though they were able to get a score before the half, they still had work to do in the second half. Their defense pitched a second-half shutout and when the fourth quarter rolled around, they scored three times to pull out the win. What's more, the player who kicked the 26-yard game-winning field goal with 14 seconds left,
Travis Galloway, is a former band member and soccer player who was appearing in his first varsity football game.
The next week, the Vikings started slow once again. Their opponent this time,
Seven Lakes (Katy), raced out to a 21-0 first quarter lead and by the midway point of the second quarter, the Spartans possessed a 28-6 lead.
However, the confidence instilled in them from the previous week's game came into play for the Vikings. Dulles recovered quicker, scoring twice before the half to cut the deficit to 28-21. Again, the defense did a solid job in the second half, allowing just seven points, giving the Vikings' up-tempo spread offense a chance to take another stab at a comeback.
They did — only to run into a brief moment of doubt. After running back
Jarrell Oliver Carter scored a 1-yard touchdown with 18 seconds left to pull Dulles to within a point, 35-34, the Vikings had their potential game-tying extra point kick attempt blocked. Seven Lakes began to celebrate — but that's when the Vikings experienced some more good fortune.
The ball bounced back to Lathrop, who was the holder on the kick, and he picked it up and ran it in for a two-point conversion for the game-winning points.
"The ball just fell right at my feet," Lathrop said. "I looked up and there was one guy on the left and one guy to beat to the corner so I just ran to the corner. He had me stopped up for a second and almost knocked me out of bounds so I just reached for the pylon and looked up and the ref was saying that it was good, but I don't know how (it happened)."
Some of the Spartans had begun to celebrate as soon as they blocked the kick, providing just enough time for Lathrop to take advantage with his heady play.
"It was just instincts, to just pick it up and run...Probably half of them (were celebrating). The kid who almost made the (tackle) — we went back and watched film and we're sure his hands went up for about a second — but he was never out of it and he was definitely paying attention."
With eight games left on the regular season schedule, it's unknown whether Dulles' never-say-die attitude translates into a return to the postseason for the first time since 2006. But after finishing 4-6 and missing the postseason a year ago (when the Vikings could have easily been 8-2 if the breaks bounced their way), it's clear that they have learned something from their experiences in 2009 and have found a way to change their luck from bad to good.
"You're concerned because they get so far behind early but you're happy that they're tenacious enough that it doesn't bother them," Creech said. "They feel like that they have that will and they don't quit.
"I think luck or fortune - you make your own. But you can't have two years in a row when everything goes bad. One year you get all the turnovers and another year you get none of the turnovers."
Sam Khan Jr. is a reporter who covers Greater Houston area high school sports for the Houston Chronicle. You can reach him at sam.khan@chron.com. You can follow him on Twitter at twitter.com/skhanjr. You can also join him and Jenny Dial for a weekly live high school football chat at noon every Wednesday on chron.com/hs.
