The China Spring Cougars stymied the Sealy Tigers early and often and rolled to a 48-7 win in the Area Championship at Waco ISD Stadium Friday night to eliminate Sealy for the second straight season.

The Tigers served as the visitors at the neutral site and although both teams traded three-and-outs on their first drives, Tristan Exline pulled down an interception on the third play of Sealy’s second drive and Kyle Barton cashed in on the other end to open the scoring.

China Spring forced two more punts and turned those into touchdowns before it added another 33 seconds before halftime for a 27-0 advantage.

Coming out of the intermission, however, the Tigers executed a surprise onside kick and recovered the loose ball to set up in Cougar territory. Six plays later, on fourth down, Sealy junior quarterback D’vonne Hmielewski lofted a ball for senior Graham Samonte and the receiver hauled it in to erase the shutout.

Tiger Head Coach Shane Mobley said the halftime message trailing four scores was simple.

“You just challenge them and say, ‘Look you’ve got 24 minutes and you’ve got to go out and give it everything you’ve got, don’t leave anything and roll,’ and they did,” Mobley said. “We came out and they did a good job of riding the wave, we got the onside and go score, defense does a good job but they’re a really good football team and made some stuff happen.”

The China Spring defense turned up the pressure in the pocket and made things uncomfortable for Hmielewski which led to four sacks and two interceptions by the end of the contest.

After time ran out on the scoreboard and it settled in that the seniors had played the final games of their high school careers, many tears were shed and even more hugs and moments were appreciated between players and with coaches.

“You think about the seniors and it’s hard because this is five years with the ones that stuck it out throughout their high school careers and the first reflection of mine is all the adversity throughout the season, I’m proud of how they battled,” Mobley said. “They showed what can be done so it’s one of those things that it’s hard but at the same time it’s part of life. Nobody’s going to play the game forever, at a certain age it’s going to come to an end or the ability’s going to come to an end, but there are things football can build that nothing else can. I’m extremely proud of this whole team and this group of seniors, they need to be proud they made it to the second round with all the adversity we faced this season.”

It wasn’t only the athletes on the field that made contributions and set the tone for the team.

“My heart all season long as gone out to guys like Callen Rabius and Rudy Nava and Luke Kovar who didn’t even get the chance to play one snap,” the head coach said. “For Callen, when he went out he was the starting linebacker and starting slot receiver so for guys like Connor Krenek who were hurt all spring and summer and made the decision to play and overcame that and being in practice and team meetings. As a coach, you do everything you can throughout the season, you try to build and maintain the program work with the kids that are coming through.”

The focus now begins to shift to translating the fall sports’ success into the upcoming seasons.

“Keep building the program and the confidence, we had a freshman that played probably a whole quarter so you want to feed those kids as much as you can. You want the kids on the sidelines to see it and we’ve got guys going to baseball and basketball and their time is coming and when that time comes it’s going to be very important that they enjoy it,” Mobley said. “We want to have just as much success in those sports as we do in all of them and I think that’s critical. If baseball has success this year that’ll help next year going into football and so on.”

Scoring Summary

Sealy 0-0-7-0

China Spring 13-14-14-7

Q1

4:38: China Spring Kyle Barton 3 rush, Thomas Barr kick, 7-0

1:17: CS Major Bowden to Tre Hafford 13 pass, two-point fail, 13-0

Q2

5:12: CS Dawson Exline 4 rush, Barr kick, 20-0

0:33: CS Barton 1 rush, Barr kick, 27-0

Q3

9:12: Sealy D’vonne Hmielewski to Graham Samonte 31 pass, Amador Lopez kick, 27-7

3:55: CS Bowden to Isaiah Williams 46 pass, Barr kick, 34-7

2:51: CS Barton 1 rush, Barr kick, 41-7

Q4

11:55: CS Bowden to Tristan Exline 5 pass, Barr kick, 48-7

Stats courtesy Sealy Tiger Sports Network

Graham Samonte: 1 catch, 31 receiving yards, 1 touchdown; 2 tackles

Jeffrey Neu: 6 tackles

D'vonne Hmielewski: 4-8 passing, 53 throwing yards, 1 touchdown, 2 interceptions; 18 carries, 43 rushing yards

Connor Krenek, Mason Klotz, Hector Murillo: 5 tackles

Haden Wernecke: 2 catches, 14 receiving yards; 2 tackles

Richard Hahn, William Forrester: 4 tackles

Ethan Hart: 10 carries, 23 rushing yards; 1 catch, 5 receiving yards

Thomas Clark, Myki Harris: 3 tackles

A'vonte Nunn: 2 carries, 22 rushing yards