After forcing a three and out to open the game, Sealy held the ball for 2:10, built a 16-point lead and never looked back to help earn a 58-7 win in the Battle of the Tigers in Wharton Friday night at Eddie Joseph Memorial Stadium.

In the penultimate District 12-4A-D2 contest, Sealy improved its record to 3-2 and Wharton fell to 0-5. With a La Marque loss to Bellville Friday night, Sealy secured a playoff berth for the second year in a row.

Sealy junior quarterback D’vonne Hmielewski threw five touchdown passes to four different receivers and ran for another in the first half to give the visitors a 44-7 lead at intermission. Sophomore Reid Miller took over behind center in the second half and registered a pair of throwing touchdowns to provide the bookending scores.

Senior Graham Samonte was one of the receivers on the other end of Hmielewski’s first-half scores and after he was sidelined last week, he contributed multiple catches including a jump ball through double coverage.

“Feels great, I had some doubt about whether I wanted to play this week or wait and be safe for next week but I thought I could play through it and I felt like I did and it was great to be back,” Samonte said. “Especially since we’ve got some injuries back, we’ve been keeping it flowing offensively.”

Offensive Coordinator Chris Carruthers spoke of the importance of building the early lead the way Sealy did Friday night.

“It changes the game, especially when we go for two. It’s been our MO recently,” Carruthers said. “The key is getting the first one, then it’s almost like you’re playing with house money. Then 16-0 is a different vibe than 14-0.”

After the early gap was provided, Head Coach Shane Mobley said he could then dial up the intensity of the defensive play-calling to stymie the Wharton offense.

“If we score twice and we’re up by three scores, then I can be a lot more aggressive defensively because if something happens we can settle in,” Mobley said. “Tonight we didn’t have to but it was important to work our two-point conversions.”

Mobley said the team was able to work on a lot of situations since so many players go onto the field when a majority of the starters were on the sideline in the second half.

“There was some stuff we wanted to work on tonight and we showed some stuff, it was some great learning tools tonight as far as containing the quarterback in the box when we do send blitzes because everyone’s got an assignment,” Mobley said. “We had some blown assignments there but the best way to coach that is to run it live and then go back and make some coaching points.”

The coaching staff will make their final points next week in practice leading up to Sealy’s regular-season finale against La Marque at home.

“Last home game, senior night, we’re all going to give it all we’ve got. I know that,” Samonte said.

“Basically, we secured playoffs tonight so the seniors guaranteed one more game, but what they’re not guaranteed is another win at T.J. Mills Stadium,” Mobley said. “As much pride as our kids have in our community and what we stand for and the history and tradition, we’re not going to have to do a lot of harping next week in practice because for the seniors, I think it’s going to mean so much to them that they want the last game they play on that field to be a great one.”

Scoring Summary

Wharton 0-7-0-0

Sealy 23-21-7-7

Q1

10:16: Sealy D’vonne Hmielewski to Haden Wernecke 47 pass, Reid Miller to Parker DeBerry two-point pass, 8-0

8:20: S Hmielewski to Thomas Clark 8 pass, Connor Krenek to Gage Grigar two-point pass, 16-0

4:55: S Hmielewski 19 rush, Eddie Gomez kick, 23-0

Q2

9:08: S Hmielewski to Wernecke 23 pass, Amador Lopez kick, 30-0

6:40: S Hmielewski to Ethan Hart 2 pass, Lopez kick, 37-0

2:34: Wharton Jacoric Allen to Jarrad Newsome 46 pass, Angell Gaona kick, 37-7

0:23: S Hmielewski to Graham Samonte 15 pass, Lopez kick, 44-7

Q3

1:02: S Miller to Julius Aguilar 7 pass, Lopez kick, 51-7

Q4

6:25: S Miller to Triston Coleman 19 pass, Lopez kick, 58-7