This past Tuesday, the West Wranglers hosted the Grapevine Ponies for the last regular season game for 8th grade. This particular game held extra significance, because both teams entered the day in search of their first victory of the season. Whichever team won would get to host the other team in their first playoff game next week. With such high stakes, the game began fast for the Wranglers. The Ponies scored a defensive touchdown early in the first half to take an early 6 to 0 lead over the Wranglers. The Wranglers defense was shutting down the Grapevine offense, with plenty of tackles behind the line of scrimmage from the Wrangler defense, led by Ashton Hunter.
At the end of the first half, the Wranglers were marching down the field to score but ran out of time to score before halftime. The Wranglers came together as a team at halftime and made big adjustments for the second half. Offensively, the Wranglers came alive running the ball behind the offensive line. Linemen Sid Tummala, Jeremiah Bautista, Krish Ratti, Jayden Bang, and Dohyeok Kang protected for backs Noble Palmer, Rohith Santhanakrishnan, and Nick Crenshaw as they churned out big run gains throughout the entire second half. The offense quickly marched the ball down the field and running back Noble Palmer scored a long touchdown to tie the score at 6 to 6. The Wranglers recovered the ensuing kickoff, setting up the offense in Pony territory.
The offense once again marched the ball down the field running the football, setting up a short rushing touchdown from Nick Crenshaw. Noble Palmer scored the extra point, giving the Wranglers a 13 to 6 lead late in the 4th quarter.
The Grapevine offense completed passes on the last drive to move the ball downfield, but the Wrangler defense rallied to tackle the Grapevine receivers, and upon the final whistle, the Wranglers earned their first victory of the season.
The fans in the stands were loud in celebration. With this victory, the Wranglers guaranteed themselves a home playoff game next week against the same Grapevine Middle School Ponies. The matchup will take place on Tuesday October 28th at 5pm at Coppell Middle School West.