OT Lightning: Blackcats nip Fairfield with two-pointer

Mexia football coah Aaron Nowell’s Blackcats were victimized by some overtime lightning two weeks ago.

On Friday night, the coach decided to take the bull by the horns and create some lightning of his own.

Brett Swift hit Da’Kedrick Brooks with a two-point conversion pass in the first overtime to give Mexia a 36-35 victory over Fairfield at Blackcat Field. The victory raised Mexia’s record to 2-5 overall and 2-1 in District 8-3A, Division I. Fairfield dropped to 2-5 and 1-2 in district.

The two-pointer came after Swift hit Tej Bryant with a 23-yard touchdown pass on third-and-11 to match Fairfield’s score in the first overtime.

Asked if he was planning to go for two points, Nowell replied, “Yes, the whole time, we were going for two. I knew if we went we were gonna score.”

Two weeks ago Mexia lost to Groesbeck by the same score when the Goats converted a two-pointer in the first overtime. Asked if he learned a lesson from that game, Nowell replied, “It kept me up at night. More than one.”

With the victory, the Blackcats can still achieve their goal of winning a district championship. Nowell made that clear in his meeting with his players on Friday.

“I said, anybody wants a shot at the district title, it goes through us,” Nowell said. “They’ve got to beat us. Tonight, Fairfield was on the schedule. Those kids played their hearts out. They played a fantastic football game.”

On the two-point play, Brooks actually elongated his route as the Eagles put pressure on Swift.

“Really and truly, I was supposed to run a stop. But I guess the pocket broke down so I just rolled out,” Brooks said. When Swift threw the ball into the air, the 6-foot-2, 205-pounder secured the catch to lift Mexia to its second district win.

Mexia had Fairfield with a fourth-and-13 at the 28 when Cameron Cockerell hit JaCorey Daniels with a 28-yard TD pass to give the Eagles the first points of overtime. An unsportsmanlike conduct penalty pushed the PAT back 15 yards, but Eli Castillo split the uprights to put Fairfield ahead 35-28.

The Eagles nearly won the game in regulation, but Castillo hooked a 30-yard field goal attempt wide left as time expired.

The Blackcats came out firing on all cylinders and took a 21-0 lead 13 minutes into the game.

They opened the game with a 10-play, 57-yard drive. Swift raced into the end zone from a yard out to cap the march with 8 minutes, 32 seconds left in the first quarter.

Jacques Cooper burst into end zone from four yards out to give Mexia a 14-0 lead with 2:04 remaining.

On the second play of the second quarter, Swift hit Cooper with a swing pass and the sophomore running back took it 65 yards to paydirt to make it 21-0 just 69 seconds into the second stanza.

Fairfield fought back with three unanswered touchdowns the rest of the quarter. The last one with 28 seconds left, and a two-point conversion, tied the score 21-21 at halftime.

Fairfield took a 28-21 lead on a 17-yard TD run by Braiden Barrett with 4:22 left in the third quarter.

Mexia tied it on a 58-yard scoring strike from Swift to Bryant with 7:21 left in the game.

Mexia will try to make it three wins in a row when they travel to Teague next Friday for a 7:30 p.m. district game.