Warriors travel to Waco Thursday in their bid to win it all

Yeah, they can play four full quarters too.

The Pasadena-First Baptist Christian Academy varsity football team competed in their first fourth quarter of the season this past Friday night and the results were spectacular.

In a showdown of two district teams, the Warriors secured their first-ever trip to a Texas Association of Private and Parochial Schools (TAPPS) state championship contest following an 84-46 semifinal victory over Conroe Covenant in Tomball.

FBCA will now oppose Ft. Worth Covenant Classical for the Division II state championship title in six-man competition Thursday afternoon at 3 p.m. in Waco at the Waco Independent School District Stadium. Covenant Classical won its semifinal game by the extremely unusual six-man score of 26-16 over Abilene Christian.

“We’re really blessed to have the opportunity to make it there. Our coaches prepared us for a four-quarter game because Coach Larsen has been telling us we’re going to have a game that goes four quarters. I’m glad we had a four-quarter game before state because you gotta be really good to be at state. That really prepared us for four quarters,” said Travis Gray, one of FBCA’s three captains on the team.

Ranked No. 22 in the nation by Max Preps and No. 1 in the state by Sixmanfootball.com because of a 13-0 season record, FBCA had never played an opponent for four quarters, always invoking TAPPS’ mercy rule that goes into effect when one team is leading another by 45 points.

While the offense was virtually unstoppable as evidenced by their season-high 84 points, the defense notched two safeties and the duo of Noah Gasque and Kane King combined for three interceptions, while Canon Thompson forced a fumble. Gasque returned one of his interceptions for a touchdown but it got called back due to a penalty.

But a strong Conroe Covenant squad, wanting to avenge a 64-16 district loss to the Warriors in late October, hung around just long enough to create that fourth quarter.

“It was good timing right before the state championship to get four quarters in. Of course the concern is when you only play two, two-and-a-half quarters all season, you wonder if you have the conditioning to go four quarters,” FBCA head coach Justin Larsen said Monday. “We try to rotate, keep everybody fresh. Plus, with a few exceptions, we only play guys on one side of the ball. They finished strong and were able to wear down the other team. It was a fun night for our boys, the school and the community.”

“It was nice to go the full length. If we go four quarters at state, it’ll prepare us for that conditioning and be hydrated and not cramp up. They were a good team, very competitive,” said Gasque, also a team captain.

Mother Nature even tried to give Conroe Covenant a helping hand by causing an hour-long lightning delay in the first half. Larsen sensed the Warriors were physically taking charge, but the retreat off the field gave the Conroe school time to catch their breath and regroup.

“Our boys were just resilient. They kept battling and wore them down. They really took off in the second half,” said Larsen, who saw a shaky lead of 48-32 in the third erupt to 64-32 later in the half, all but ending the suspense.

While FBCA does employ a passing attack, which was responsible for the team’s first touchdown Friday night, it’s the running game, led by senior Donald Guillory, that’s gotten all the raves.

“We run the ball so it’s like ground-N-pound. Coach always tells us body blows will take tolls on people. That’s how we rack up all those points,” Gasque said.

As for their state championship opponent from Ft. Worth, that 26-16 score this past weekend to go with some shutouts in the weeks prior, are a good clue that they like to hang their hat on the defensive side of the ball. That doesn’t seem possible in six-man football, but apparently it is.

“They were meant to be at state. We weren’t expecting them to be at state. We were expecting another team. Early on, we thought Lucas Christian was going to make it. They lost in the second round of the playoffs which really surprised us. I didn’t see any big kids on the team, but I saw athletic kids running up and down the field. They tackle really nicely, very disciplined in that way,” said the team’s third captain, Aiden Martinez, thoughts echoed by his fellow captains.

The full roster that has manufactured the 13-0 record features the names of Noah Gasque, Zachary Valdez, Dylan Guillory, Donald Guillory, Nicolas Brown, Kane King, Matthew Cundiff, Konner Crawford, Kaleb Wingo, Dallas Post, Liam Larsen, Canon Thompson, Jonas Laredo, Owen Gann, Caleb Espinoza, Isaac Garcia, Gabe Richard, Aiden Martinez, Barrett Brummett, Casey Winand, Travis Gray, Spencer Harris and Samuel William.

Larsen’s assistant coaches are Bradley Tarpey, David Coleman, Josh Beames and Brannon Revel.

FBCA’s scores this season:

Aug. 26: 68-0 over Texas School for the Deaf

Sept. 2: 54-6 over Houston Emery-Weiner

Sept. 9: 80-24 over Austin Veritas Academy

Sept. 23: 62-15 over Sugar Land Logos Preparatory

Sept. 30: 47-0 over St. Francis Episcopal

Oct. 7: 69-12 over Westbury Christian

Oct. 14: 63-0 over Katy Faith West

Oct. 21 67-16 over Allen Academy

Oct. 27: 64-16 over Conroe Covenant Christian

Nov. 3: 45-0 over Beaumont Legacy