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Separate situations: North falls to fifth in district with loss to Wylie
Photo courtesy of Marc Martin
By Chris Beattie, cbeattie@starlocalnews.com
McKinney North (1-6, 1-3 in district) came out on the wrong end of an important separation in the District 13-4A standings Friday night, losing to Wylie 35-20.
Both teams went into the game in a four-way tie for fourth, but it was Wylie (2-5, 2-2 in district) that pushed ahead in the playoff picture. The Pirates’ passing attack proved too much for the Bulldogs, who kept it close with a second-half surge but failed to capitalize on critical possessions.
“Missed opportunities – it’s been the story of the whole season,” said Mike Fecci, North head football coach. “You’ve got to make plays; if you don’t make plays you’re not going to beat people. That’s the bottom line.”
North recovered an ensuing onside kick and drove far enough into Pirates territory for senior Will Ashun to kick a 32-yard field goal, his second on the night, to pull within one score, 28-20. Wylie recovered a second straight onside kick from the Bulldogs, but North’s defense stiffened. It forced a three-and-out and, after its offense stalled, again made the Pirates punt. But senior Marc Bresnahan muffed that kick right outside the Bulldogs’ end zone, and Wylie scored three plays later on a fade from quarterback Carsen Cook to Kalen Winkler.
“We onside kick it, it’s wide open, we don’t get it – that’s not making a play,” Fecci said. “We’ve got to figure out a way to go make plays.”
The Pirates relied heavily on Cook, who threw for 303 yards and five touchdowns, two each to Winkler (11 catches for 112 yards) and Alex Wesley (eight catches for 96 yards). They rushed for just 10 yards in the first half, and finished with 67.
“They don’t run the ball very much,” Fecci said. “When you throw the ball like they do and throw it effectively like they do, the running game’s kind of a non-factor. And they’re good at it; they’re a good football team.”
The Bulldogs were more balanced even though they played from behind almost the entire game. They totaled 319 yards, with 169 through the air and 150 on the ground. Dutze completed 15-of-30 passes, but several incompletions were drops in crucial situations.
Down 21-7 with two minutes before halftime, the Bulldogs had a first down from the Pirate 16 yard line. Junior wideout KJ Bualicex (five catches for 47 yards) couldn’t haul in a fade in the end zone, and senior Marcus Nobles dropped a likely touchdown pass at the 5 yard line the following play. A third straight incomplete pass forced Ashun to kick his first field goal, a 33-yarder, to make it 21-10 at half.
Neither team’s offense had it going to start the second half, trading brief possessions, until Wylie found its rhythm through swing passes and screens. Wesley capped off an eight-play, 72-yard drive when he took a Cook bubble screen 34 yards to the house to make it 28-10.
The Bulldogs stuck to their bread-and-butter, a heavy dose of sophomore running back Ronald Jones (16 carries for 68 yards) and senior Justin Jones (13 carries for 69 yards), for as long as they could. The two combined for 24 yards on North’s first scoring drive, and Ronald Jones ran it in from three yards out to make it 14-7 late into the second quarter.
Pirates wide receiver Alex Pina-Rhoden caught a deep seam pass from Cook and broke free for a 65-yard touchdown on the ensuing possession, though, to push Wylie’s lead to 21-7.
“We had to throw it a lot tonight trying to come from behind, trying to go in two-minute situations,” Fecci said. “We did a fairly decent job with that. It’s not really what we do, but we did some good things with it, and that’s going to benefit us on down the line.”
The Bulldogs finished with just 51 fewer yards than Wylie (370 total), but while North twice had to settle for field goals, the Pirates scored touchdowns on all three of their redzone possessions.
Wylie now stands alone in fourth place in 13-4A. North falls to a fifth-place tie with Royse City and Denison.
The Bulldogs look to stay in the hunt next Friday at 7:30 p.m. against last-place Greenville.
“Four wins gets you in,” Fecci said. “We’ve got Greenville, Wylie East and Denison left; if we can go out and win all three of those games, we’ve got a great chance of getting in. There’s a lot of football left to be played in this district…it’s by no means dead.”
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