The streak seemed safely tucked away by halftime. Odessa was riding a 24-point lead, and Center, save for a couple of big-play touchdowns, showed no signs of denting it.
“I thought we had them there,” Odessa senior running back Blake Heitman said.
No. 31 all done? Not quite.
Center ground out more big plays and with less than 2 minutes to play found itself within one point of the Bulldogs. An unsportsmanlike conduct call, a blocked point-after attempt and a key first down later, Odessa had its 31st straight victory, a 42-41 thriller Friday night at Odessa.
Odessa (7-0, 4-0 MRVC West and ranked No. 1 in Class 3) has won 31 straight games and is 42-1 since the 2017 season. That run includes the 2019 Class 3 state championship and a 9-0 run last year ended by Covid in the quarterfinals.
But that streak never saw the Bulldogs pushed to the very limit, especially after seemingly having the game in the bag. Center (4-2, 2-2) had the weapons to put that streak in jeopardy after falling so far behind.
There’s quarterback Joseph Vick, who threw for 414 yards and five touchdowns. And receiver Armand Russell, who had nine catches for 201 yards and three TDs. Jacorey Love, the Yellowjackets punishing running back, rushed for 195 yards and a TD on 16 carries. Center finished with 628 total yards of offense to Odessa’s 445.
Still, Center found itself down 36-12 by halftime. And Odessa, playing in front of a large and vocal homecoming crowd, looked to be in control.
“They’re an outstanding team, we knew that coming in, and we knew we would have to play really well to beat them,” Odessa coach Mark Thomas said. “I don’t know what happened the second half … but maybe the first half seemed too easy at times.”
It seemed easy for Heitman, who rushed for the bulk of his 177 yards and all three of his touchdowns in the first half. He also caught a TD pass, the first of two from Bulldogs quarterback Garrett Bayless.
All Center had to show for the first two quarters were a 71-yard TD run by Love on the game’s third play and a 34-yard TD pass from Vick to Russell.
The second half would be a different story.
“I was telling my teammates any team can come back from a 24-point (deficit),” Heitman said. “We weren’t with it when we came back out there.”
After Odessa stalled on the opening drive of the second half, Center needed only one play to score – an 80-yard bomb from Vick to a wide-open Love. Vick connected with Russell for a 10-yard TD pass on the Yellowjackets’ next possession, and Dirac Tsafack drilled a 29-yard field goal not long after the Bulldogs fumbled.
Seventeen straight points later, Center was within 36-29.
“We didn’t have many answers in the second half for what they were bringing at us,” Thomas said. “We helped them out at times but they made some plays at times too.”
A 49-yard TD pass from Bayless to Boston Sanders early in the fourth quarter gave Odessa some breathing room at 42-29, but not for long. A 31-yard hook-and-ladder play from Vick to Kortez Stevenson to Love on Center’s next possession made it 42-35.
And with less than 2 minutes to play, Vick capped a five-play 91-yard drive that included a 50-yard run by Love with an 11-yard toss to Russell in the right corner of the end zone. Center coach Bryan DeLong planned on going for a two-point conversion and the win, but an unsportsmanlike conduct penalty pushed the Yellowjackets back to the 25-yard line.
“I was proud of our kids,” DeLong said. “We got the score, but we’ve got to keep our composure a little more. I told the kids go down and score and we’re going to go for two and they responded.”
Odessa blocked the point-after, Heitman ground out a first down with 1:32 left and Center out of timeouts, and the streak survived.
Barely.
“We don’t really talk about the streak,” Thomas said. “That’s for everybody else to get caught up in. We can’t afford to get caught up in that.”
