Shadow Creek and Dawson came into the District 23-6A contest with unbeaten league records with the winner emerging as the likely league champion this year, but the game wasn’t decided without a battle from both teams.
It looked like Shadow Creek would take command of the game early and get an easy victory, but that has never been the DNA of Dawson to go down without a battle and the Sharks found that out as the game progressed.
Shadow Creek got the opening kickoff and moved the ball down the field on their possession with the big play coming when sophomore quarterback Jacorey Watson hit senior wide receiver Josh Best for a short pass that was turned into a 60-yard touchdown. Kicker Aiden Bui hit the PAT and the Sharks had a 7-0 lead early in the first quarter.
Later in the first quarter, the Sharks crossed the pay station again, this time on a 5-yard run by senior running back Jacob Washington to close out a 6-play, 65-yard scoring drive.
The big play was a 27-yard pass completion from Watson to Best once again that moved the ball from the Dawson 36 to the 9-yard line. The PAT missed the mark, and the Sharks had a 13-0 lead.
Neither team scored in the second quarter and the two teams went into the dressing room at intermission with the Sharks clinging to a 13-0 lead.
However, the Eagles had a first-and-goal at the Sharks 2 and the Shadow Creek defense turned back the Dawson offense on four straight plays in a goal line stand that would come back and haunt Dawson at the end of the game.
Dawson finally got on the scoreboard in the third quarter when Aaron Jensen booted a 41-yard field goal to cut the lead to 13-3, but the Sharks also got a field goal in the same period when Bui kicked a 21-yard field goal to give Shadow Creek a 16-3 cushion.
The Eagles began their next possession following the ensuing kickoff at their own 16 late in the third quarter.
Dawson went on a 10-play, 74-yard scoring drive, which was aided by a personal foul penalty by the Sharks, by Bryce Burgess who scored on a 37-yard touchdown to cut the lead to 16-10 early in the final period. Ayden Treadaway kicked the PAT.
Neither team was able to add any more points on the scoreboard and the Sharks held on for the 16-10 district win to improve to 8-0 on the season and 5-0 in district.
The loss snaps the four-game winning streak for the Eagles who are now 4-4 overall and 4-1 in district.
Dawson QB Colin Johnson was 12-of-25 passing for 129 yards.
Bryce Burgess had 13 carries for 79 yards and one score.
Josh Gillis-Harry had four catches for 57 yards, Bryce Burgess had four grabs for 24 yards, and Jaeden McCleskey had one catch for 16 yards.
Shadow Creek quarterback Watson was 13-of-19 for 163 yards with one TD and one INT while also picking up 36 yards on 10 carries.
Tylik Burton had 16 carries for 106 yards.
Best had five catches for 117 yards and one TD.
Dawson will host Alief Elsik on Friday, October 28 at 7:00 p.m. at Pearland ISD Stadium.
Shadow Creek travel to Crump Stadium to face the Alief Taylor Lions on Friday, October 28 at 7:00 p.m
