By Daniel Maher | BeaumontEnterprise.com
Updated 12:10 am CDT, Saturday, November 2, 2019
PORT NECHES- Barbers Hill leaned on its defense in winning its first five District 12-5A-II contests, but relied on quarterback Christian Kaopua and a productive offense to beat Port Neches-Groves 40-35 in a key district contest on Friday night.
The game presented an opportunity for the Indians (6-3 overall, 4-2 district) to take the district lead from the Eagles, but with the win, Barbers Hill (8-1, 6-0) clinched the district title. PN-G clinched a playoff spot going into Friday’s regular season finale against Nederland in its Mid-County Madness rivalry game.
Kaopua contributed to all five of Barbers Hill’s offensive touchdowns by rushing for three scores while amassing 129 yards on 25 carries, and connecting with Cameron Cauley for a pair of touchdowns. Kaopua competed all 11 pass attempts for 113 yards.
PN-G only stopped Barbers Hill from scoring one time in a game in which neither team punted. The stop came on Barbers Hill’s final possession when Kaopua was sacked deep in Indians territory and fumbled.
Donovan Bergeron recovered for PN-G at its own 25, allowing the Indians a chance to steal a win if they could produce another scoring drive of their own.
Blake Bost connected with Kaleb Wuenschel for a 28-yard gain on the third play of that drive, but two plays later, Ashton Hamby intercepted a pass to effectively end the game.
“I was extremely proud of our defense for getting us the ball back at the end,” said PN-G coach Brandon Faircloth. “We had a chance to win and that’s really all you can ask of your kids as a coach. I’m so proud of how they played and how hard they played.”
It was Hamby who gave the Eagles their first lead of the game, recovering a fumble in the end zone when a bad snap on a PN-G punt attempt became a free-for-all late in the first half. Hamby’s recovery and the ensuing extra point gave Barbers Hill a 27-21 halftime lead.
Up to that point, the first half had been a display of unstoppable offenses for the first six possessions of the game with the teams trading touchdowns on each of those series.
PN-G mounted sustained drives of 14, 10 and seven plays resulting in touchdowns on each possession to shake the confidence of an Eagles defense that had yielded only 28 points through its first five district games.
Bost capped off a 70-yard drive on the Indians’ opening possession with a 16-yard touchdown run up the middle on a quarterback draw. He kept the drive alive with timely strikes of 23 yards and 14 yards to Peyton Proenza on third-and-19 and fourth-and-9, respectively.
Wuenschel factored into PN-G’s next two touchdowns, tossing a 10-yard TD pass to running back Ryan Sosa on an end around on third-and-goal early in the second quarter. He then snared an 8-yard touchdown pass from Bost on PN-G’s next series.
Kaopua passed for 69 yards and rushed for 69 more in the first half, throwing for a score and running for two more to provide the Eagles’ early touchdowns.
He delivered a throw to the back right corner of the end zone that Cauley snagged for a spectacular one-handed 20-yard touchdown catch for the first Eagles score. Kaopua then scored on runs of 4 and 3 yards for the next two touchdowns, but a missed extra point left PN-G with 21-20 lead that Hamby’s recovered fumble just 33 seconds later erased.
Bost completed 22-of-36 passes for 224 yards and two touchdowns. He also led Indians rushers with 48 yards and a touchdown on 19 carries.
Proenza caught five passes for 71 yards and Brady Nail had 59 yards and a touchdown on seven catches for the Indians.
