BATTLE TO THE FINAL SECOND | TJC edges KC, 16-13, on field goal as time runs out
By SHAWN CHRISTOPHER
TYLER – Games don’t get any closer than the one that unfolded here on Saturday afternoon between Kilgore College and Tyler Junior College.
But KC would likely give real money if the game had been just a few seconds longer.
That’s because for the first time since August, 2017, TJC has a win over KC on the football field.
TJC kicker Christian Baxter – a Tyler kid, a former Tyler Legacy standout – hit a 40-yard field goal as time ran out here at CHRISTUS Trinity Mother Frances Rose Stadium early Saturday evening, breaking a 13-all tie and lifting the Apaches to a 16-13 win, their first over Kilgore College in 13 straight games.
The victory allows TJC to remain atop the Southwest Junior College Football Conference standings. TJC is 6-2 overall, and 6-0 in the SWJCFC, with just one game left on its schedule: at Navarro in Corsicana next Saturday. The Apaches are off the final week of the regular season (Nov. 9), and the conference playoffs begin the following week, Nov. 16.
Unless Navarro can knock off the Apaches next Saturday afternoon, TJC will go into the four-team conference playoff as the No. 1 seed, meaning they’ll play at home as long as they keep winning.
As for KC, the Rangers drop to 5-2 on the season, and 3-2 in conference play. The Rangers are tied for second in the standings with Navarro, but KC would own that tiebreaker by virtue of its win over Navarro a few weeks ago.
The Rangers will host Blinn for homecoming at R.E. St. John Memorial Stadium near campus next Saturday, a 3 p.m. start, and then finish the regular season with a trip to Miami, Okla., to face Northeastern Oklahoma A&M (NEO) on Saturday, Nov. 9.
KC may very well be out of an opportunity now to return to the national four-team playoff; the Rangers entered Saturday’s game ranked No. 9 overall nationally; TJC was No. 12. The new national poll comes out each Monday.
The Rangers, though, still have an opportunity to do what no KC team has done since 1980-82, and that’s win three straight conference titles. KC won the SWJCFC title in 2022, and in 2023.
The Apaches scored first on Saturday, in this winner-take-all, at least winner-take-all for the time being. Quarterback Tre Guerra turned around and threw a pass behind the line of scrimmage to teammate Terrance Naulings, and Naulings, looking like a quarterback instead of a wide receiver, threw a pass downfield to Lavarion Logan, a 43-yard pass that Logan took the distance for the score, and a 7-0 lead.
KC’s ensuing possession ended in heartbreak, a fumble at the TJC 1-yard-line.
The Apaches added a field goal by Baxter from 35 yards out with 13 minutes left in the half.
Kilgore College did get a first-half score, a 40-yard field goal by Anthony Montsivais, the former Longview High School standout, to make it 10-3, the eventual halftime score.
A fumble by TJC in the third quarter was recovered by KC linebacker Josh Williams, from Mesquite. Williams wound up at the TJC 20.
The Apaches allowed KC to their 1 again, and this time, on a fourth down, running back Gary Maddox, the Euless Trinity standout, got in for the score with five minutes left in the quarter, tying the game at 10.
KC eventually got in front, a 31-yard field goal by Montsivais for a 13-10 lead, but Baxter and the Apaches would strike next – and last. Baxter hit a field goal with 2:08 left, and then Kendall Marks – a defensive back from Baltimore, Maryland – stepped in front of a pass for an interception to give the Apaches the ball right back.
Baxter would drill the 40-yard kick, the game-winner, as time expired.
That was the 132nd game between the Rangers and the Apaches, who normally play twice a year: a non-conference game near the beginning of the season, and the conference game late in the year. This year, though, there was only one meeting – UNLESS that changes with a meeting in the playoffs.
KC leads the series, 67-63-2.
Editor’s note: statistics available as soon as possible.
