Gordon wins title on 5th down

By BILL HART / Senior Staff Writer

SWEETWATER - What does Gordon have in common with the University of Colorado and Ballinger High School?

All have won football games by getting an extra down. Gordon's "fifth down" play Saturday was a 28-yard pass from Jim Kostiha to Jason Sizemore with two seconds left that enabled the Longhorns to beat Whitharral, 51-50, for the Six-Man state championship at the Mustang Bowl.

Colorado beat Missouri several years ago the same way and in the 1950s, Ballinger beat Ranger thanks to an extra down.

Gordon got the ball back at its 29-yard line with 1:52 to play. Kostiha threw a 13-yard pass to Sizemore, then Sizemore ran four yards for a first down at the 34.

Kostiha was trapped for a 2-yard loss, then threw an incomplete pass. On third down, Kostiha fired a pass into the end zone that was caught by Jeremy Jackson for an apparent touchdown. But officials ruled Kostiha was past the line of scrimmage when he threw the pass. The illegal forward pass penalty is five yards and loss of down.

On the next play, which should have been fourth down, Kostiha ran to the 28, well short of a first down. Then on the "fifth down", Kostiha threw the touchdown pass to Sizemore for the win and the state championship.

"I think things even out," said Gordon coach Nelson Campbell. "I was standing on the sidelines even with the line of scrimmage and Jim was not past it when he threw. Also, another time, they had a penalty and didn't lose a down on it."

Officials, who were from the Abilene chapter, left the field after the game and couldn't be contacted for comments.

Kostiha ran back and forth on the winning play, waiting for someone to get open. Then he spotted Sizemore at about the 15. Sizemore caught the pass, picked up a block and raced into the end zone.

"I still can't believe we did it," Sizemore said. "I didn't think he'd see me, but I'm glad he did. The wall was set up and Jake Couger threw a great block. Whitharral was playing deep, so the underneath pass was what we had to go to - and it worked.

"After they called the touchdown back, I wanted to cry, but I think we showed a lot of character," Kostiha said. "We just gritted our teeth and went for it, do or die."

It may have been a weird finish, but Gordon staged one of the best comebacks in Six-Man state championship game history. The Longhorns trailed, 36-16, at halftime but came back on the strong arm of Kostiha, who threw four touchdown passes in the final two quarters.

He found Jeremy Jackson open on a 7-yard touchdown pass to cut the margin to 36-24, but Whitharral's Brandon Rodgers' 33-yard run on fourth down built it back to 18 points.

Jesus Tijerina blocked a punt that went out of the end zone for a safety to make it a 16-point difference, but Gordon cut it to 50-38 when Kostiha passed four yards to Sizemore for one touchdown and Sizemore ran three yards for another.

But Whitharral regrouped and scored on a 12-yard pass from Rodgers to Jason Dobrovolny with 4:28 to play. Rodgers' kick made it 50-38.

Kostiha passed 26 yards to Tijerina to make it 50-44 with 3:05 left, then he threw to 265-pound Josh Leven for the one-point conversion, which became a huge play.

Gordon held and forced a punt, then drove for the decisive &emdash; although controversial &emdash; touchdown. Sizemore's extra point try was short, thanks to a 15-yard celebration penalty, but it didn't matter.

"The only thing I told them at halftime was that this was their game and they knew what they had to do to win," Campbell said. "We just didn't execute in the first half."

Whitharral scored two touchdowns in the first two minutes of the game, an 8-yard pass from Michael Lopez to Jason Cook and a 25-yard pass from Justin Stracener to Seth Dockery after a successful onsides kick recovery. Then after Leven bulled over from the 7 for Gordon's first score, Lopez ran 47 yards and Rodgers three yards for a 28-8 lead.

Levens scored from the 3 as did Rodgers to make it 36-16 at halftime.

Gordon finished 15-0, while Whitharral, ranked No. 1 most of the year, wound up 14-1.