Down by two touchdowns and their playoff hopes teetering toward the dumpster, the team dug deep and scored 45 unanswered points at Stallworth Stadium Friday night.
Unfortunately for Baytown fans, that was the Port Arthur team that sucked it up and won 45-14.
It was the Lee Ganders that stunk it up – especially in the third quarter.
“I don’t think we can play a worse quarter than that,” Lee first-year head coach Marvin Sedberry, Jr., said.
He was referring to a 12-minute stanza that seemed like it would never end.
The Ganders turned the ball over on four straight possessions and were charged with six penalties for 67 yards in the period as Port Arthur scored five third-quarter touchdowns – 35 points in all.
Before it was over, Lee committed turnovers on six straight possessions not ended by the halftime clock and the Titans scored all their points on seven straight possessions.
The titanic tide change meant that 6-4 Port Arthur, which stood to finish in fifth place in District 21-5A if it lost and Channelview won – and the Falcons were leading Sterling at halftime Friday – instead finished third place at 3-2.
Lee finished fourth in 21-5A at 2-3, wrapped up its regular season 3-7 after being outscored 139-16 by the district’s top three finishers, and will have to play District 22-5A champion Pasadena Memorial in bidistrict next week.
The game has tentatively been set for Saturday at 7:30 p.m. at Galena Park ISD Stadium.
Ironically, Sedberry said something he saw while scouting Pasadena Memorial’s final regular-season game Thursday night, a 16-3 loss to Deer Park, figured in Lee’s Friday night collapse.
Pasadena Memorial coach John Snelson held starting quarterback Tate Gresham out of that game.
“After seeing Pasadena Memorial playing without its quarterback, I thought that was something we needed to do,” he said. “I was trying to keep our guys healthy for the last (playoff) game.”
And so, with Lee leading 14-0 on two perfect second-quarter scoring strikes from Malcolm Ruben to Jaevon Richardson and the Titans having trouble getting out of their own way, Sedberry put in sophomore quarterback Nate Scott midway through the second quarter.
Scott’s second pass was picked off by was picked off by Port Arthur’s Xavier Byers at the Titan 15-yard line.
Port Arthur, which had only 36 total yards in the game’s first 21 minutes, proceeded to march 85 yards in nine plays to score in the final 3:05 of the first half. Corwin Keal passed 15 yards to Shaq White to put the Titans on the scoreboard.
With a 14-7 halftime lead, Sedberry said getting steamrolled in the second half was the last thing on his mind at intermission.
“Not at all,” he said. “But they’re a good ballclub. And they’ve got 70 kids out while we have to make do with half of that.
“But some of that was our on mistakes by our kids.”
Port Arthur took the second half kickoff and drove 68 yards in five plays to tie the game at 14-all on an eight-yard run by Ronzell King.
The Ganders started the second half as they had the first, in the Wildcat formation, this time with Richardson taking the shotgun snap instead of first-half starter Dandrick Jackson.
But Ruben re-entered and passed 29 yards to Trey Murray on second-and-22 to put the Ganders at the Titan 30-yard line.
Then he dropped the next snap and things began to snowball downhill for Lee.
Port Arthur went 56 yards in five plays to go ahead 21-14 on Keal’s three-yard run.
Scott returned at QB and his first-down pass was intercepted by Port Arthur’s Terrell Clark and returned 28 yards for a 28-14 lead with 6:17 left in the third.
Scott threw his third interception in as many passes, this one into the stomach of Titan lineman Darrell Johnson on a screen pass. Johnson returned it 19 yards to the Gander 6. King ran it in from there for a 35-14 lead.
Scott returned to hook up with Richardson for his only completion of the game in five attempts, but Port Arthur’s Byers stripped the ball from Richardson.
A five-play, 23-yard PA scoring drive capped by a four-yard Daleon Stinnett run made for a 42-14 Titan lead with 1:48 left in the third quarter.
Ruben re-entered at QB and he and running back Keith Johnson managed to run out the third-quarter clock. But his second pass of the drive was intercepted in the end zone by Titan DB Prince Bush, giving Lee four pass interceptions on the night to go with three lost fumbles.
Port Arthur mercifully ate five minutes off the clock to set up a 29-yard field goal by Hulices Nunez.
The game, that had started so promisingly for Lee with Murray blocking a 25-yard field goal attempt by Nunez, ended with Ruben 8 for 11 passing for 141 of Lee’s 250 total yards and Richardson with six catches for 103 yards, including scoring plays of 16 and 48 yards.
Keal completed 7 of 16 for 124 yards and matched fourth-quarter sub Nathan Holmes for the team rushing lead with 56 yards as Port Arthur gained 357 total yards.