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Cedar Hill's fourth-quarter heroics not enough in loss to nationally ranked Katy

ARLINGTON — Katy found itself in an unfamiliar position with 9:22 left in Saturday’s Class 5A Division II state championship game.

The No. 3 team in USA Today’s national rankings trailed in the second half — for the first time this season. But senior running back Adam Taylor wasn’t going to let a four-loss Cedar Hill team shock the 42,621 in attendance at Cowboys Stadium and ruin Katy’s perfect season.

With a state title hanging in the balance, Taylor took a pitch on fourth-and-1 from the Katy 44-yard line and broke free on a sweep around the right side. When the Nebraska pledge was done outrunning the defense to the end zone, his 56-yard touchdown run with 6:46 remaining had given Katy a lead it wouldn’t relinquish on its way to a 35-24 victory that capped a 16-0 season.

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“It’s win it all or go home with nothing,” Taylor said. “We had to go out there and play hard in the fourth quarter.

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“This is a great feeling. We lost in the third round of the playoffs [last season]. We battled back and got a state championship for Katy.”

Taylor made sure Katy went home with the seventh football state title in school history. He ran for 277 yards and five touchdowns, including a game-clinching 42-yard touchdown run with 1:55 left on which he got hit just past the line of scrimmage and did a complete spin before racing to the end zone.

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Taylor’s heroics were needed to overcome a valiant effort by Cedar Hill (11-5), which was playing in its first state championship game since winning it all in 2006.

Trailing 21-10 entering the fourth quarter against a Katy team that won its first 15 games by an average of 40 points, Cedar Hill got a 24-yard touchdown run from quarterback Damion Hobbs with 11:54 left to make it 21-16.

Cedar Hill took a 24-21 lead on Hobbs’ 21-yard touchdown pass to Iowa State pledge Brandon Harris and Hobbs’ two-point conversion run with 9:22 left. The last touchdown was set up by a 55-yard screen pass to Texas A&M pledge Laquvionte Gonzalez, who had two catches for 117 yards.

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This was a Cedar Hill team that started 1-3 and finished second in District 7-5A. But Cedar Hill had seen this level of competition before, losing to national powers Allen, Miami (Fla.) Booker T. Washington and DeSoto in nondistrict play.

“We didn’t walk into this game thinking we couldn’t play with them,” Cedar Hill coach Joey McGuire said of a Katy team that entered Saturday averaging 52.9 points per game.

“This was our fourth nationally ranked opponent. We played four teams this year that were ranked in the top 10. The two best teams, not just in the state, but in the country, are the Allen Eagles and the Katy Tigers.”

After Katy took a 28-24 lead, Cedar Hill drove to its 43-yard line. But on second-and-9, Katy’s Quinn Atwood intercepted a pass at the Tigers’ 45. Four plays later, Taylor broke Cedar Hill’s hearts with his final touchdown run.