WAXAHACHIE — In a game in which three quarterbacks struggled to find their stride, two turnovers gave Waxahachie the momentum it needed for a 34-13 win over Lancaster in a District 15-4A showdown Friday night.
With his team down 17-13 near the end of the third quarter, Lancaster quarterback Davon Hodge completed a 14-yard pass to Jaquan White, who fumbled at the Lancaster 35-yard line. Waxahachie recovered, and Ricardo Chavez kicked a 26-yard field goal.
Waxahachie immediately recovered a fumble on the kickoff return and scored on a 25-yard pass from Don King III to Quinn Sargent. Leading 27-13, Waxahachie (7-1, 6-0), No. 5 in SportsDay’s Class 4A area rankings, pulled away from No. 7 Lancaster (6-2, 4-2) for the first time all night, clinching a playoff berth with the win.
Both offenses struggled in the first half. Lancaster held Waxahachie, which had been averaging 482.4 yards per game, to 114 yards, and Lancaster gained only 99. The three quarterbacks — Lancaster used both Hodge and Nick Harvey — were a collective 6-for-22 in the first half.
Lancaster scored first, on a 10-yard run by Harvey. Waxahachie answered on the next series when Sargent’s 28-yard reception set up a 3-yard touchdown run by Robert Lowe Jr. with 4:04 left in the first quarter.
Both offenses were silent until the end of the half, when Chavez kicked a 32-yard field goal to push the score to 10-7.
Lancaster took a brief lead, 13-10, at the beginning of the third quarter on a 78-yard pass from Harvey to Dominique Martin, but Waxahachie scored on the next drive on a 3-yard run by Corey Culton to take the lead, 17-13.
With Waxahachie leading, 34-13, in the fourth quarter, Lancaster drove to the 1-yard line. But Waxahachie recovered a fumble, ending any hope of a late Lancaster comeback.