Special from the Greenville Herald Banner
By Warren Morrison
Herald Banner staff
GARLAND - The Commerce Tigers almost overcame costly turnovers and a crucial injury, but fell to the Daingerfield Tigers, 33-26, Friday night in the Class 3A Division II regional semi-finals at Homer B. Johnson Stadium.
The win sends Daingerfield, the District 13-3A champions still undefeated at 13-0, against the Royse City Bulldogs, in the regional final at 2 p.m. Saturday at Mesquite Memorial Stadium.
Commerce, which shared the District 10-3A title with Royse City, ends its season at 11-2.
Leading 19-13 at the start of the fourth quarter, Daingerfield quickly expanded its lead with two touchdowns within a four-minute span.
The first Daingerfield score came on the Blue Tigers' first possession of the period with a seven-play, 80-yard drive that was ignited on the first play. Senior tailback Montoya Brown took the pitch and ran 50 yards to the Commerce 30.
Jones, the game's leading rusher with 132 yards on 22 carries and two touchdowns, completed the drive with a two-yard run off a pitch to the right of the line. The two-point conversion on the pass reception by Montoyous Jones padded the Daingerfield field to 27-13 with 7:22 left to play in the game.
Commerce appeared to narrow the lead on its first play of the next possession of a 66-yard pass from junior quarterback Chad Anderson to receiver P.J. Winston, but the Orange Tigers were flagged for holding.
About three minutes later, Daingerfield's Shelton Williams intercepted an Anderson pass at the Blue Tigers 34 and ran untouched into the end zone. Daingerfield was flagged for celebration and the extra point attempt by Adam Hall missed the goalposts; extending the Daingerfield lead to 33-13 at the 3:17 mark.
With some of the 8,000 fans leaving the stadium thinking the game was over, someone forgot to tell Commerce, which responded with two touchdowns of its own in less than two minutes.
A four-play, 55-drive of all passes ended with Anderson's 33-yard toss to Odreakus Lewis centered between three Daingerfield defenders in the end zone. The two-point conversion attempt failed as Commerce trailed, 33-19, with 2:23 showing on the clock.
Following an onside kick, Commerce's Logan Coffey got the ball for his team back when Daingerfield muffed a handoff at the Blue Tigers 39. Two plays later, Anderson dropped back for an apparent short pass to Avin Johnson inside the Daingerfield 20, but the 188-pound junior had other ideas.
Johnson broke four tackles, including one inside the Daingerfield 1, for the score. Jordan Hougham's extra point split the uprights and the Orange Tigers were back with seven, 33-26, with 1:43 left to play in the game.
Anderson finished the game completing 10 of 14 attempts for 124 yards plus two touchdowns and one interception.
With Commerce using two timeouts earlier in the half, Daingerfield needed to advance the ball more than 10 yards for the win. Brown provided the insurance on a 10-yard carry off a third-and-two.
Brown's first touchdown of the night, a one-yard run off the Blue Tigers' first possession of the night, gave Daingerfield an early 6-0 lead four minutes into the game.
Commerce - which lost its leading rusher, junior fullback Ryan Sienty, to an injury to his left ankle midway through the period Ñ did not tie the game until its first series of the second quarter.
On a first-and-10 at the Daingerfield 40, Anderson found a wide open Winston behind the Blue Tigers secondary. Winston scampered in for the score, but Hougham's extra point was blocked, leaving the score tied at 6-6 with 8:09 left in the half.
Commerce took its only lead in the game on a six-yard run by senior fullback Landon Owens with 5:12 showing on the clock. The score was set up by a 55-yard punt return by Brodrick Kelley, who broke three tackles in the first three yards of his run.
Daingerfield came right back on the next series on a 53-yard pass from quarterback Eric Woods to Cedric Mitchell at the 4:21 mark and followed that with Woods' two-yard run for a touchdown with 37 seconds left to play.
The Woods score was set up after Daingerfield recovered a Commerce fumble caused when Anderson attempted a pitch out to Winston, who had already ran past the intended area for the lateral.