Down 36-15 at the beginning of the second half, Rudder came back and beat Montgomery 56-50 in its District 10-5A Division II opener Friday night at Montgomery ISD Stadium. It’s the Rangers’ third straight comeback win of the season and the second time Rudder has overcome a 21-point deficit this season.
“With Keithron Lee and EJ [Ezar] and Malcolm [Manley] and James Ayers and the line, they just keep battling,” Rudder head coach Eric Ezar said. “I know we’ve got a shot any time to come back. They just kept fighting. I never saw in their eyes that they were down. They just kept battling.”
Ayers got the Rangers (3-1, 1-0) within shouting distance with three third-quarter touchdowns. The senior running back scored on runs of 11, 9 and 6 yards. After Ayers’ second TD, the Bears (1-3, 0-1) answered with a 39-yard touchdown pass from sophomore quarterback Brock Bolfing to Tre Harden and struck again on a 1-yard run by Bolfing after Ayers’ 6-yard run.
“I just want to say that my teammates gave me the opportunity, and I’m super proud of them for going out there and playing,” Ayers said. “Even though we were down in the first half, we still came back in the second half and played, and I’m super proud of them. They deserve everything.”
Sophomore quarterback EJ Ezar got the passing game going in the second half, connecting with junior wide receiver Keithron Lee in the back corner of the end zone for touchdown passes of 25 and 8 yards, the second of which tied the game 50-50. With 40 seconds remaining, Ezar set up his 4-yard, go-ahead TD with a 43-yard screen pass to Ayers.
The Rangers outscored Montgomery 41-14 in the second half, and Ezar finished with 248 passing yards on 16-of-24 passing. At one point in the second half, he completed nine passes in a row, many of them to Lee, who caught eight passes for 135 yards. Ayers finished with five touchdowns and 108 rushing yards on 22 carries while catching two passes for 67 yards.
“It’s not just individuals anymore,” Ayers said. “It’s actually the whole team that comes together. Sometimes we get down, but as we start playing as a whole team, we come together.”
The defense, which had a tough time stopping Montgomery, stood tall late in the game. The Rangers held the Bears at the 29-yard line and Montgomery missed a field goal with less than three minutes remaining. Sophomore defensive lineman Devion Howard intercepted a Brock Bolfing pass and returned it to the 10-yard line to set up one of Ayers’ TDs and Jeremiah Johnson recovered a fumbled kickoff to set up the 8-yard TD pass. The Rangers also stood tall at their 28-yard line as time expired and didn’t allow any fourth-quarter points.
“Our defense got us going because it was a tough fight in the first half for the defense, and we couldn’t stop them,” Ayers said. “We went into halftime and talked things over and came out with a whole new mindset.”
It looked good early for Rudder as junior wide receiver/defensive back Milton Mooring recovered a fumbled kickoff, and Ayers took it in from 15 yards out three plays later, but the Rangers’ first-half good fortune ended there.
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Montgomery lost its leading rusher Jalen Washington in the first drive, but Adavion Johnson picked up the slack admirably, running in a TD from 8 yards out and then scoring on a two-point conversion to give the Bears an 8-7 lead.
After a Rudder three-and-out, Harden took a jet sweep 36 yards for another TD, and the Bears then recovered a fumble on the ensuing kickoff to set up Bolfing’s first touchdown pass of the game, a 21-yard pop pass to tight end Cole Morris.
Rudder cut the deficit to 22-15 late in the first quarter on a 12-yard run by Ayers, but Montgomery punched right back with Bolfing connecting with Johnson on a screen pass the running back took 62 yards down the right sideline.
Bolfing completed 11 of 24 passes for 249 yards, while Johnson finished with 141 yards on 23 carries.
“You’ve got two quarterbacks in the 2022 class with EJ and Brock that are just great quarterbacks,” Eric Ezar said. “It was a duel.”
… I’m just excited that we’ve come so far so fast.”
The Rangers had 55 penalty yards in the first half, with a targeting call and ensuing unsportsmanlike penalty setting up Montgomery at the 7. From there, Johnson punched it in for the only touchdown of the quarter.
Rudder moved the ball well in the opening half, but turned the ball over on downs twice in the second quarter, the first time at its own 49, the second at the Montgomery 6 with seconds left in the first half.
At halftime, Eric Ezar and Ayers reminded the squad of its previous comebacks, and Ezar was proud of how the Rangers responded to his message.
Rudder looks to stay undefeated in district action as it hosts Lamar Consolidated, which is ranked 10th in Dave Campbell’s Class 5A Division II rankings, at 7:30 p.m. Friday at Merrill Green Stadium.
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