Jentsch stars on both sides of the ball as Grandview knocks off Malakoff for first state title

As Grandview sophomore quarterback Dane Jentsch was rolling to his right late in the first quarter of Thursday night’s Class 3A Division I playoff game against Malakoff, he appeared to have teammate Cooper Deans open on the sideline for what would have been a first down. 

Jentsch attempted to get Deans the ball but didn’t account for Malakoff’s Kaderrious Thomas, who was lurking in the secondary and made a leaping interception before taking off and returning the ball 32 yards for a Tigers’ touchdown. 

Instead of letting the mistake set the tone for the rest of the game, Jentsch responded by driving the Zebras right back down the field on a 12-play, 69-yard drive that was capped off by a 4-yard TD pass from Jetnsch to Deans to tie the game at 7-7 early in the second quarter. 

Jentsch’s poise and leadership was just what Grandview needed at AT&T Stadium, and the sophomore finished with 171 yards and three touchdowns passing and 89 yards and a score on the ground – not to mention his team-high nine tackles – to lead the Zebras to a 35-21 win to claim the program’s first ever state title. 

“I’ll tell you what that says – he’s a competitor,” Grandview coach Brad Davis said. “When he makes a mistake like that, he knows it. You don’t have to tell him. He’s going to do whatever he can to get it back. That’s the type of kid he is. They don’t come any better.”

After taking a 21-14 lead into the half, thanks in large part to a 53-yard touchdown pass from Yentsch to Jacob Patterson and an interception from Ryan Schronk, Grandview needed some fourth-quarter heroics to hold off a Malakoff comeback in what turned out to be the most exciting game of the week thus far. 

The Tigers tied the game up at 21-21 late in the third quarter when Darion Peace, also a sophomore quarterback, hit Andreas Garrett with a beautifully-placed 44-yard touchdown pass down the left sideline. 

But just as they did in the first half, the Zebras answered right back. Grandview chewed up 5:24 off the clock and ran 12 plays before Elijah Golden punched in a 3-yard TD run to make it 28-21 with 9:15 remaining in the fourth.

Jentsch completed all three of his throws for 37 yards on that drive and added 13 yards on the ground to help the Zebras take control.

“We’ve been answering all year,” Jentsch said. “There’s nothing that could change the fact that we have the mentality of a D-I school. I love my team, and I wouldn’t trade them for anyone else.”

The teams exchanged punts later in the fourth before the Grandview defense forced a turnover on downs, giving the Zebras the opportunity to slam the door with less than a minute to go. Yentsch faked the same power run to the right he had executed to perfection throughout the game before pulling up short of the line of scrimmage and tossing a 15-yard TD pass to sophomore Dametrious Crownover on fourth down.

That put the Zebras up two scores with 23 seconds to go and sent the sidelines into an exuberant celebration. 

“That formation where we run our quarterback in there was something we put in this week,” Davis said. “We scored on it early in the first half and were trying to set up the pass off it. Crownover made a great move to get open, and of course Dane is going to hit him. You have to get those guys credit. 

“I could not be prouder of this group of kids. They face adversity and instead of getting down on themselves, it motivates them to come back and compete harder to win football games.”
 

- Brady Keane

VIDEO RECAP

Zebras was prepared for a battle in rematch with Tigers 

When Grandview found out Malakoff had pulled a slight upset in the Class 3A Division I semifinal last week, the pending title-game matchup could have given the Zebras confidence heading into a meeting of first-time state finalists.

For junior running back and linebacker Elijah Golden, it was a bit of the opposite.

Before Golden went out Thursday night and rushed for 103 yards and a touchdown in leading Grandview to a win in its first state championship appearance, he was actually pretty nervous about the rematch of a 28-7 Grandview win in nondistrict play.

“I was honestly a little bit worried,” Golden said. “Last year, we played Kemp in the regular season and beat them pretty bad and in Round 4 in the playoffs, (Malakoff) beat us. We thought of that, beating them 28-7 in nondistict and here we are playing them in the state championship? We thought they were gonna come out pissed off, and they did.”

In the previous meeting, Malakoff running back R.J. Carr missed the game with an injury. On Thursday, Carr was Malakoff’s leading rusher with 69 yards on 15 carries, but his presence didn’t change the final outcome – only made it a bit closer.

“We had people doubt us and say we couldn’t do it again with their running back back, and we had people tell us we couldn’t do it, but here we are,” sophomore defensive end Dametrious Crownover said. “We just knew we had to work harder this time around because they came with a grudge and a chip on their shoulder, and we knew we’d have to outwork them.”

Another byproduct of a rematch with so much at stake? The game got a bit chippy, especially late when Grandview was driving for a game-sealing touchdown in the final minute on a touchdown pass from sophomore Dane Jentsch to his classmate Crownover.

“I have respect for those boys, but at the same time, I don’t like them,” Golden said. “It felt so good beating them.”

- Adam Boedeker

BOX SCORE

Grandview 35, Malakoff 21

Scoring Summary

1st Qtr. 3:34

Malakoff – Kaderrious Thomas 32-yard interception return (Hector Romero kick)

2nd Qtr. 11:53 

Grandview – Cooper Deans 4-yard pass from Dane Jentsch (Landon Seale kick)

2nd Qtr. 10:01

Malakoff – Keevie Rose 1-yard run (Romero kick)

2nd Qtr. 7:09

Grandview – Jentsch 1-yard run (Seale kick)

2nd Qtr. 3:30

Grandview – Jacob Patterson 53-yard pass from Jentsch (Seale kick)

3rd Qtr. 2:49 

Malakoff – Andreas Garrett 44-yard pass from Darion Peace (Romero kick)

4th Qtr. 9:15

Grandview – Elijah Golden 3-yard run (Seale kick)

4th Qtr. 0:23

Grandview – Dametrious Crownover 15-yard pass from Jentsch (Seale kick)

Team Stats

Grandview Individual Leaders

Rushing – Elijah Golden 23-103, Dane Jentsch 22-89. 

Passing – Dane Jentsch 15-26-1-171. 

Receiving – Jacob Patterson 4-95, Austin Boyd 4-33, Cooper Deans 3-27, KC Black 3-1, Dametrious Crownover 1-15. 

Malakoff Individual Leaders

Rushing –RJ Carr 15-69, Darion Peace 8-22, Keevie Rose 4-7, TEAM 2-(-18), Andreas Garrett 22 yards. 

Passing – Darion Peace 9-21-2-206, Andreas Garrett 0-1-0-0.

Receiving –  Andreas Garrett 5-101, Nathan Jones 2-77, Parker Busch 1-28, Kaderrious Thomas 1-0.