Whittington etches name into history, powers Cuero past Pleasant Grove 

Cuero senior Jordan Whittington stole the show in Friday afternoon’s Class 4A Division II state championship game, breaking off a 69-yard touchdown run on the Gobblers’ first offensive play before compiling one of the most impressive individual performances in the history of the UIL state championships.  

Whittington had 28 carries for 334 yards (a new state title game record), three catches for 46 yards, six total touchdowns and 11 tackles, almost single-handedly powering Cuero to its first state championship since 1987 with a 40-28 win over Texarkana Pleasant Grove. 

“It’s unbelievable,” Cuero coach Travis Reeve said. “To have that kind of performance on a stage like this is awful special, but he’ll be the first to tell you that he couldn’t have done it without the rest of his teammates and the offensive line. He, just like all the rest of are guys, wasn’t going to be denied today.”

The game lived up to the hype as one of the most competitive matchups of the weekend, and it took a handful of big plays late in the fourth quarter for the Gobblers to hold off the defending state champs.

After Whittington punched in a 12-yard touchdown run to make it 33-21 with 5:21 left in the fourth quarter, Pleasant Grove dialed up a trick play that resulted in a 46-yard pass from running back Bruce Garrett to Ben Harmon. Harmon got into the end zone on a 1-yard run shortly after, bringing the Hawks within five.

With the state championship on the line, Cuero put Whittington at wildcat quarterback and called his number on four straight running plays before he broke through a narrow seam in the line and scored his fifth rushing touchdown – tying the 4A state title game record – to put give the Gobblers a 12-point cushion. 

Deondrae Lang officially sealed the win with an interception at the 1:19 mark that allowed Cuero to kneel the clock out. 

“I told the lineman, ‘If each of you blocks somebody, you can leave one one-on-one and we’ll make it happen,’ Whittington said. “All credit to them. I’m glad we did it.”

Whittington’s first long touchdown came after Pleasant Grove drove 74 yards in just six plays and got into the end zone on a 12-yard touchdown run from Bruce Garrett. Whittington tied it up at 7-7 by putting his elite speed on display just one play later with 8:28 left in the first quarter. 

Garrett scored twice more in the first half, first on a 9-yard run as time expired in the first quarter and then on a 69-yard TD run of his own with 3:44 left in the second to give Pleasant Grove a 21-7 lead. 

Unfortunately for Garrett, who finished with an impressive 21 carries for 208 yards and three touchdowns, Whittington simply wasn’t going to leave without a state championship in his final game in a Cuero uniform. 

The Texas signee followed his blocks around the right side and turned on the jets for a 54-yard TD run with 3:03 to go before the half and then scored again on an impressive 26-yard TD reception as time expired in the second quarter. 

Cuero went on to hold Pleasant Grove to just seven points in the second half, and the Hawks’ 28 points are the fewest the team scored since a 24-6 win over Waco Connally in the area round of the playoffs. Pleasant Grove entered the day averaging 39 points and had scored at least 41 points in five of its last six games. 

“[That play] gave them a little bit of momentum going into halftime and I think their coaching staff did an unbelievable job scheming us,” Pleasant Grove coach Joshua Gibson said. “That’s the hardest I’ve had to work. From halfway through the second quarter on, you know, we could barely pee a drop on offense. It wasn’t these guys’ fault. I had to try mix it up and do some stuff – that’s how good of a job coach Reeve and his staff prepared for us.”

- Brady Keane
 

VIDEO RECAP

Talent-laden senior class fufills potential with state championship

There are 22 seniors on Cuero’s football team, and every one of them has had to hear the chatter in recent years.

With so much talent, why hadn’t Cuero been able to break through and win a state championship — at least get to one after a hiatus dating back to 2004?

Not only did Cuero return to the state championship game on Friday, this senior class finished the job.

“They’re just a group that has given us tremendous leadership and they wouldn’t be denied,” Cuero coach Travis Reeve said. “Keiran (Grant) and Jordan (Whittington) started as freshmen and the last time we played in the semifinals, these two were freshmen. They’ve been talking since then about winning one before they leave. There’s a fine line between getting here and not getting here.”

In fact, that has been a theme preached often by Reeve over the last few years, when Cuero continually fell short, suffering an early playoff exit to Wimberley a year ago and to Navarro the year before that.

This year, things changed.

“Coach Reeve tells us six inches can change everything,” said Whittington, who put on one of the most memorable title game performances in history, breaking the state record for rushing yards in a championship game and earning both offensive and defensive player of the game honors. “The last three years, we felt like we were on the opposite side of that, but we changed roles.

It feels good when you get past that hump,” Whittington added, through a grin the size of his final stat line.

It was by no means a forgone conclusion Cuero would finish the job, as the Gobblers trailed 21-7 in the first half before drawing within a point on the final play of the first half.

At halftime, senior defensive lineman Trey Moore said he and some of his classmates had a quick, focused chat, before finishing the job and claiming Cuero’s first state championship since 1987 and fourth overall.

“We’ve been working for this since seventh grade,” Moore said. “We said there’s 24 minutes left and we can be state champions, and we just all came together and didn’t argue or fight. We just played as a team, and the outcome turned out great for us.”

Reeve, who has been in Cuero for 14 seasons, either as head coach or as an assistant for his father, had a quick answer when asked how this year’s team stacked up against other great Cuero teams he’d seen.

“Right now, it’s the best one,” he said.

- Adam Boedeker

 

BOX SCORE

Cuero 40, Pleasant Grove 28

Cuero	7	13	0	20	-	40
Pleasant Grove	14	7	0	7	-	28

Scoring Summary

1st Qtr. 8:46

Pleasant Grove – Bruce Garrett 12-yard run (Dillon Williams kick)

1st Qtr. 8:28

Cuero – Jordan Whittington 69-yard run (Isaiah Mungia kick)

1st Qtr. 0:00

Pleasant Grove – Garrett 9-yard run (Williams kick) 

2nd Qtr. 3:44

Pleasant Grove – Garrett 69-yard run (Williams kick)

2nd Qtr. 3:03 

Cuero – Whittington 54-yard run (Mungia kick)

2nd Qtr. 0:00

Cuero – Whittington 26-yard pass from Michael Barta (Kick failed) 

4th Qtr. 9:43

Cuero – Whittington 1-yard run (2-point conversion failed)

4th Qtr. 5:24

Cuero – Whittington 12-yard run (Mungia kick)

4th Qtr. 4:36

Pleasant Grove – Ben Harmon 1-yard run (Williams kick)

4th Qtr. 2:54

Cuero – Whittington 20-yard run (Mungia kick)

Team Stats

	Cuero	Pleasant Grove
First downs	24	11
Rushing yards	47 – 387	33 – 241
Passing yards	136	118
Passing	8-19-1	6-16-1
Punts – Avg.	1 – 26	4 – 33.8
Penalties – Yards	4 – 45	5 – 25
Fumbles – Lost	1 – 0	1 – 0
Third-Down Conversions	9-of-13	3-of-11
Possession Time	27:59	20:01

Cuero Individual Leaders

Rushing – Jordan Whittington 28-334, Keiran Grant 7-44, Chance Albrecht 7-22, Michael Barta 2-1, TEAM 3-(-14). 

Passing – Michael Barta 8-17-1-136, Jordan Whittington 0-2-0-0. 

Receiving – Jordan Whittington 3-43, Trent Haynes 2-39, Deondrae Lang 2-24, Trey Moore 1-30. 

Pleasant Grove Individual Leaders

Rushing –Bruce Garrett 21-208, James Wiggins 8-21, Ben Harmon 3-12, Ryan Pickelman 1-0. 

Passing – Ben Harmon 5-15-1-72, Bruce Garrett 1-1-0-46. 

Receiving – Jackson Cobb 2-27, Ben Harmon 1-46, Brett Walker 1-34, James Wiggins 1-7, Bruce Garrett 1-4. 

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