In the third round of playoffs the Allen Eagles took on the Arlington Martin Warriors at AT&T stadium. The game was scoreless through the first quarter with both teams having their fair share of 3 and outs. Although Mitchell Jonke got the start at quarterback his helmet came off during a play and Seth Green came in and threw a 58-yard pass to Tevyn Stevenson.

“Seth kinda kept moving the football down the field and we just stuck with him right there” Offensive Coordinator Kyle Westerberg said. “The one thing you don’t want to do is get into a deal where he starts moving it and then you get him off the field after a big play.”

The Eagles pushed into Warrior territory with 3 minutes left in the first, but would come up short, and be forced to kick a field goal, which was missed by Connor Limpert. It would go back and forth, with little offensive bright spots for either team. The Eagles were stopped short of the endzone several times and that is one thing Westerberg knows they have to get better at.

“We just gotta get better as a whole offensively” He said. “It starts with me and the preparation for us in the red zone and then we just gotta go execute.”

It wouldn’t be until Allen fumbled the ball AWAY that things would start going their way. Linebacker Jakob Yandell scooped up a fumble after a fumbled handoff from Martin’s QB and would take it inside the 20 to set up Allen’s offense. “We always talk about, whenever we get the ball and bring it over to our sideline we’re gonna dance with it us and the coaches, and that’s exactly what we did” Yandell said of the recovery.

After they initially recovered the fumble that put Mitchell Jonke in company inside the red zone, Kirby Bennett fumbled the handoff and Arlington Martin would get the ball back on their own 1-yard line. Levi Onwuzurike would force a safety, and Allen would put points up on the board and get the ball back with two minutes left to play in the half. Jaylon Jones would then take the kickoff return back 87-yards for a touchdown, to increase the lead to 12-0. Allen would score all of its points of the half in a matter of 12 seconds.

“They’re angry” Defensive Coordinator Cory Cain said of his defense. “We had a chip on our shoulder, our kids practiced hard all week long, and studied, and it showed.” The defense would only allow 11 points all game as opposed to last years 54.

The second half started much like the first, with both teams having their own three and out. After a second three and out, followed by a shank punt from the Warriors punter, the Eagles were able to have the ball deep inside Martin’s territory, but were unable to convert that into a touchdown. Limpert would kick the field goal, and Allen would good up 15-0 with 7:16 left in the third quarter. With three minutes left in the the third Jonke would run it in for a touchdown to push the lead even farther away from Martin.

The Warriors would push into the red zone as the third quarter was winding down, but a bad snap, would not only bring up a very long fourth down, but push them out of field goal range. Martin would have several penalties on crucial third down plays that would push them out of reach of a conversion, and they would be forced to punt to Allen.

The true nail in the coffin would come with a little over six minutes left as Jonke completed a 38-yard touchdown to Camden Harrison that looked a lot like the route we saw him run last week, just with a different quarterback.

“It was[the same route]” Westerberg said. “I knew at some point in time we were going to be able to get it.”

Harrison seems to have established himself as a deep ball threat for Allen with his 6’2” frame and long wingspan, but Westerberg insists that it isn’t just him that all of his receivers have that potential.

“They all are. You got LJ[McConnell], Javon[Jones], and Carson[Schleker] that can all fill in those roles” He said. “You got four guys that can go deep at any point in time.”

Although Martin would score and get the two-point conversion as well as recovering the onside kick with six minutes remaining Allen’s defense was simply too strong to let any momentum build.

The great quarterback controversy continues at Allen, as the Eagles switched them 5 total times in the first half alone. Jonke got the start again this week despite throwing several interceptions last week.

“Right now they’re just kind of working back and forth” Westerberg had to say of the switching. It seems to be working for the Eagles as they have now won 56 straight games and will go on to face either Denton Ryan or Tascosa in the State Quarterfinals next week.