Game story: Travis 20, Kempner 7

By CHAD WASHINGTON
The Athlete's Connection

It wasn’t the most well-played game, but for Fort Bend Travis, it will be the game the school will remember for a long while.

Travis got its first varsity win Saturday night, 20-7 against Kempner at Mercer Stadium in the District 23-5A opener for both teams.

While the Tigers only had 123 total rushing yards, the defense held the Cougars to 152 total yards rushing. Travis took control of the trenches on defense, continually smothering the Kempner running attack.

“An ugly win is better than a pretty loss any day,” Travis coach Randy Cunningham said. “We had a thousand mistakes tonight, but our kids are growing and improved every snap. We fought through all the adversity that we had and dug it in and got a win, the first in the history of our school.”

Both teams were rusty, especially since not playing for two weeks because of the situations surrounding Hurricane Ike. Both teams combined for seven fumbles (three of them were lost fumbles) and 14 penalties in the game.

“We showed a lot of rust out there today,” Kempner coach James Brown said. “Turning the ball over four times in a football game – no matter who you play – you’re not going to win.”

After Kempner defensive back Quaylon Ewing picked off a pass in the end zone, Travis made sure its next drive paid off. After starting the drive inside the Cougar 39-yard line, Travis went the distance in seven plays, ending with a 1-yard touchdown run by Colin Atkins to give the Tigers a 7-0 lead.

On its second drive of the game early in the second quarter, a couple of big passes by quarterback Alex Bynum set up a 16-yard touchdown run by Bynum to increase the lead to 14.

“I felt pretty confident (going into the game),” said Bynum, who passed for 114 yards in the game. “We were pretty confident even after coming off of a loss. And we’ll be going into the next game pretty confident.”

Kempner’s offense finally came alive in the fourth quarter, when backup quarterback Paul Nguyen found tight end Kenneth Bibbins for a 34-yard pass play to the Travis 9. Two plays later, running back Ali Foh took a pitch left and scored to cut the Tigers’ lead in half with 6:42 left.

After the Cougars forced a three-and-out and started the drive at their own 35-yard line, Nguyen fumbled the handoff and was recovered by Travis linebacker Justin Thurman at the Cougar 28.

Three plays later, the Tigers faced a fourth-and-7 at the Kempner 19. Bynum then passed to tight end Nick Hester to the Cougar 4, which Bynum ran in on the next play to seal the win.

Kempner (0-2, 0-1) will try to rebound next Saturday against Willowridge, while Travis (1-1, 1-0) will see if it can start the school’s first winning streak against Clements on Friday night.

But for the Tigers, it’s nothing like the first time.

“I’m so happy for our seniors, who have been working so hard for this,” Cunningham said. “This is a wonderful win for Travis High School, and I’m proud to be a part of it.”