HUMBLE Landon Love has envisioned one of his kicks leading his team to a championship game.

On Friday night, thats exactly what happened.

Loves 18-yard field goal with no time left on the clock punched the Lindale Eagles to their first ticket to the state championship game in program history with a 31-28 win over Austin LBJ at George Turner Stadium.

This has been my dream since I cant tell you how long, as a little boy, just to grow up and kick the game-winning field goal to go to state, Love said.

Our goal all week was to dominate the kicking game, Lindale head coach Chris Cochran said. On August 3rd, the first day of fall camp, we worked on special teams. We knew it would be the difference in ball games. We didnt know it would be in the state semis!

Hes been clutch for us in kickoffs, our kickoff team has so much confidence because of the kicker. We are going to play special teams very, very well and we have to dominate the kicking game and I am so proud of Landon, what an awesome moment for him.

Down 28-7 at halftime, Lindales offense was unable to get anything going, and the LBJ offense was coming up with big play after big play. The Jaguars had 370 yards in the first half 277 on the ground and Lindales only score came on a 69-yard kickoff return by Airik Williams.

Even early in the second half, Lindale couldnt generate offense against LBJ. The Jaguars forced a quick three-and-out and Lindale had to punt. After rain poured down during halftime, the Jaguars were unable to field the punt cleanly, and the ball rolled into the end zone. Lindales Evan Alford was able to recover the ball just before it rolled through the back of the end zone for an Eagle touchdown to cut the score to 28-14.

LBJ came back with a 74-yard run by Phazzon Washington to get deep into Lindale territory, but the Lindale defense answered the call and stopped the Jaguars on fourth down.

Lindale got into LBJ territory before losing its third fumble of the night. However, the Eagles forced the Jaguars to fumble the ball right back, and Keiston Ross recovered for Lindale.

With 42 seconds left in the third quarter, Lindale got its first offensive touchdown of the game as Jordan Jenkins broke free for a 60-yard run to cut the score to 28-21.

With the ball at its own 37 and 6:09 remaining, Lindale needed just four plays to find the end zone as Jenkins closed the drive with runs of 40 and 16 yards to tie the score at 28 with 4:40 to play.

The Jaguars went for it on fourth down in their own territory, and Colton Widemon got the stop. Lindale also turned it over on downs with 1:56 to play, but it was at the LBJ 26.

LBJ went for it on fourth down on its own end of the field once again, and again Widemon made the stop to give the Eagles the ball at the LBJ 35 with 50 seconds to play.

After two rushing attempts by Sam Peterson and a completion from Peterson to Daniel Franke, Jenkins took it 18 yards to the LBJ 8 with 19 seconds on the clock.

Lindale gave it to Jenkins one more time, and he carried the ball to the 2-yard line before a Lindale timeout with 12 seconds to play.

The Eagles lined up for a field goal that was blocked by LBJ, and Clemson commit Andrew Mukuba returned it to the end zone with no time remaining. The Jaguars were offsides, though, allowing Lindale to attempt another kick. After two more offsides penalties on the Jaguars, Love was finally able to get the kick off and nailed the 18-yarder for the win despite taking a hard hit from the defense.

My goal is just to knock it through like I do in practice, Love said. I remember getting to the ball and either No. 2 or No. 1 smoked me. Im on the ground, and I just heard everybody cheering, so I assumed it went in. We got it done, and now were going to Jerrys World.

The win sends Lindale (13-2) to the Class 4A Division I championship against perennial power Argyle at 7 p.m. Dec. 18 at AT&T Stadium in Arlington.

After rushing for 78 yards on 10 carries in the first half, the Baylor-bound Jenkins carried the ball 18 times in the second half for 200 yards and two touchdowns. Jenkins finished with 278 yards on 28 attempts for Lindale, which had 298 yards of offense.

Offensively, we started staying on our blocks better and as you know, it just takes a little crease for Jordan and he had that little crease, Cochran said. Hes our guy, hes our leader. Him and Jaymond, when they take over, the rest of the guys respond.

LBJ (9-3) compiled 530 yards 416 on the ground. Daqwon Donaldson finished with 218 yards on 27 carries, including a 79-yard touchdown run in the first half. Washington had 115 yards on eight carries. Sedrick Alexander finished with 81 yards and three touchdowns all 1-yarders in the first half.

Widemon, Jaymond Jackson, Corey Sanders, Williams, Christian King and others helped the Lindale defense shut out the Jaguars in the second half.

I just pretty much told the team that were going to finish and not give up, Jackson said. Were going to play our game of football, and thats what we did and why we got the job done. We are some fighters.

We made a few adjustments here and there, we had to get Airik Williams where they were running the ball and he knew he had to play better, Cochran said. To be honest with you, I took the captains out back and challenged them. I knew our leaders were going to lead. And I knew they were going to show up when they had to show up, they did it last week, they did it previous weeks. They handled it like I knew they would because they are champions and they are warriors.

Lindale 31, Austin LBJ 28

LBJ Sedrick Alexander 1 run (Kick failed), 9:51

LBJ Alexander 1 run (Daqwon Donaldson run), 11:27

LBJ Donaldson 79 run (Alexander run), 3:44

LIN Airik Williams 69 kickoff return (Landon Love kick), 3:33

LBJ Alexander 1 run (Pass failed), :04

LIN Evan Alford fumble recovery in end zone (Love kick), 10:19

LIN Jordan Jenkins 60 run (Love kick), :31

LIN Jenkins 16 run (Love kick), 4:40

Rushes-Yards 66-416 3 7-279

Comp.-Att-Int. 8-20-0 5-15-0

Penalties-Yards 19-136 2-10

RUSHING LBJ, Daqwon Donaldson 27-218, Phazzon Washington 8-115, Sedrick Alexander 18-81, Andrew Mukuba 2-19, Danny Davis 2-1, Oscar Gordon 9-(-18). Lindale, Jordan Jenkins 28-278, Sam Peterson 8-1, Jacob Seekford 1-0.

PASSING LBJ, Oscar Gordon 8-20-0 114. Lindale, Sam Peterson 5-15-0 19.

RECEIVING LBJ, Latrell McCutchin 3-14, Danny Davis 2-27, Daqwon Donaldson 1-33, Sedrick Alexander 1-30, Andrew Mukuba 1-10. Lindale, Jordan Jenkins 3-10, Daniel Franke 1-9, Jacob Seekford 1-0.

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All Love in Lindale: Eagles headed to first state championship game with game-winning field goal - Tyler Morning Telegraph