Christoval Suffers First District Loss, Ends Streak

CHRISTOVAL, TX –Christoval High School fell to the Ozona Lions 42-26 in a pivotal district game that ended with a heartbreaking loss for the Cougars.

Despite the losing effort Coach Casey Otho commended his teams resilience on the night stating “we keep fighting and that’s all we preach is keep fighting, fighting, and fighting till that buzzer goes off.”

The Lions took charge from the opening possession and effectively moved the ball behind running back Sebastian De La Cruz.

De La Cruz was used often in the game and scored on the first possession with a 3-yard touchdown run that put Ozona up 8-0 after a successful two point conversion rub by Lazaro Rodriguez.

Christoval’s first possession was stifled early as standout freshman quarterback Brayden Wilcox fumbled turning the ball over to Ozona in their own territory.

Ozona quickly capitalized on the Cougars error with a strong drive capped off by a Rodriguez 1-yard touchdown run to put the Lions up 14-0.

On the Courgars ensuing drive Wilcox made up for his mistake earlier in the quarter with an 80-yard touchdown run followed by a keeper on the two-point conversion to cut the Lions lead 14-8 with 2:53 left in the first quarter.

Lions sophomore quarterback Alec Lara led Ozona to the end zone once again on following drive with a 56-yard touchdown pass to Dario Rodriguez to put Ozona up 21-8 late in the first.

Lara was dominant for the Lions on Friday night and engineered several impressive drives that the Cougars defense had no answers for throughout the game.  

Early in the second De La Cruz successfully rushed his way through the Cougars defense to get his second touchdown on the night to give the Lions a commanding 28-8 lead.

Wilcox finally found success late in the first half after a long drive that ended in a 19-yard touchdown strike to Justin Palmer making it a 28-14 game.

The Cougars pulled within one score on a kickoff return by Lance Young to open the third quarter as the Lions was now 28-20 at this point in the game.

However, Ozona’s signal caller found several holes in the Cougars defense and rushed his way to his second touchdown of the night putting the Lions up 35-20 with 8:01 left in the third.

David Fava of the Cougars rushed his way to a touchdown to give the Cougars some momentum, but the Lions would answer back to extend their lead to 42-26.

Although the Cougars lost, Fava showed confidence in his team’s ability to beat McCamey in their final district game next Friday night. He said “I’m looking for a win and I know we are going to be district champs.”

Coach Otho believes his team still has a chance at the district Championship too. He said “we go in there and we beat McCamey it becomes a three-way tie for first place.”

Even with this loss, the Cougars (4-5 overall, 2-1 in district play) still have chance of being District 3-2A Division I champions with a win next week against McCamey (8-1, 3-0).