Navarro tops Mississippi Gulf Coast in HOT Bowl
Posted On: Sunday, Dec. 6 2009 06:00 AM
By Angel Verdejo
Killeen Daily HeraldCOPPERAS COVE – It was almost a perfect Saturday for Brandon Joiner, a former standout at Shoemaker returning with his Navarro College teammates to the area for their final game of the year.
The Bulldogs, who were the country's top junior college three weeks ago, just missed a chance to play for the national championship, but atoned for a late-season loss that sent rival Blinn College to the title game. Fourth-ranked Navarro met No. 7 Mississippi Gulf Coast Community College in the ninth annual CHAMPS Heart of Texas Bowl at Bulldawg Stadium, winning 37-26 to become the first Navarro team with 11 victories in a season.
"We didn't get to make history by making the national championship," Joiner said. "We made history. It wasn't the history we wanted, but we made history."
As far as just missing his perfect day, Joiner, who had family, friends and former Shoemaker teammates and coaches in attendance, led a Bulldog defense that harassed Gulf Coast quarterback Greg Jenkins. He threw for 195 yards but finished with minus-two yards on the ground, which included five runs of negative yardage.
Also playing for Navarro was David Grant, a former all-state offensive lineman at Killeen.
One of Jenkins' negative plays came at the hands of Joiner, who nearly dragged him down for a safety just before halftime. At his own 10-yard line, Jenkins tried to scramble out of the pocket before Joiner got his hands on him. The two fell in the end zone but Jenkins was marked down at the 2 as the first-half clock ran out with Navarro up 27-10.
"I thought I had a safety," Joiner said. "I thought automatically it was a safety so I started bear-crawling and getting hyped. But it wasn't.
"We finished up the half and we were on top. But I wanted it to be a safety."
By this point Navarro (11-1) was in control. The teams traded touchdowns and field goals to open the game, including a 73-yard run by Navarro running back Edward Hall on the Bulldogs' first offensive play and a 59-yard catch-and-run from Jenkins to Kelvin Bolden two plays later.
Hall scored his second touchdown early in the second quarter, while Navarro's defense intercepted Jenkins once and held Gulf Coast to one first down in quarter's final 11 minutes.
Gulf Coast adjusted coming out of halftime and went to its run game, which is led by Vick Ballard, who is committed to Mississippi State. The offense went 71 yards on nine straight runs, with Eric Wills scoring from 29 yards out.
Gulf Coast (9-3) then forced a Navarro punt and followed with a 17-play drive that resulted in a field goal and took more than seven minutes off the clock.
Navarro punted again, but when it looked like Gulf Coast would tie the game, Navarro's playmakers made a play, coach Nick Bobeck said.
On third-and-8 from the Gulf Coast 23-yard line, Jenkins hit Bolden in stride across the middle and the Mississippi State commit nearly outran the Navarro defense for what should have been the game-tying touchdown.
Instead, Trevor Drayton chased down Bolden and knocked the ball loose just shy of the goal line. Chevy Bennett recovered the fumble for the touchback.
"Our kids made some plays," Bobeck said. "It was huge because that would have tied the game and they would have had all the momentum."
Navarro's offense did its part, going 72 yards on the ensuing drive and getting a field goal. More importantly, the Bulldogs used more than six minutes on the possession. Hall finished with 180 yards on 19 carries and three scores. In all, the Bulldogs ran for 335 yards.
"It was hard losing that one game," Grant said of the Blinn loss. "But we still came out here and performed."