With his team trailing by 23 points at halftime, Blinn College quarterback pulled his team outside of the locker room for an offensive meeting.
“I told our guys, ‘we need to do this for us,'” Wooten recalled of his message. “I told them we are better than what we showed in that first half.”
Wooten was right.
The Buccaneers not only erased their deficit, they stormed all the way back behind a wild fourth-quarter rally capped by Wooten’s QB keeper with :28 seconds remaining as Blinn stunned No. 9 Navarro College 44-43 on Saturday at Cub Stadium in Brenham, Texas.
The victory was made possible by a handful of big scoring plays, as well as a see-it-to-believe it on-side kick that set up the Bucs’ go-ahead touchdown drive.
“I’m very proud of these kids because this was the definition of a team win,” Blinn head coach Ryan Mahon said. “We always talk about dealing with adversity, and tonight they handled it, they didn’t give up on each other, and they knew if they started making plays good things would happen, and that’s exactly what happened.”
Blinn (2-1, 1-1 SWJCFC) got on the board at the 13:35 mark of the second quarter when sophomore halfback Jalen Washington crossed the goal line from 8 yards out, but the Bucs went into halftime trailing 30-7. Blinn wouldn’t score again until sophomore kicker Max Nowak drilled a 21-yard field goal with 9:35 to go in the third quarter.
Wooten made it a 37-17 ballgame when he scored on a 7-yard run with just over 5 minutes to play in the third.
Navarro (2-2, 1-2) maintained its 20-point advantage until the Bucs began chipping away with chunk plays in the fourth.
(Pictured: Blinn quarterback Rylan Wooten drops back to pass during a game against Navarro College on Sept. 28, 2024)
Ending a series that started in the third quarter and bled into the fourth, Wooten fired a deep ball to sophomore wide receiver Nathan Lewis, who hauled in the pass over his shoulder and evaded a diving defender as he raced into the end zone for a 51-yard score with 14:30 left in the game.
The Bulldogs booted a 47-yard field goal at the 12:38 mark, but Blinn got right back to work on its subsequent drive.
Starting from their own 25, Wooten and the Bucs moved to the 39 before the quarterback rifled a short pass to freshman running back Justin Howard. A Navarro defender dove to tip the pass but missed as Howard got his hands on it and galloped 61 yards untouched for a TD.
“We just started spreading their defense out with our speed,” Wooten said. “We knew we were going to have to score quickly if we were going to have a chance at the win, and our speed allowed us to do that.”
Blinn’s 2-point conversion attempt was no good as the Bulldogs remained ahead 40-30 with 11:30 to go.
After a scoring drought for both teams which lasted nearly 8 1/2 minutes, Navarro padded its lead with a 50-yard field goal with just 2:51 remaining.
From there, the Bucs’ chances hinged on a quick score, an onside kick, and another quick score, and miraculously, they achieved all three.
Once again starting from its own 25, Blinn advanced to its own 42 on a quick pass to freshman receiver Tracy James Jr. Following the 2-minute warning, Wooten threw on the run and linked up with wide-open freshman wideout Austin Abram III for a 28-yard gain. Wooten then scampered to the Navarro 20 and completed the drive with a pass-catch-and-run connection with Abram III.
Nowak’s PAT made it 43-37 with 1:13 left.
Nowak then returned to the field alongside freshman kicker Cameron Noto, as the Bucs deployed some trickery and misdirection on their onside-kick attempt. Nowak ultimately lofted a kick near the Blinn sideline, and as the ball descended toward a group of Bulldogs, Bucs sophomore defensive end Justin Garza bulldozed a blocker who was attempting to protect a would-be recoverer, effectively disrupting Navarro’s retrieval as James Jr. scooped the ball up off a bounce.
(Pictured: Blinn kicker Max Nowak boots the game-winning PAT against Navarro College on Sept. 28, 2024)
“It was a matter of do-or-die, and I had to give everything I had left for that play,” Garza said. “Once we got the ball back, our offense knew exactly what they had to do and they handled their business.”
With 1:12 showing on the clock, Blinn began its final possession without any timeouts. Starting from the Bulldog 48-yard line, the Bucs got going on a 14-yard strike from Wooten to Lewis. Wooten then hit Abram III for 20 more yards as Blinn entered the red zone. Wooten kept it on the ground for 10 yards, setting up first and goal at the Navarro 4. Wooten then capped the rally with a run up the middle and into the end zone.
Nowak’s PAT put the Bucs on top to stay.
“From there, it was just routine,” Nowak said on a night that was anything but. “Kick. Boom. In.”
Blinn’s night was not over as Navarro had one final shot at its own miracle with the ball at its own 20.
A deep pass got the Bulldogs into Bucs territory at the 45-yard line with 4 seconds to go, but Blinn’s pass rush came up big on the final snap of the game.
Navarro sophomore quarterback Mason Shorb was flushed out of the pocket and chased toward the sideline by four Buccaneer defenders, and freshman defensive end Cooper Kohan met him with a thunderous sack to end it.
“Everything that transpired tonight reiterates what we as a coaching staff have been preaching to our players since day one,” Mahon said, “and that’s hard work, dedication, teamwork, execution, staying together as a team, and loving one another, and all of that manifested itself on the football field tonight.”
Blinn continues its season with another tough conference matchup as the Bucs face No. 10 Trinity Valley Community College at 3 p.m. on Saturday, Oct. 5, in Athens, Texas.
Blinn has competed in intercollegiate athletics since 1903 and captured 49 national championships since 1987.
