After trailing 12-0 at halftime, the Black Team rallied for 28 unanswered points in the second half to beat the Red Team 28-12 in the annual Houston High School Alumni Football Game last Saturday night in Tiger Stadium.
The two squads exchanged possessions for almost the entire first half before the Reds broke a scoreless tie on a 1-yard touchdown run by Bailey Hurst (Class of 2022) with 16 seconds left before the break.
After an incomplete pass on the ensuing 2-point conversion attempt, the Red Team quickly scored again when Ty Wilkins (2015) intercepted a pass on the first play from scrimmage and ran the ball back 52 yards for a TD. The 2-point run failed, but the Reds held a 12-0 advantage at halftime.
The Blacks cut the deficit in half with 3:50 left in the third quarter when quarterback Robbie Mortensen (2020) hit Dakota Burchett (2020) for a 12-yard touchdown pass on the left side of the end zone. When Chance Hunter (2017) ran the ball in for the 2-point conversion, the Red Team’s lead was down to 12-8.
The Blacks then went ahead with 8:49 remaining in the fourth period, when Mortensen bobbed and weaved his way up the middle for an 11-yard touchdown run and then tacked on a 2-point conversion run to put his team up 16-12.
The Blacks scored two more times with less than 20 seconds left in the contest.
Hunter ran 1 yard for a touchdown with 16 seconds to go (a 2-point run failed), and on the final play of the night, Dalton James (2018) scooped up a fumble and ran the ball back 70 yards for a score as time expired.
