Garrett Moseley, Van Too Much For Lindale

LINDALE – Lindale finally caught a break.

A mishandling of a handoff from Davonta Johnson resulted in a fumble recovery by Corey DeArmint. It was the kind of play that could spark a comeback and get momentum back on the Eagles’ side.

Beckett Preston intercepted Dillon Heinaman’s pass two plays later.

It was that type of night for Lindale.

Van controlled the game with dominating defense and explosive offense in a 41-17 victory Friday.

Coming off a heroic comeback performance against Princeton, Garrett Moseley was once again the leader for the Vandals. He threw for 309 yards, six touchdowns and ran for 124 yards.

“What’s that line in ‘Remember the Titans?’” coach Jared Moffatt said. “You can’t put a value on Garrett Moseley. I don’t know if there’ve been many kids that want to win worse than me. I think he might wanna win worse than I do. He’s a fiery competitor and a great leader. He threw the ball like a champ tonight. He runs like that every night. This team is gonna play as far as he can take us in a lot of ways.”

Moseley got help from his receiving corps, and he spread the ball around. Three receivers finished with more than 80 yards and Ethan Robinson and Elijah Rankine each had three touchdowns.

Rankine’s first came in the second quarter. When the teams lined up, no one was covering him. The Lindale coaches screamed from the press box for a timeout to be called, but it was to no avail. Rankine went untouched 68 yards to the end zone.

“Those guys are great,” Moseley said. “They’re some of the best receivers in Texas. I meant that. I have 100 percent confidence in every single one of those guys. When you have four of those guys like that, it’s a real big weight off your shoulders.”

Van didn’t score its first touchdown until nearly eight minutes into the game, but quickly caught fire. Three touchdowns in the second quarter allowed the Vandals to go into halftime with a 27-3 lead.

A touchdown to Robinson to start the fourth quarter squashed the little hope Lindale had of a comeback. With his team up 41-3, Moffatt graciously sent in his second team.

Lindale scored two late and ultimately meaningless touchdowns, but other than that, the defense was stifling.

“Our defense, we start five sophomores and those guys have progressed real fast,” Moffatt said. “We’ll turn the film on and see some mistakes but the thing you can’t coach is how hard they’re playing. I remember Mack Brown saying, ‘Everybody can play hard.’ Regardless of ability or talent, everybody can play hard. That’s what’s indicative of our defense. They fly to footballs. They’re not real flashy like some of those guys. They just play with tremendous effort.”

There were a few bright spots for Lindale. Dillon Heinaman finished with 212 yards passing and a touchdown on the ground and through the air. Jordan Robinson led the Eagles with 49 yards rushing on 10 carries. Colton Brown had 99 yards on eight catches. But it wasn’t enough.

Moffatt preached to his team they had a chance to do something special. The Vandals hadn’t beaten Lindale in back-to-back years in quite some time. Lack of game records makes it unclear exactly how long, but at least as far back as 2004.

The win tonight made it two straight against the Eagles.

“We were pretty hyped up,” Robinson said. “Coach told us we hadn’t beat Lindale back-to-back in a long time so we wanted to come out here and make history. That’s what we did.”

The Vandals will host Palestine next week as they look to improve to 4-0. Lindale will look to bounce back when it plays Terrell. Both games start at 7:30 p.m. Friday.

Van      6      21     7     7    --    41
Lindale      0      3      0      14    --    17

First Quarter
VAN--Ethan Robinson 44 pass from Garrett Moseley (kick failed), 4:03.
Second Quarter
VAN--Robinson 3 pass from Moseley (Calen McKinney kick), 9:07.
LIN--Jose Guevara 35 field goal, 6:06.
VAN--Elijah Rankine 68 pass from Moseley (McKinney kick), 5:51
VAN--Rankine 8 pass from Moseley (McKinney kick), 0:12
Third Quarter
VAN--Rankine 10 pass from Moseley (McKinney kick), 5:43.
Fourth Quarter
VAN--Robinson 3 pass from Moseley (McKinney kick), 11:08.
LIN--Dillon Heinaman 1 run (Guevara kick), 2:55.
LIN--Colton Brown 16 pass from Heinaman (Guevara), 0:57

                                    VAN               LIN
First Downs                      15               9
Total Yards                      506            309
Rushes-Yards            37-197       31-97
Passing Yards                   309            212
Comp.-Att.-Int.           19-32-0       13-26-1
Punts-Avg.                  4-32.0       5-30.2
Fumbles-Lost                   1-1            0-0
Penalties-Yards             6-60           5-50

INDIVIDUAL STATISTICS
RUSHING--Van, Garrett Moseley 15-124, Davonta Johnson 8-39, Alex Harris 5-12, Elijah Rakine 3-18, Ridge Preston 3-9, Bray Doring 1-5, Team 2-(-8). Lindale, Jordan Robinson 10-49, Cooper Azbell 4-13, Dillon Heinaman 12-14, Colton Brown 1-6, Cody Pike 1-(-1), Team 3-16.
PASSING--Van, Moseley 19-31-0--309, Liam Nelson 0-1-0--0. Lindale, Heinaman 13-26-1--212.
RECEIVING--Van, Ethan Robinson 7-84, Gus Brewer 5-89, Rakine 4-92, Cade Borgeson 1-20, Kollin McCartney 1-17, Zeke Betancourt 1-7. Lindale, Brown 8-99, Azbell 2-20,  Robinson 1-57, Brennan Moore 1-38, Ethan Gilley 1-(-2).