CANYON — All season, New Deal head coach Ron Mayo said there was something different about this year’s team.

New Deal's Robert Ubaile, left, celebrates after scoring the game winning touchdown past Sunray's Kyler Raymond, bottom left, Friday night in Canyon. New Deal scored 22 fourth quarter points to defeat Sunray 32-28. (Geoffrey McAllister/Lubbock Avalanche-Journal)

On Friday night, the No. 5 Lions had to reach deep down to find that something different. Once they did, it turned into one of the greatest comebacks of the season.
New Deal turned two fourth-quarter fumbles by Sunray into touchdowns, and the Lions scored 22 unanswered points in the final 7:12 of the game for a 32-28 victory in a Class 1A Division II regional semifinal at Kimbrough Memorial Stadium.

New Deal's Robert Ubaile, left, and Juan Calderon, bottom, tackle Sunray quarterback Talon Dooley for a loss during the first half of their game Friday night in Canyon. (Geoffrey McAllister/Lubbock Avalanche-Journal)

Isaac Chavez-Ward, playing quarterback for an injured Stephen Bryant, threw two touchdown passes a little more than a minute apart, and Robert Uballe scored the game-winner with 5:04 remaining, turning a 28-10 deficit into a 32-28 lead. New Deal (13-0) then held off the Bobcats (9-3) one last time, stopping Sunray’s final drive on fourth down at the Lions’ 17-yard line with 40 seconds left in the game.

New Deal's Larry Dennis, center, leaps in celebration with his team after they scored 22 points in the fourth quarter to defeat Sunray 32-28, Friday night in Canyon. (Geoffrey McAllister/Lubbock Avalanche-Journal)

New Deal's quarterback Stephen Bryant leaps over Sunray's Braiden Cartrite during the first half of their game Friday night in Canyon. (Geoffrey McAllister/Lubbock Avalanche-Journal)

“It’s incredible,” Mayo said. “A good lesson in life is when things are down and your heads are down and it doesn’t look like you’re going to win, the great game of football tells you that as long as you keep fighting and keep fighting, keep trying, things will look up.”
The win vaults the Lions into the Region I finals for the first time since 2006. They will face defending state champion Stratford at a time, date and site to be determined.
But for 31/2 quarters, it appeared the Lions’ season was going to end right here and now.
Sunray dominated the line of scrimmage on both sides of the ball most of the game, rushing for 311 yards and seemingly putting the game away on Colton Wilson’s second touchdown run of the game, a 36-yarder with 8:13 remaining.
Wilson had just 20 yards at halftime but scored on touchdowns of 38 and 36 yards to finish with 140. And with Ty Dooley rushing for another 135 yards, the Bobcats seemed headed for a rematch with Stratford, their district foe.
But that’s when the New Deal defense rose up, and the Sunray offense began unraveling.
New Deal cut its deficit to 28-17 with 7:12 remaining when Chavez-Ward, inserted after starting quarterback Bryant re-injured his shoulder, found Garrett Mayo for a 9-yard touchdown pass.
The Lions’ defense finally came up with a much-needed turnover when Ty Dooley was stripped and Robert Gillman came up with the loose ball at the Sunray 26. Three plays later, Chavez-Ward hit Corie Ramirez from 14 yards out at the 6:03 mark, and Larry Dennis’ two-point conversion reception pulled the Lions to within a field goal at 28-25.
“We had to run the hurry-up (offense) to get back in the game,” said Chavez-Ward, who was 4-of-8 passing for 42 yards and two touchdowns in the second half. “We kept our heads up and fought hard.”
New Deal kept fighting and it paid off when Dooley was stripped again with Josh Nelson recovering at the Sunray 26. Four plays later, Uballe barreled in from 4 yards out, giving the Lions their first and only lead of the game.
“We knew we had to do one thing and that was strip the ball and get it back,” Uballe said. “We did and the momentum changed on us. We didn’t want our season to end, so we had one guy wrap up and another guy take the ball out, and we got the job done.”
But it took one last tremendous defensive stand for the Lions to preserve that lead.
Just as they’d done for most of the game, the Bobcats pushed the Lions off the line of scrimmage, going from their 20 with 4:54 remaining to the New Deal 16 with 45 seconds left. But on fourth-and-3, Dooley was dropped for a loss by Gillman to seal the win.
“I thought when we got up 28-10 we were about ready to put them away,” Sunray coach James McAlister said. “Those two fumbles really killed us. You can’t turn the ball over and give them the ball that deep in your own territory like that.”
New Deal, which had not given up more than two touchdowns in a game all season and came into Friday allowing fewer than 100 yards per game defensively, saw those numbers matched or eclipsed by the time Sunray had run nine offensive plays. The Bobcats had 182 yards at halftime, including 135 on the ground.
Much like last week’s 28-17 win over Iraan, though, Ron Mayo said his team seemed to simply say enough was enough.
“I just think they got that refuse-to-lose attitude,” Mayo said. “Someone needed to step forward and make a play, and we had people step forward and make plays. Even that last fourth down play was a critical play, and we stopped them. Game over.”

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CLASS 1A DIVISION II REGIONAL SEMIFINAL
at Kimbrough Memorial Stadium, Canyon
NEW DEAL 32, SUNRAY 28
Sunray 13 0 8 7 — 28
New Deal 0 10 0 22 — 32
First Quarter
SUN—Ty Dooley 84 run (Kyler Raymond kick); 7:32
SUN—Braiden Cartrite 29 pass from Talon Dooley (kick failed); 4:40
Second Quarter
ND—Larry Dennis 3 run (Ricardo Nunez kick); 9:33
ND—Nunez 24 FG; 3:29
Third Quarter
SUN—Colton Wilson 38 run (Ty Dooley run); 3:58
Fourth Quarter
SUN—Wilson 35 run (Raymond kick); 8:43
ND—Garrett Mayo 9 pass from Isaac Chavez-Ward (Nunez kick); 7:12
ND—Corie Ramirez 14 pass from Chavez-Ward (Dennis pass from Chavez-Ward); 6:04
ND—Robert Uballe 4 run (Nunez kick); 5:04
TEAM STATISTICS
SUN ND
First downs 12 17
Rushes-yards 37-311 44-231
Passing yards 47 42
Comp.-att.-int. 3-6-1 4-14-1
Punts-avg. 5-36.2 5-35.6
Fumbles-lost 3-2 0-0
Penalties-yards 5-39 4-25
INDIVIDUAL STATISTICS
RUSHING: Sunray, Colton Wilson 21-140, Ty Dooley 9-135, Talon Dooley 6-27, Braiden Cartrite 1-9; New Deal, Stephen Bryant 13-98, Larry Dennis 20-73, Robert Uballe 7-50, Isaac Chavez-Ward 2-7, Josh Nelson 1-3.
PASSING: Sunray, Talon Dooley 3-6-1—47; New Deal 4-14-1—42.
RECEIVING: Sunray, Cartrite 2-42, Ty Dooley 1-5; New Deal, Garrett Mayo 2-18, David Hockenberry 1-15, Corie Ramirez 1-9.