Any coach will tell you it isn’t how you start the game, it’s how you finish. For the Tomball Cougars it was all about how they started and finished, while losing to Spring 35-28 on Sept. 30.

Spring jumped out to a 14-0 lead early, saw the Cougars fight back to take a late lead, before scoring twice more in the final minutes to steal the win.

Photo: Tomball’s Jameson Johnson races downfield for one of his three scores, during the Cougars 35-28 loss to Spring on Sept. 30.

“We had a couple of breakdowns where (the defense) needed to keep the ball in front of them and we didn’t,” said Tomball Head Coach Tommy Kaiser. “The bottom line is that we obviously need to be much better at making people have to drive on us instead of giving up big plays.”

The Tomball defense gave up a big play, just two minutes into the game as Spring connected on an 82-yard touchdown pass to lead 7-0.

After a Cougar punt, the Lions stunned the homecoming crowd as Darius Lee-Campbell raced downfield for a 73-yard touchdown run, giving Spring a 14-0 lead midway through the opening quarter.

The Cougar offense finally got rolling towards the end of the first quarter, as they went on a 7-play, 76-yard drive. Quarterback Justin Dvorak found receiver Jameson Johnson in the end zone for the first of his three touchdowns on the night. The score cut the deficit to 14-7 with just over four minutes to play in the quarter.

Tomball’s defense stifled the Lions the rest of the first half, while Dvorak found Johnson on two plays totaling 45 yards to tie the game at 14. The score would remain even until the second half.

After a Tomball punt, the Cougar defense forced a Spring turnover when Tyler Hodge recovered the fumble at Spring’s 15-yard line.

The Cougar’s took immediate advantage as Xavier Powell barreled his way 15 yards for the score. The extra-point from Chadd Brown made the score 21-14, in favor of Tomball.

The Lions answered with a 7-play, 58-yard drive to bring the game back to even at 21.

Both teams traded punts until Dvorak found Johnson once again, this time on a 52-yard scoring pass to put the Cougars up 28-21. It was justice for Johnson, after he seemed to score three plays earlier on a similar play that was called back due to an ineligible receiver downfield.

“That was a good job by the offense for not letting the penalty get us down and coming back to score,” Kaiser said. “Jameson (Johnson) had a nice game and he’s played pretty consistent for us all season.”

The score would remain that way until, with about four minutes left in the game, Spring drove 80 yards in just four plays to tie the game at 28.

The Cougars were unable to get anything going on offense and were forced to punt with under two minutes to play.

The biggest breakdown was soon to come for Tomball when the Spring quarterback found an open receiver for a 36-yard score with 24 seconds left to play, grabbing a 35-28 lead.

On the final Cougar possession, Dvorak led his team to midfield, but two desperate heaves downfield fell incomplete, ending the game.

The Cougars gained over 400 yards of total offense, but gave up 500 yards, in the loss.

Dvorak was 14-25 for 250 yards and three touchdowns and also rushed for 92 yards on 16 carries. Powell added 60 yards rushing on 60 carries.

Johnson had 128 yards receiving on six catches with three touchdowns, while Ishmael Edwards added 76 yards on four catches.

The loss dropped the Cougars to 2-3 on the season and 1-1 in district play. Tomball traveled to play Klein Collins on Oct. 7. Results were not available as of press time.

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