Statistics updated from print edition.

PORT NECHES — For one night, after so many days of Harvey’s floods and the aftermath that followed, all was normal in this town.

High school football played on at The Reservation on a Friday night.

“It’s really a blessing because a couple of weeks ago, we weren’t expecting to have as much damage as we did,” Port Neches-Groves junior quarterback Roschon Johnson said. “Just being away from football shows you how much you appreciate it when you come back.”

PNG built a 28-3 lead and suddenly found itself in a foot race before finishing with a 55-31 win over Baytown Sterling on Friday night.

“We needed something like this,” PNG coach Brandon Faircloth said. “It was great for Sterling and us to get back. We’ve had communities that were devastated, and to come back out and get back at it was pretty exciting.”

The normality of Friday night lights in an area where football is a pastime will be put on hold for a month, however. Earlier Friday, the District 22-5A executive committee approved by a 7-2 count to compress its league schedule, allowing teams that have displaced athletes time to prepare for the season. PNG’s next game is now Wednesday, Sept. 20, at home against Lumberton.

The next Friday games in 22-5A will be Oct. 13, when PNG hosts Port Arthur Memorial. But, boy, did PNG (1-0) and Sterling (0-1) ever make this Friday night count.

“Baytown Sterling’s got a good team,” Faircloth said. “We saw them scrimmage against Port Arthur Memorial, and they’ve got good players. It was a good non-district game for us.”

Preston Riggs caught three touchdown passes, two of them of 50-plus yards from Texas commit Johnson, and had six catches total for 186 yards, displaying his speed on the big plays.

“We’ve got great chemistry,” said Johnson, who completed 13 of 18 passes for 264 yards. “With a guy like Riggs, it’s not hard to adjust. You’ve just got to let him do what he does. Just put it in his hands.”

Sterling brought more speed when they needed it.

Calvin Hill, who started at running back, used his niftiness on three quarterback keepers of 28 or more yards in the second half. He had two touchdowns and 164 yards on 27 carries.

Johnson connected with Riggs on the inside slant for 58 yards and a score to give PNG a 48-24 lead with 3:33 to go in the third quarter. That was just two plays after the Rangers pulled within 41-24 with the aid of a 57-yard Keylan Zeno sprint.

Zeno was stopped at the 1 on the long run, and Hill had to score from 3 yards out on fourth down.

The Rangers weren’t done making things interesting.

After Zeno bolted 50 yards for a TD, they pounced on a pooch kickoff that the Indians did not field cleanly. That drive, however, fizzled after eight plays on downs.

Riggs’ final score was from 19 yards out with 7:50 remaining.
Defensively, the Indians got help with interceptions from Khaleb Taylor and Tyler Jackson, but the Rangers still managed 397 rushing yards. PNG still outgained Sterling in total yards 494-409, totaling 344 in the first half.

Gavin Deslatte had touchdown runs of 57 and 6 runs in the first quarter for the Indians and finished with 114 rushing yards.

“Everybody was on the same page tonight,” Faircloth said. “Cameron [Stansbury, who had a 7-yard TD catch] made a great catch and Preston [Hughes, who made a 31-yard scoring haul] made a great catch, but there’s definitely room for improvement.”
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I.C. Murrell: 549-8541. Twitter: @ICMurrellPANews