They can now. And it came in the most improbable of circumstances.
Ladeadrick James scored on a 43-yard run with 2:31 left in the game and the Mustangs’ defense turned in a lights-out performance as Houston downed Collierville, 17-13, before a standing-room-only crowd at Landers Field.
With the victory, Houston (8-2) claimed the Region 8-6A title for the first time since 2019. Collierville, which lost its first game after nine straight victories, will be the two seed and will also host a first-round game next week.
“That’s a gritty win right there. A gritty win,” said Houston coach James Thomas. “These seniors have been great. We told them before the game, ‘you’ve done a lot here at Houston. But one thing you haven’t done is win a region title.’
“That was another (mark) they wanted to check (off) and I’m so dang proud of them. I’ve seen this group do extraordinary things and I’m going to take my guys over their guys.”
One of Thomas’ senior guys is the team’s star quarterback, Chandler Day, who suffered an apparent shoulder injury on Houston’s first play from scrimmage and didn’t return.
That left Houston’s offense in the hands of his younger brother, freshman Canon Day. And there’s where things began to get a little squirrelly for the Mustangs.
First, while Canon is a terrific prospect in his own right, he’s played primarily as a wide receiver this season and took a very limited number of snaps this week in practice. And secondly, he was facing a ferocious Collierville defense that had allowed just 71 points in its previous nine games.
Predictably, it was a struggle.
Houston already was ahead 7-0 when Chandler Day went out thanks to a 12-yard pick-six by Owen Waggener on the second play from scrimmage. But from there, they managed just 155 yards and a 41-yard field goal by Demetri Thomas.
Until the final drive.
After Grant Troutman’s 1-yard pass to Marshall Smith gave the Dragons their first lead of the game at 13-10, Houston opted to keep it on the ground. Celley Davis (82 yards on 19 carries) softened things up for James, who scored the game-winning touchdown on a pitch around the right side on third and seven.
“For Canon to come in ... like I said, it wasn’t pretty,” said Thomas. “We didn’t have the whole playbook but we got it done. And (James) is a special kid. He adds a little lightning to Celley’s thunder. We needed a big play and you saw it right there.”
James finished with 100 yards on eight attempts as Houston racked up 220 of its 247 total yards on the ground. For that, Thomas gave plenty of credit to the offensive line.
“We start two sophomores, a freshman, one senior and a junior,” said Thomas. “And we’ve got a heck of a junior tight end, Jonas Jimerson, blocking his (butt) off.”
Defensively too, it was arguably Houston’s best performance of the season. In addition to Waggener’s interception in the first quarter, Khori Faulkner made an acrobatic interception on the 2-yard line to deny Collierville with about nine minutes left in the game.
Earlier, Andre Allen had another interception in the red zone that thwarted the Dragons.
Collierville managed just 235 yards and scored their second-fewest points of the season (they defeated Hendersonville Beech, 12-10, in Week 2).
“They kept coming up with stop after stop,” Thomas said. “One more stop, one more stop. Holding them to field goals. They weren’t perfect either but they were pretty dang good.”
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