By DARIN ALLRED

Register Sports Editor

MUENSTER — Football teaches life lessons, one of which is how to overcome adversity.

For the Muenster Hornets — lesson learned.

The Hornets had 10 penalties and nine either bad or fumbled snaps on offense and special teams, but somehow still managed to come from behind to defeat the Class 2A Nocona Indians 14-13 Friday night at Hornet Stadium.

“They kept fighting,” Muenster head coach Allen Cross said of his team. “It seemed like everytime we got going, we would have a mistake, but they never gave up. Our defense hung in there all night and gave us a win at the end.”

Nocona had a 13-6 lead and the ball with just over 3 minutes to play, but senior running back Phillip Lott fumbled the ball and Muenster’s Steven Valliere was there to pounce on the loose ball to set the Hornets up for the game-winning drive.

Muenster (2-0 overall) took over at their own 42-yard line with 3:15 left in the game. Levi Trubenbach hit Garrett Walterscheid for a 16-yard gain on first down, but the next two passes fell incomplete. On third and 10, Trubenbach connected with Chris Valliere on a 6-yard gain, bring up forth and four from the Nocona 30. With the game on the line, Trubenbach threw a swing pass to Jason Luke who caught the ball, juked a defender and raced untouched down the right sideline for a touchdown to make it 13-12.

With 2:03 remaining in the game, Cross decided to go for two and Trubenbach scored on a run around the left side to put Muenster ahead 14-13.

Nocona (1-1 overall) got the ball for one last possession, but they only managed three yards and Muenster was able to get the ball back and run out the clock and get the win.

For the second straight week, Cross praised the play of his defense.

“They played tough, fast and smart,” the coach said. “We knew they (Nocona) were going to be a good offensive team and they would run the ball right at us, but we made plays. We got us a turnover there at the end of the game to give us a chance to go win it.”

Muenster scored on their first offensive possession of the game to take an early lead. Trubenbach hit Walterscheid for a 17-yard gain and three plays later connected with Luke on a 12-yard pass to move the ball to the Indian 24. The quarterback then added a 10-yard run. Later, Trubenbach hit Luke on a 12-yard TD pass. On the extra point attempt, the snap was high and the Hornets never got the kick off, leaving them with a 6-0 lead with 7:44 remaining in the opening period.

The Indians put together a 11-play drive and moved the ball all the way to the Hornet 12-yard line. Trevor Fenoglio hit Justin Kirkendall with a 25-yard pass on the first play of the drive. The rest of the drive consisted of running plays with Lott being the workhorse. He had a run inside the Muenster 10 that would have given Nocona a first and goal, but a holding penalty wiped it out and the Indians ended up being turned away with no points.

As play moved into the second quarter, Muenster moved the ball out to the 42-yard line, but they would be forced to punt on fourth down. On the punt, the snap sailed past Trubenbach and Nocona took over at the Hornet 16-yard line.

But again, the Muenster defense rose to the occasion as they held Nocona two yards short of the first down on fourth-and-six from the 12-yard line.

The Hornets were unable to go anywhere on offense and had to punt again. Trubenbach’s line-drive kick was snagged by Fenoglio at the 25-yard line and he weaved his way through Muenster defenders to score. The extra point kick was good and the Indians took a 7-6 lead with 7:47 remaining in the half.

The two teams both went backwards on their next possessions and had to punt. Nocona had a 55-yard punt return called back because of an illegal block penalty. When the Indians tried to punt from their own 42, they too experienced a bad snap and Walterscheid made the tackle to give Muenster the ball at the Indian 25 with 1:28 left in the half.

But Muenster went the wrong way. Trubenbach was sacked on first down and then threw a lateral that scooted out of bounds for a 17-yard loss on second down. After another Hornet punt, the half ended with Nocona up 7-6.

The Hornets started the second half with a 22-yard pass from Trubenbach to Luke, but the drive ended three plays later when Muenster fumbled the ball back to the Indians.

Nocona used runs of 24 and 14 yards by Lott to move the ball down to the Muenster 7-yard line, but a chop block pushed them back and again they were unable to get any points.

Muenster got the ball and used a 25-yard pass from Trubenbach to Luke and a 10-yard run by Trubenbach to get the ball down to the Indian 38, but the drive stalled there after three-straight incompletions and Nocona took over on downs.

It took the Indians just six plays to extend their lead. Lott had a 21-yard run on first down and two plays later he ran for 18 yards. A facemask penalty on Muenster moved the ball to the Hornet 11. Lott was knocked back two yards on the next play, but he made up for it one play later as he took the handoff up the middle for a 13-yard touchdown. The extra point kick failed, leaving the Indians with a 13-6 lead with 3:31 remaining in the third quarter.

Muenster went backwards on their next possession due in part to another errant snap that lost 13 yards. Nocona took over after the punt and moved down to the Hornet 28-yard line. But on fourth-and-eight, Muenster’s Tyler Anderle broke up a pass to give the ball back to the Hornets as the fourth quarter began.

Penalties hurt the Hornets on their next possession. They had penalties on three-straight plays and were forced to punt. But the Red and White defense got the ball right back as Steven Valliere intercepted a Fenoglio pass at the Hornet 15-yard line.

On first down, another snap got away from Trubenbach and rolled all the way back in the end zone, but the senior quarterback picked it up and somehow found Luke for a 26-yard gain. A personal foul penalty on the play moved the Hornets to the Indian 43. Later, Trubenbach scrambled for 15 yards to get the ball to the Nocona 25, but three consecutive bad snaps lost a total of 16 yards. On fourth down, Trubenbach’s pass fell incomplete, giving the ball back to Nocona with just 4:04 remaining.

That’s when the defense stepped up as Steven Valliere fell on the fumble, setting up the game-winning drive.

“That’s a good 2A team we just played,” Cross said of Nocona. “I think we just fought, fought and fought some more and guys went and made plays at the end. Hats off to Jason Luke for getting that ball and taking it to the house and our senior quarterback on the two-point play getting it in the end zone.”