How About Being 3-0 in District?

By Chris Doelle
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Updated: October 10, 2026

"How about being 3-0 in district?" Calallen head coach Charlie Reeve asked his players in the postgame huddle. The Wildcats got there the hard way.

With 8:41 to go in the first quarter, Calhoun Junior receiver Sawyer Richter (#4) got behind the Calallen secondary on a third-and-13 and went untouched down the right sideline for the game's first touchdown. It was the only lead the Sandcrabs held all night, and it lasted less than six minutes.

Calallen scored the next 29 points and left Port Lavaca with a 29-14 District 15-4A Division I win Friday night. The Wildcats are 6-1 overall and 3-0 in district. Calhoun is 3-3 and 1-1.

Twenty-nine straight points sounds like a runaway. It wasn't. This was a hard-fought defensive game, and the score doesn't show how tough it was. Both defenses controlled long stretches, Calallen's points came in a handful of big moments instead of a steady march, and Calhoun was still pushing at the final whistle.

Calallen's defense shut off the Sandcrabs

After Richter's touchdown and a failed conversion, Calhoun didn't score again until the fourth quarter. The Wildcats spent the night in the Sandcrab backfield. Quarterback Ashton Sternadel (#5) was sacked, scrambled for nothing and threw into traffic, and Calhoun's runs kept getting stopped at the line.

Calallen's defense forced three turnovers and a safety before halftime. A Calhoun receiver fumbled after a catch on third-and-16, and the Wildcats recovered at the Calhoun 48. In the second quarter, a snap sailed over the quarterback's head into the end zone, and the throw he made to get rid of it was ruled intentional grounding. That's a safety: 9-6. Later in the quarter Sternadel was intercepted in the left flat, and in the final seconds of the half he threw into the end zone and a Wildcat came down with it.

Calhoun head coach Stephen Hrncir didn't dispute it. His offense had "way too many holes up front with pass protection," Hrncir said, and "Ashton was back there running for his life most of the night."

Calhoun's defense made Calallen work for it

The Sandcrabs held up their end on the other side of the ball. Calallen's offense hit a wall more than once. It punted from its own 40 after a dropped pass left it facing fourth-and-4. It gave the ball back on downs when a fourth-and-7 throw at the Calhoun 24 was broken up. In the fourth quarter, Dravyn Garza (#24) knocked down a third-and-7 pass that forced another punt.

"Defensively, we played a pretty good game," Hrncir said. "Coach Reeve and his staff, those guys over there do a great job."

Calallen made its big plays count

When the Wildcats did break through, they made it stick. Calallen turned the Calhoun fumble into its first touchdown, a run up the middle on third-and-13 that made it 7-6 with 2:55 left in the first quarter. Quarterback Connor Klostermann (#15) later found a wide-open receiver on the left side of the end zone to make it 16-6 with 9:38 left in the half, and sophomore Jimmy Tipton (#5) carried the drive.

Late in the half, Klostermann broke free for 31 yards to the Calhoun 2, and Tipton scored off left tackle. 23-6 with 2:23 left. Calallen added six more points in the third quarter to make it 29-6.

Calhoun kept fighting to the end

The Sandcrabs never went away. In the final minute of the first half, Sternadel scrambled for a first down at the Calallen 12 with four seconds left, but Calhoun couldn't get the touchdown.

In the fourth quarter the Sandcrabs finally put together the drive they wanted. Sternadel kept picking up yards with his legs, senior Gunner Martinez (#2) kept carrying, and Sternadel took it to the 4. JoJo Baldera (#14) went around the left side for the touchdown, and the two-point conversion was good. 29-14 with 9:06 to go.

The final minutes belonged to the defenses again. The onside kick didn't work, and Calallen punted. Calhoun then went backward: a sack, a penalty and a loss left it facing third-and-21 from its own 7. The Sandcrabs punted from their end zone, and Tipton helped Calallen run out the clock.

What the coaches said

Calallen head coach Charlie Reeve called it a gritty win over a good opponent.

"That was a great win. It was a gutsy win, gritty win," Reeve said. "That's a really good team. Coach Hrncir has done a great job with those guys."

The Wildcats are playing short-handed in spots. "We've had some injuries. We've got a lot of guys going both ways, but our guys found a way to win, and we made plays when we needed to," Reeve said. "We made some big plays on defense, held a really good offense."

Reeve took the blame for the cramping that hit his players. "I got a feeling we're drinking too much water and maybe flushing some things out," he said. "I told the kids, that's on me. I got to figure out whether it's electrolytes." With so many players going both ways, he said, "that takes a little bit of a toll."

The 3-0 start comes with a break. "That was a big one," Reeve said of the win. "We got a bye week next week, which comes at a really good time."

Hrncir pointed to injuries up front on offense. "We've been fighting through some injuries and it finally reared its head," he said. "A good team is hard to beat. You can beat some lesser teams with some backup guys, and it showed tonight." He said Calhoun "put together about two drives all game, and that was about it."

He also pointed to the flags. "Our penalties, we addressed that earlier on in the season and we cleaned a lot of that up," Hrncir said. "But again, credit to Calallen, because a good team will make you do some silly things."

Hrncir had praise for his playmakers. "Gunner ran hard. Ashton played hard. He's a tough kid," he said. "Our tight end, Raymond Cervantes, I gotta give him a shout out. He played real well up front."

And he looked ahead. "I was proud of the way the kids fought at the end," Hrncir said. "Not every team in the district is that tough."

What's next

Calhoun plays at Beeville Jones on Oct. 16. Calallen is off next week and returns Oct. 23 at home against Beeville Jones.

Coach Reeve and I talk every week on the Calallen coaches show. This week's episode went up Thursday, the day before the Calhoun game, and you can hear it on Spotify: Calallen Football 100826.

Postgame coach interviews are available on the Gulf Coast Sports Report substack and our YouTube channel.

by Chris Doelle