"I guess it was fate"

FILE - Highland Park's Herring James (30) stops Manvel's Jalen Preson (5) from scoring a touchdown on the final play of the UIL Class 5A Division II state football championship at AT&T Stadium in Arlington on Friday, Dec. 22, 2017. Highland Park defeated Manvel 53-49. (Vernon Bryant/The Dallas Morning News) Manvel coach Kirk Martin recently watched the replay of his team's Class 5A state championship loss to Highland Park. After watching Highland Park get a perfect bounce on an onside kick to recover the ball, he couldn't explain it. "It was -- I guess -- fate," Martin said as part of a special to air on Fox Sports Southwest soon. "I don't know how else to put it. It was magical for them." Martin and Highland Park coach Randy Allen sat down to rewatch the game for Highland Park vs. Manvel: The Coaches' Perspective, a special that will be a part of Texas Football Days. "Manvel was probably the best team I've played at Highland Park," Allen says in the special. "They were faster, they were better than I probably anticipated." But a key moment surrounded that onside kick. Allen said Highland Park had lost in Week 1 to Rockwall after the latter recovered the ball on a similar onside kick play. With Highland Park trailing late, Allen opted to go for the play, which had two different kickers and a coach on the sideline giving a signal for whom to kick it. "We had not executed this in practice very well at all," Allen said. "We did it on a Thursday. Most of the time we'd either kick it too short or too long, but we rarely ever got the big bounce." They got it when they needed it. That set up the miraculous comeback, last-minute touchdown and last-second stop that gave Highland Park its second straight state championship. "You've got two teams that think that they're teams of destiny playing each other and playing as hard as they can and it came down to the last play of the game," Allen said. The special will air at 2:30 p.m. Friday, Aug. 31, on Fox Sports Southwest.

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"I GUESS IT WAS FATE"

MICHAEL FLOREK

Dallas Morning News | 8/24/2018

PHOTO CREDIT: Vernon Bryant