Anytime a Texas high school football state championship is on the line, there is no reason to hold anything back. There is also no sense in having and practicing an epic trick play if it's not going to be used at the perfect time. Denton Ryan High School made sure of both.
After falling behind 7-0 in the first quarter of the Texas Class 5A Division I state championship game, the Ryan Raiders pulled off an unbelievable kickoff return against Alvin Shadow Creek that nobody inside AT&T Stadium saw coming that Friday night.
The result of the play was a special teams touchdown that went viral on Fox Sports Southwest and a memory the entire football team will have for the rest of their lives.
Denton Ryan Trick Play Kickoff Touchdown
RELATED: North Texas Owns the Meanest Fake Punt Return in College Football History
"Trickeration! Deception! Shenanigans! @RyanRaiderFB answers right back with a fake reverse on the ensuing kickoff," the tweet read.
The creativity and trickery of the kickoff return was nothing short of brilliant. Perhaps former Dallas Cowboys head coach Jason Garrett should have been taking notes of what to do inside the NFL stadium. It was that good.
The kick return started inside the five-yard line, with Denton Ryan in position to make blocks for a big play. What happened next was pure magic.
The original player who caught the ball (No. 15) ran right and secretly handed it off to his teammate (No. 14), who had his back turned. Then, he gave it to another teammate (No. 7), faked the handoff to another (No. 2), and everyone was off to the races.
A few seconds later, after some key blocks, Tra Smith found himself untouched and sprinting into the end zone.
To top it off, the Raiders and Drew Sanders even made the two-point conversion.
Unfortunately, Denton Ryan fell to Alvin Shadow Creek 28-22 in the 2019 state title game, but everyone will be talking about that trick play for years to come and nobody can take that away.
This post was originally published on December 23, 2019.
