Kyle Horde just hoped to keep the chains and clock moving as Westminster Christian lined up for a fourth down in the final minutes Thursday.
The junior running back lowered his shoulder ready to bowl over defenders as he had all night. But as he looked up, all he saw ahead was 30-plus yards of green grass and history in the making.
Horde dashed off to the end zone for his third touchdown to help the Crusaders hammer home a 37-22 defeat of St. Edmund to secure their first district title since 2016, first undefeated regular season since 2010 and program’s first-ever No. 1 playoff seed.
“It felt great,” Horde said. “I’ve been with this group of guys for many years because I grew up at this school since kindergarten, so it felt amazing to know how we’re changing the program around.”
Junior Jack Hunt added a first-half score to Horde’s big night on the ground, and three interceptions by senior Damien Thomas and a Stephen George touchdown pass to Thomas helped highlight the performance.
And Westminster needed every bit of that effort to shake off an early St. Edmund swing and hold off a strong late surge by the Blue Jays and senior star Wyatt DuBois, who also scored three touchdowns and a pair of two-point conversions.
“I can’t describe the feeling just to watch ’em grow throughout the years and face a good team like St. Ed,” said third-year coach Byron Porter. “They didn’t back down. They didn’t quit. But neither did we. We made the plays when we needed to and I couldn’t be more proud of our group.”
St. Edmund struck first as sophomore William Brown recovered an opening onside kick to set up the first DuBois score.
Westminster controlled the next two-plus quarters from there, though, with 30 unanswered points and a lights-out defense that limited the high-powered Blue Jays more than anyone else has been able to do so this season.
Another big Horde run later in the opening quarter set up the Hunt touchdown, and the Crusaders added a Mac Proffitt kick and the George-Thomas connection to stretch the lead to 23-6 by halftime.
“We’re very young,” St. Edmund coach James Shiver said. “We just graduated 17 seniors last year. We only have 11 seniors this year, and when you look at it most of our skill positions are sophomores and juniors. So they didn’t know what to do. Sometimes you get punched in the face, you kinda have to start making some decisions. So at the beginning of the game, we got in a hole. And the second half of the game, they started coming out, and they were like, ‘Look, just play, just play.’ And they just played. And we were right there.”
George and Omar Guillory linked up for a long strike midway through the third quarter to set up Horde’s second score and push the margin to 30-6.
But the Blue Jays started finding answers — getting stops and getting into a rhythm both through the air in the middle of the field and with DuBois on the ground inside the red zone.
Eight points from DuBois late in the quarter moved St. Edmund to within 30-14, and he repeated the feat in the fourth to halve the deficit to 30-22 with seven minutes to play.
The Blue Jays forced a punt and opened their ensuing, potentially game-tying possession in encouraging fashion.
But Thomas snatched his second interception, Horde popped his final touchdown run four plays later and then Thomas picked off another pass to effectively ice away the victory.
“Just constant reps in practice, learning their plays so by the time they got on the field I already knew what they were finna run,” Thomas said of his first career three-interception game. “So, just overcoming adversity.”
