HENDERSON, Texas — The Henderson Lions got off to a hot start in their game against Kilgore.
They led the first half 21-0, and even got up to 24 points when the Bulldogs started to come back in the 4th quarter. It was tied at 24 with less than a minute to go in the game, quarterback Vince Howard made a quick carry to get them in field goal range.
Sophomore Ivan Navarro kicked the game winning field goal to lead Henderson over the top 27-24, increasing their record to 5-1.
This is Navarro's first year on varsity, he spent years training and working hard to work his way up from being just the punt kicker, to the main field goal kicker, so he felt the pressure when it was time to kick last Friday.
"A lot of stuff was going through my head and the on sidelines, my teammates were just coming up to me and telling me my field goal is going to come down to my field goal, it's going to be the game winner," said Navarro. " That just made it worse for me, but then my other teammates were telling them to let me lock in and that helped."
Kilgore lost on their home turf falling 4-2 on the season in another close game. Gilmer beat Kilgore 24-22 in week three.
"I was so happy, I didn't even know what to do, and I just saw the Kilgore on the ground," said Navarro. "That felt great."
In 2023 the Lions were 2-8, under the coaching of alumni Clay Baker, and so far they're on a four game winning streak.
"When I came here, I was told quite a bit that, discipline is an issue, the personal fouls were a big issue," said Coach Baker. "It's a big credit to our kids and our coaching staff. They we were really close last year we had a lot of lot of games that were one play, two plays away from it falling our way."
Coach Baker saw the potential in his team, and he had patience to develop them into the dynamic team that they are now.
"The big thing for us coming in as a new staff, was just developing the trust with the kids, developing those relationships with the kids. I can't say enough about how much they have bought into that," Baker said.
Now the Lions will turn their attention to Mabank.
"It was an exciting moment for us and the community is still excited, but we're done," said Coach Baker. "We're past it, starting today, we're locked in on Mabank. It's by no means the finish line for us. It's just a start to what we're trying to do here, it's time to redirect your focus and get locked in on Mabank this week."