MANSFIELD — In the waning seconds of the first quarter, Mansfield Timberview quarterback Steven Hall lofted a pass to the end zone and watched junior wide receiver Braylin Barnett make perhaps the wildest play of the Texas high school football season so far.
One of two Arlington Seguin defenders blanketing Barnett leaped up and tipped the ball, beginning the theatrics.
Barnett then tipped it three times before catching it and doing a double toe tap just inbounds as he fell to the ground for a spectacular 16-yard touchdown that gave Timberview a 20-0 lead.
Barnett’s extraordinary game, in which he finished with seven catches for 108 yards and three touchdowns, led No. 10 Timberview to a 30-23 win over No. 9 Seguin in a matchup of area-ranked Class 5A teams at R.L. Anderson Stadium. The win kept Timberview (4-2, 3-1) in the race for the District 3-5A Division II title, a half-game behind Argyle and Mansfield Summit, while Seguin (5-1, 3-1) suffered its first loss.
But the wild game came down to the final play. With Seguin at the Timberview 3-yard line and two seconds left, Johnaven Polk took a direct snap and officials ruled that he was stopped at the 1 as time expired. There was a flag on Seguin on the play, so even if Polk had scored, it wouldn’t have counted.
“[The defense] stood up all night. They ran eight fakes on us, between punts, field goals, plays on offense on fourth down,” Timberview coach Jacody Coleman said. “It caught us off guard, but the defense stood up all night. Big win, because it’s a district win. We already beat [Colleyville] Heritage, so this was a big one before we get to Summit next week.”
It completed an extraordinary goal line stand by Timberview. A 34-yard pass from Chevy Andrews to Cam Henderson, plus a 15-yard penalty on Timberview, moved Seguin to Timberview’s 14 with 32 seconds left.
Two runs and an incomplete pass brought up fourth-and-3 at the 7. Seguin converted on a 4-yard run by Polk, but that left just two seconds.
Listed at 5-10, 160 pounds, Barnett doesn’t have a recruiting page on any of the major recruiting websites. Perhaps after his game Friday night, they will start to take notice.
He has made a remarkable comeback after missing almost all of last season with a small tear in his patellar tendon. But he showed he is fully recovered Friday.
“Rivalry games are always hyped up. It’s a big win, big district win,” he said.
As far as his amazing touchdown catch, he said, “At first, I was like if I don’t catch it, nobody catches it. But I kept bobbling it and made sure I had my feet in. I’m glad I made the catch.”
In its 22nd season of playing varsity football, Seguin was denied the first 6-0 start in school history. It was the second straight season that Seguin lost to Timberview after starting 5-0, with Timberview winning last year’s matchup 38-24.
Timberview threw for only 34 yards in last year’s game but overwhelmed Seguin on the ground, running for 312 yards and five touchdowns. This time, it was Hall who couldn’t be stopped, throwing for 156 yards and four touchdowns in the first half as Timberview built a 27-16 lead.
Mylez Davis was Timberview’s starting quarterback at the beginning of the season, but Hall has helped Timberview to three straight wins. The sophomore finished 17 of 30 for 230 yards and also had a 1-yard touchdown pass to Texas A&M pledge Chance Collins, who plays offense and defense and is rated the 23rd-best saftey in the nation in the Class of 2026.
Timberview beat Seguin for the seventh straight time and has won those meetings by a combined score of 290-119. Seguin’s last win over Timberview was 31-14 in 2009.
After trailing 27-8 late in the second quarter, Arlington Seguin rallied to cut Timberview’s lead to 27-23 on a 24-yard touchdown run by Da’Shaun Marable with 2:41 left in the third quarter. It came on a fourth-and-1 play, and Marable scored on a jet sweep that caught Timberview’s defense off guard.
Davin Hill saved the game for Timberview with a spectacular 23-yard run on fourth-and-4 late in the fourth quarter in which he broke several tackles. That led to Timberview’s first points of the second half, a 23-yard field goal by Carlos Carmona that extended the lead to 30-23 with 1:56 left. Hill finished with 97 yards on 11 carries.
Barnett’s third touchdown, a 16-yard catch, gave Timberview a 27-8 lead with 2:24 left in the first half. Seguin got back in the game with a trick play.
Facing third-and-10 at Timberview’s 41, Seguin lined up with everyone close to the line of scrimmage, almost as if it was going to do a quarterback sneak. But then came the misdirection, with Andrews sprinting out to the right, but without the ball, while Polk took a direct snap from center and sprinted all the way for a touchdown.
Despite Friday’s result, it has still been an impressive start for Seguin. This was a program that was 4-26 from 2017 to 2019, including an 0-10 record in 2018.