(Seguin) — The New Braunfels Unicorns took down the Seguin Matadors in the Guadalupe River Bowl on Friday night, but the Matadors are going to the playoffs.
New Braunfels won the 112th meeting between the schools, 41-24 at Matador Stadium. The win was the 11th straight for the Unicorns in the series and the 17th in the last 18.
Despite the loss, the Seguin Matadors clinched the fourth and final playoff spot in District 13-5A with Victoria East’s loss at Pieper on Friday. New Braunfels clinched the 3rd seed in the district with their victory. Pieper will be the district’s top seed followed by Smithson Valley at No. 2.
The Mats took the opening kickoff and got on the scoreboard first. Gabe Hernandez finished the drive with a 20-yard field goal to put Seguin up 3-0 with 6:52 left in the 1st quarter.
New Braunfels answered just under two minutes later with a 27-yard touchdown pass from quarterback Clayton Namken to receiver Cayden Mills to put the Unicorns in front, 7-3. After an exchange of punts, the Matadors took the lead again at the 7:36 mark of the 2nd quarter when Corey Dailey lofted a three-yard TD pass to Nik Henry in the back of the endzone to put Seguin on top, 10-7. Seguin’s final lead of the night was a short one as the Unicorns took the lead back when Cole Redding ran back the ensuing kickoff 93 yards to paydirt to give New Braunfels a 13-10 lead.
The Unicorns boomeranged a pair of touchdowns around halftime to push their lead to 27-10 in the 3rd quarter. Dailey scored on a one-yard run with 3:30 left in the 3rd to pull Seguin within 27-17, but Namken and New Braunfels tight end Lyric Lalley would connect for two scores at the end of the 3rd and just midway through the 4th to extend the Unicorn lead to 41-17. Ayden Avila and Dailey hooked up on a 30-yard TD for the last score of the game with just under three minutes left in the 4th quarter.
The game was the final home game for 28 seniors on the Matador football team. Seguin will close the regular season next Saturday afternoon against MacArthur at Heroes Stadium in San Antonio.
The Matadors will face San Antonio Southwest in the bi-district round in two weeks. The Dragons earned the top seed in District 14-5A with a 37-18 win over San Antonio Jay on Friday night.
In other area games, Navarro fell 23-7 at Lago Vista and Marion dropped a 38-12 decision at Llano.