Hays head football coach Neal La Hue wanted to test his team in the non-district slate.

Even if that meant taking a loss in the standings, La Hue is playing the long game in the hopes that the elevated competition results in better execution down the road.

La Hue’s wishes – and more – were granted as Georgetown defeated the Rebels 40-17 at Bob Shelton Stadium Friday night.

The 23-point loss wasn’t ideal, after all. Georgetown scored 20 unanswered points in the second half to claim the double-digit victory.

Instead, La Hue is looking at the response in the second quarter – in which Hays scored 17 points and cut the deficit to three points at halftime – as the silver lining from the team’s first loss of the season.

“We still have guys that are learning,” La Hue said. “This is what this non-district is all about – playing tough teams and trying to get better. We’ve played two tough teams so far and we have another one next week. It’s all about trying to prepare us for district.”

Georgetown leapt out to a 13-0 lead after the first quarter, scoring two touchdowns on its first two possessions.

This was the moment La Hue was waiting for. Would his team respond or continue to stumble out of the gate?

It didn’t take long for La Hue to see what his team was made of.

Hays’ offense settled down in the second quarter when Gentry Brawith utilized a well-timed pump fake that forced a Georgetown defensive back to take an errant route on the ball. Brawith’s pass landed just outside the reach of the defender in to wide receiver Pat Guerrero’s waiting hands, resulting in a 55-yard touchdown. 

Guerrero joked that Brawith’s improvisation during the play was by design.

“I knew if I could get one move off that guy I could get some space and make some things happen,” Guerrero said. “And it worked out. It was a great throw.”

Brawith led another potential scoring drive later in the first quarter, before he was replaced by Tyler Conley with about 50 seconds left. La Hue said Brawith was pulled from the game with an undisclosed injury, but he did return in the second half. 

Conley finished the job with an eight-yard touchdown throw to Guerrero, who beat his defender again for an easy pitch-and-catch.

What was a double-digit deficit was a manageable three points at halftime. And, just like that, the Rebels were back in business.

“I love the way we fought two weeks in a row,” La Hue said. “Two weeks in a row now we could’ve just laid it down and got rolled over. We fought back. We just didn’t finish the job in the second half.”

When the second half resumed, Georgetown provided the scoring punch and Hays was left punchless. 

Georgetown snuffed out any semblance of a comeback attempt with a dominant second half performance.

The Eagles tacked on two field goals in the third quarter before quarterback Chandler Herman connected with wide receiver Caden Leggett for a 12-yard touchdown in the fourth quarter. A Michael McDonald five-yard rushing touchdown on the ensuing drive was the finishing touch on the win.

Hays failed to convert on fourth down five times in the game, oftentimes gifting Georgetown with the ball in Rebel territory. The aggressiveness backfired each time and Georgetown continued to add on to its growing lead.

“Hindsight is 20/20 and we probably should have not gone for a couple of those and just punted,” La Hue said. “But we felt like they are pretty explosive on offense. We were trying to keep the ball.”

Guerrero, who finished with five catches, 72 yards and two touchdowns, said the best is yet to come even though Hays did not continue its offensive success in the second half.

“To be quite honest, we started the game better this week than last week,” Guerrero said. “We had some struggles offensively and I thought we responded really well this week and put some points on the board. Things slowed down in the second half, but it’ll get better from here.”