PEARLAND — When an opposing team jumps out to an early 14-0 lead, the head coach of the team trailing wants to see if his team has the moxie to respond and get the victory.

When the Dawson Eagles fell behind 14-0 at the end of the first quarter, head coach Eric Wells and his coaching rallied the troops to out score Deer Park 41-3 the rest of the game.

“Coming back from 14-0 with the young team that we have this year, I was most proud of that,” Wells said. “(Deer Park) came out in something a little bit different. We just made an adjustment here and there. They’re a helluva a good team. They’re going to win a bunch of games.”

Deer Park scored early and then watched the Eagles take control of the rest of the game to pull out the non-district contest and improve to 2-0 on the season.

One of the stars of the game was junior running back Darrius Smith who carried the ball 19 times for 230 yards and two catches for 64 yards and another TD.

Smith scored on runs of 15 and 69 yards and he also had a touchdown grab from QB Nico Thomas covering 61 yards.

The game was delayed 55 minutes by lightning with the score 17-13 in favor of Deer Park.

But the Eagles would continue to take full control much to the disappoint of Deer Park head coach Chris Massey who bemoaned the big plays.

“We played well for two-and-a-half quarters and then we let it get away from us,” Massey said. “We lost the momentum after the missed field goal. We didn’t handle the adversity well for the last quarter-and-a-half.”

Deer Park led 14-13 at the half and then lost the lead in the third period 20-17.

The final period was all Dawson who scored 21 unanswered points to post the 41-17 final score.

Lance Charles had a great game with eight carries for 78 yards and a TD.

Osby Mitchell had two catches for 48 yards and a TD.

Dawson will travel to face the Humble Summer Creek Bulldogs in a non-district contest on Thursday, September 8 at 7:00 p.m.