PALESTINE -- The young Navasota Rattlers grew up on another trip to the Piney Woods, battling from behind in the second half to pull out a 28-20 victory over the Palestine Wildcats.

Quarterback Kye Hildreth struggled through the air, completing 6 of 10 passes for 81 yards with a touchdown and an interception, but he won the game with his feet. His 80-yard kickoff return and two-point conversion run gave the Rattlers a 21-20 lead.

Navasota's Antoine Burrell also carried the ball 10 times for 146 yards and a touchdown.

The Navasota defense was allowing short plays on the final drive by Palestine until Aaron Collins stepped in front of Eric Robertson for the game-clinching interception with just 33 seconds left.

The teams traded touchdowns in the third quarter. Burrell busted up the middle on the first Navasota possession and outraced the Palestine defense to the corner of the end zone on a 62-yard scoring run. The extra point was wide left, and the Rattlers led 13-7.

After another exchange of punts, the Rattlers' third-down defense continued to struggle. Facing third-and-10 from his own 33, Olin Terry found a wide open Robertson behind the Navasota secondary for a 67-yard TD pass and a 14-13 lead.

Palestine increased its lead to 20-13 on a nine-play drive that was all on the ground against a tiring Navasota defense. Terry picked up the last 12 yards on back-to-back quarterback sneaks, the last one covering 5 yards. The extra point was wide left and set up the momentum-stealing kickoff return by Hildreth.

After Hildreth's kickoff return for a TD, Navasota's forced another three and out. Hildreth, Burrell and Kesnick Jones all had big gains on the ground on the Rattler's ensuing drive, and Jones scored on a sweep around right tackle to put Navasota up 28-20 with just over 3 minutes to play.

The start of the game looked like a track meet for both offenses. Navasota took the opening kickoff at their own 27 and quickly moved down the field. Hildreth hit Thomas Sweed on a first down slant pass for a 31-yard gain. Antoine Burrell took a handoff straight up the middle before breaking to the right in the secondary for a 32-yard gain of his own. After Hildreth ran the option left for a 2-yard gain, he hit a wide open Tevin Creeks in the back of the end zone for a 7-0 lead.

The Wildcats made big plays on third-down conversions to keep the ball. Their first conversion came when Navasota lined up offsides and the second conversion came on an Terry bullet to a wide open E.J. Spurlock breaking down in the Rattler secondary. On third-and-2, Terrance Simon went untouched 15 yards for a touchdown to tie the score at 7.

Each team's defenses would dominate the rest of the first half. Navasota was forced to punt on consecutive drives, and they saw the third quarter end on Terry intercepting his opposite number. Palestine would drive down the field as the clock counted down the second quarter. Navasota looked to have the drive stopped but a facemask penalty on a sack of Terry gave Palestine new life. After a 15-yard gain by Simon moved the ball to the 12-yard line, Travis Atkinson's 29-yard field goal attempt was tipped at the line of scrimmage to keep the game tied at the half.