Clear Springs' Brandon Mickens sacked Bryan senior quarterback Aaron Eike on fourth down to end an exceptional comeback by the Vikings that almost gave them a victory.

In a game of spectacular plays, Clear Springs' Howard Matthews made several. He scored the first and last touchdown to lead the Chargers to a 44-37 win Friday at Merrill Green Stadium.

Matthews, who rushed for 99 yards and returned the opening kickoff 86 yards for a score, caught a 25-yard scoring pass in the back of the end zone against triple coverage with 41 seconds left to save the Chargers.

Clear Springs moved to 2-0, while Bryan dropped its season opener.

"Right now, I think we're in business," Bryan coach Bob Bellard said. "I think we're a good football team."

The Vikings, who trailed 22-3 at halftime, took a 37-36 lead on an 8-yard scoring run by Eike with 1:20 left in the game. It was Bryan's only lead of the night, but Clear Springs drove 75 yards in six plays to regain the lead.

Dylan Doebler, who shared time at quarterback and completed 8 of 18 passes for 121 yards, needed a fourth-down pass to Dimitri Donald to keep the drive intact. He then lofted the touchdown pass beyond triple coverage, with Matthews going high to make the grab.

Bryan still wasn't done. Eike hit Nate Jones on a deep post pattern for a gain of 46 to the Clear Springs 20, but the Vikings' drive ended there with Eike having to throw quickly on his passing attempts before being caught quickly on fourth down.

"I was extremely proud of the way we came back out in the second half and challenged and fought and responded and made plays," Bellard said. "We just kind of narrowed down [the offense] and got into some things we felt really good about, like the speed option. We started blocking the perimeter and we got some plays run. We were not consistent enough in the first half."

Bryan, which twice trailed the Chargers by 19 points, drove 75 yards on eight plays to open the second half. Nate Jones, who led the Vikings with 146 rushing yards, capped the march with a 26-yard scoring run. That completed an 11-play march that took 6:01 off the clock.

It was the first of two 11-play drives in the second half, both of which finished with Jones in the end zone. He capped the second one with a 5-yard dash on the opening play of the fourth period.

Jones had three touchdowns and was one of two Vikings to break the century mark rushing. Eike ran for 103 yards.

After Jones' first score of the second half, Clear Springs' Sam Richardson caught the kickoff, doubled back and ran 75 yards for the Chargers' second score on a kick return.

Bryan answered a play later, with sophomore Chris Johnson going 86 yards on the next kickoff to cut the score to 29-16 with 5:28 left in the third period. Johnson shot past a surge of coverage players and angled left across the field to complete the run.

Bryan had 326 of its 422 total yards on the ground. Clear Springs rushed for 161, and Doebler had all of the passing yards. He had thrown for 350 in a season-opening win against Pearland Dawson.

"I thought most of the night we played solid defense," Bellard said. "Obviously, the two kickoffs were awful, but [Clear Springs'] big-time guys made some big-time plays."