LEAGUE CITY — Last week, Clear Lake surprised District 24-5A favorite Pearland, beating the Oilers, 40-20. Last night, the Clear Creek Wildcats were trying to turn the tables on the Falcons by pulling off an upset of their own.

Led by quarterback Neal Warden, who threw for 197 yards and three touchdowns, Clear Creek led by 16 points early in the fourth quarter and hung on during a thrilling finish to defeat the Clear Lake Falcons, 35-32, at District Stadium.

“The thing we’ve talked about as a team is how we handle it when bad things happen,” Creek coach Darrell Warden said. “Tonight some bad things happened, but we stayed with it and came out on top.”

Creek may run a pass-happy spread offense, but it took until two minutes into the second quarter before Warden attempted his first pass of the game, a 10-yard reception by Anthony Edgerson.

In the first quarter, the Wildcats had 100 rushing years on four carries. The second Wildcat run of the game accounted for a big chunk of those yards, as Nathan Baggs ran 66 yards to give Clear Creek a 6-0 lead at 11:04 of the first quarter.

“Clear Lake came out in a three-man front, so that dictated us running the ball more than usual,” Warden said.

Leading 14-12 and threatening to go up by nine points, Creek fumbled at the Clear Lake 15 yard-line with 4:18 left in the first half. It looked like a potential game-changing play.

In fact, it was the prelude to a wild first-half finish. The Falcons drove down the field in less than three minutes, with the Falcon’s Michael Grant scoring on two-yard run with 1:16 left in the second quarter.

That was more than enough time for the Clear Creek passing attack to get heated up. The Wildcats’ Trey Mason scored on an 11-yard pass from Warden with 27 seconds left in the half to give Creek a 21-19 halftime lead.

At the break, Warden was six for 10 passing for 84 yards and had thrown two touchdown passes.

Things got a little rocky after Warden hooked up with Taylor Echols on a 44-yard touchdown to give the Wildcats a 35-19 lead with 9:45 left in the game.

Leading 35-25 and facing fourth and one at their own 37-yard line with 5:56 still to play, the Wildcats (3-3 overall, 2-0 district) gambled big – and converted on a three yard-run by Baggs to apparently put the game on ice.

But Creek fumbled a few plays later, giving the Falcons (5-1 overall, 1-1 district) new life with 4:07 left on the clock. Michael Grant scored his fourth touchdown of the game for Clear Lake to pull the Falcons within 35-22. But, with just over a minute and a half left in the game, the Wildcats recovered the onside kick to seal the victory.

“This was a huge win, but they all are,” Warden said. “This was a back and forth game, but we had some luck and we made the big plays we had to have.”