ROYSE CITY — Argyle has spent most of this season imposing its will upon its opponents. But on Friday night, the Eagles finally ran into a team that resisted.

Or, more to the point, one player.

Texarkana Pleasant Grove, led by senior quarterback Antonio Graves, ended Argyle’s dream of December football with a 35-13 victory in a Class 3A Division II Region II semifinal.

The Eagles (12-1) were in the game until the final minutes, even though the final score didn’t indicate it. But once the game was over, it didn’t take Argyle head coach Todd Rodgers to indicate what went wrong.

“[Graves] was the difference in the game,” Rodgers said. “He’s a phenomenal athlete. We weren’t able to stop him, and there aren’t many teams in the state of Texas that can. We weren’t able to make the adjustments we needed to in order to stop him.”

Graves, who has orally committed to Louisiana Tech, terrorized the Eagle defense all night. He finished with 177 rushing yards and a touchdown, and he went 21-of-31 passing for 251 yards and two touchdowns. The Hawks ran a spread attack with either one or no running backs, and Graves was elusive enough to evade the Eagle pass rush most of the night.

Pleasant Grove (9-3) will face District 16-3A rival Pittsburg, a 21-17 winner over Kennedale on Friday night, next week in the Region II championship game.

Argyle grabbed the lead, 19-14, on a 35-yard touchdown run by Layton Lowry with less than a minute gone in the fourth quarter. The run was set up by Jake Sizelove’s second interception of the game. Sizelove had a great game to end his Argyle career, as he returned his first interception for a touchdown and recovered a first-half fumble.

“He really reacted well when we switched him from defensive end to linebacker,” Rodgers said. “He’s done everything we asked of him this season. He really came to play tonight.”

But after that, the Hawks finally took over the game. Starting at their own 20, the Hawks drove the length of the field, with Graves converting a key third down with a 10-yard pass to Landon Ashby. Graves did the honors three plays later, scoring from 3 yards out with 8:56 left to give the Hawks the lead. Graves ran over Eagles linebacker Blake Dunham for the two-point conversion to give Pleasant Grove a 22-19 lead.

Argyle’s next possession ended with quarterback Austin Aune throwing an interception to Ashby. Aune threw for just 82 yards on 8-of-20 passing. He also threw three interceptions. The Eagles’ passing game sputtered all night, as they had to rely on their running game to move the ball. Lowry led the Eagles with 87 yards rushing, but the struggles in the passing game made the rushing yards hard to come by all night.

The Hawks took over at their own 40 with 7:25 left and proceeded to milk the clock effectively, as they ran 10 straight running plays, including a key fourth-down conversion by Graves, who moved the chains with a 2-yard gain on fourth-and-1 at the Eagle 37. But it was a touchdown pass by Graves that ended the drive, a 22-yarder to Damien Watts, their second scoring connection of the game, that effectively ended Argyle’s playoff run with 1:08 left.

Aune threw his third interception of the game moments later, this one picked off by Pleasant Grove lineman Jordan Fazzalaro, which he returned for a touchdown.

Graves had 102 first-half rushing yards and 144 first-half passing yards, including a 32-yard touchdown pass to Watts that gave the Hawks a 7-6 lead in the first quarter, which marked Argyle’s first deficit since Week 2 against Vernon.

But the Hawks squandered four other first-half opportunities, and at times the Hawks did more harm to themselves than to the Eagles.

That started with Steven Oubre’s failed 26-yard field goal attempt, which came after Argyle kicker Chad Hedlund nailed a 47-yarder on the Eagles’ first drive of the game.

The Hawks took over at the Eagle 45 after Lamarcus Banks picked off Aune. But four plays later Graves threw his own interception, this one picked off by Sizelove, who returned it 69 yards for a touchdown to give the Eagles a 13-7 lead with 9:54 left in the second quarter.

Then the Hawks failed to score twice inside Argyle’s 10-yard line in the second quarter. First, in a shotgun formation, center Matt DeGroot flubbed the snap to Graves, and Sizelove recovered the loose ball with 5:20 left.

Then, on Argyle’s 1-yard line with just 3 seconds left, the Hawks failed again. This time, Argyle timed its interior rush so perfectly that they pushed back DeGroot and Graves for a 1-yard loss and denied the Hawks a halftime lead.

Texarkana Pleasant Grove 35, Argyle 19

Pleasant Grove             7          0          7          21        —        35

Argyle                          6          7          0          6          —        19

Scoring summary

First Quarter

A – Chad Hedlund 47 field goal, 8:46

A – Hedlund 26 field goal, 3:11

PG – Damien Watts 32 pass from Antonio Graves (Steven Oubre kick), :11

Second Quarter

A – Jake Sizelove 69 interception return (Hedlund kick), 9:54

Third Quarter

PG – Matt Duff 11 run (Oubre kick), 3:47

Fourth Quarter

A – Layton Lowry 35 run (pass failed), 11:24

PG – Graves 3 run (Graves run), 8:56

PG – Watts 22 pass from Graves (kick failed), 1:08

PG – Jordan Fazzalaro 25 interception return (Oubre kick), :26

TEAM STATISTICS

                                PG           A

First downs              24             11

Rushing yards           41-229     29-202

Passing yards           251           82

Passing                    21-31-2    8-20-3

Punts-Avg.               3-33.6      4-20.3

Penalties                  2-10         3-31

Fumbles-Lost           2-1           0-0

INDIVIDUAL STATISTICS

RUSHING — PG: Antonio Graves 29-177, Melvin Gray 5-25, Nick Reed 4-9, Matt Duff 2-16, DeAnte Reed 1-2. ARGYLE: Kevin Ryon 11-67, Layton Lowry 12-87, Blake Dunham 3-53, Austin Aune 3-(-5).

PASSING — PG: Graves 21-31-2-251. ARGYLE: Aune 8-20-3-82.

RECEIVING — PG: Melvin Gray 5-24, DeAnte Reid 3-42, Damien Watts 6-108, John Phillips 5-57, Lane Elliott 1-10, Landon Ashby 1-10. ARGYLE: Adam Khan 1-9, Layton Lowry 3-15, Lance Sutton 1-6, Kevin Ryan 2-7, Tyler Sweatt 1-45.