ROBSTOWN - The CenTex Barracudas’ remarkable season of firsts came crashing to an end Saturday night.

Dustin Almond threw six touchdown passes to lead the Corpus Christi Hammerheads to a convincing 64-34 win over the Barracudas at Central Pavilion Arena in an Intense Football League semifinal matchup.

“You have to hand it to them, they are a good ballclub,” CenTex coach Chris Duliban said. “Not real happy (with our performance). I felt like we let a lot of things slip.”

The Barracudas finished the season at 9-7, while the Hammerheads (11-4) advanced to the Intense Bowl for the third straight season and will play either Louisiana or Odessa next weekend.

“We really weren’t expecting a game like this,” Corpus coach Jason McKinley said. “CenTex is such a good team and they have a great defense.”

That great defense showed up at least early, when J.R. Turner intercepted a deflected pass to set up a Barracuda touchdown and a quick 10-0 lead, after CenTex had settled for a field goal on its opening possession.

That two-score lead looked huge in a league in which teams tend to score on most of their possessions. Duliban and McKinley had expected the type of battle in which two teams fought toe-to-toe until the fourth quarter, when someone would finally prevail.

But after Corpus scored a touchdown and the Barracudas had to settle for another field goal for only a 13-7 lead, the Hammerheads were starting to stir.

Then came the second quarter, when they went on an all-out attack.

“We got up early and then I thought we let our guard down,” Duliban said. “Our intensity level dropped and we kind of shut it down in the second quarter.”

A 17-yard pass from James Brown to Olan Coleman - their second touchdown connection of the game - had put the Barracudas up 20-14 early in the quarter, but they couldn’t manage anything after that.

The Hammerheads scored 23 consecutive points to close out the half.

Two of the points came on a safety after a Corpus kick left CenTex at its 5-yard line. A sack of Brown on first down pushed the Barracudas at their 1, and two incompletions later they had to try to kick out of the end zone.

It didn’t happen as the snap sailed out of the end zone for a safety and a 23-20 lead.

“Momentum wise, they got a big boost out of that,” Duliban said. “And we seemed to have a lull during that period. Starting at your own 5 in this arena is something you can’t do.”

The Hammerheads added to the lead on their next possession, again pinning the Barracudas deep. CenTex stalled just passed midfield, where Lance Garner set up for a third field goal. This time his kick hit the low arena roof and was ruled no good.

That gave the Hammerheads the ball back with 20 seconds left in the half. As time ran out, Almond found Nathaniel Dunn in the back of the end zone. Dunn fell over the wall as he caught the ball, and the Barracudas argued that it should have been ruled incomplete. But in the end, the Hammerheads held a 37-20 lead at the half.

“That catch on the wall was the momentum changer for us,” McKinley said. “We talked about wanting to get a score on the board before the half to gain the momentum.”

And that was all the Hammerheads needed. The Barracudas never closed the gap in the second half.

“It’s hard to dig yourself out of a hole against a ball-control offense like they have,” Duliban said. “(The Hammerheads) never got frustrated or flustered. This is about making plays. And they made the plays and we didn’t.”

It was a disappointing end to a season in which the Barracudas set a franchise record for wins, notched their first playoff victory last week against Alaska, and perhaps just as important, survived a campaign without a coaching change. Duliban was the fifth coach in the Barracudas three-year history but the first to coach a complete season.

“Right now it’s kind of hard to look back,” Duliban said. “Next week or so we can look back and be proud of what we did. We have a lot of guys who have never played together and hopefully we can build around them. That’s what it takes is consistency. You look at Louisiana, you look at Corpus and they have guys that have been together two to three years. And that’s what it takes.”

As for the Hammerheads, who will be looking for their first IFL title, they have a chance to host the championship game if Odessa upsets undefeated Louisiana on Monday night.

“I haven’t really thought about the next game,” McKinley said. “CenTex is so tough and we’ve been so focused on them that we haven’t thought about the next game.”