The Cooldown- Week Three
Cover Photo courtesy of the Dallas Morning News and Staff Photographer Smiley N. Pool.
We’re now more than a quarter way down of the 2024 Texas high school football regular season. Another way to look at it; we’re early in the second quarter of the regular season. Some teams are up big (3-0), others are down big (0-3) and a lot of teams are somewhere in the middle. The rest of the second quarter will determine a lot about how the rest of the season (or game, in this metaphor,) will go.
Week three featured plenty of story lines.DeSoto bounced back with a big win over Corpus Christi Miller in week three. North Crowley continued to look dominant in a win over Denton Guyer. Skyline blanked a good Crowley offense, winning 31-0. Prosper Walnut Grove picked up a signature win over another young program, Frisco Emerson, 29-28. Coppell scored 72 points in a win over Arlington Bowie. South Oak Cliff beat Longview 45-44 on the road. That’s a significant result not just because South Oak Cliff went on the road, punched up, and won, but also because it's the most points Longview has allowed at home since the 1960’s. Check out the laundry lists of Lobo records the Golden Bears shattered in yet another historic South Oak Cliff win.
This win certainly doesn’t top the list of significant South Oak Cliff wins in recent memory, but it is a significant result nonetheless, as the Golden Bears continue to find new ways to impress me and just about every other high school football fan in the state. Now, let’s recap some week three action.
Waxahachie takes down Forney
Waxahachie took down Forney 37-34 in a thriller. Neither team was ever able to really pull away, and a missed field goal from around 43 yards by Forney clinched the game for the Indians late in the 4th quarter. Waxahachie racked up nearly 200 yards worth of penalties in this game, which makes up for the 216 yard difference in total offense between Waxahachie and Forney. The Indians will need to clean that up going forward, but this was an impressive win nonetheless.
Waxahachie quarterback Jerry Meyer III completed 23 of his 36 passes for 421 yards and four touchdowns. Meyer connected with Kohen Brown six times for 247 yards and three scores, meaning that came within 70 yards of out-gaining the entire Forney offense by himself. Tristan Gardner added six receptions for 56 yards and Wade Lemons caught three passes for 46 yards and a touchdown. Lemons also led the Indians on the ground, racking up 94 yards on 14 carries. The other touchdown came courtesy of an 18-yard rush from Bryson Linnear.
Forney quarterback Nelson Peterson Jr. completed six of his 17 passes for 87 yards and two touchdowns. Five different receivers caught a total of seven completed passes for the Jackrabbits, and Javian Osborne and Preston Jackson caught the touchdown passes. Osborne led the Forney offense with 23 carries for 165 yards and three touchdowns.
Waxahachie starts district play this week, and might have the toughest first two district games of any team in the state. The Indians get Duncanville on the road this week before hosting DeSoto the week after. Forney has scored 34 points in all three of its games so far this season and has an even point differential of 102-102. Unfortunately for the Jackrabbits, two of those three games have resulted in losses by a combined four points, after opening the season with a four point win over Lake Highlands. The schedule does get easier for Forney this week against Boswell.
Duncanville beats St. Frances (MD)
Duncanville is off to a 2-0 start after a 28-24 win over St. Frances from Maryland. The Panthers were only able to get two non-district games this year because (I assume) nobody wants to face the back-to-back 6A D-I state champs. South Oak Cliff has never once ducked smoke from anybody, so the Golden Bears scheduled Duncanville in week two. In fact, South Oak Cliff actively seeks out the smoke, if that’s a thing, but that’s a topic for another time. Duncanville gets into district play this weekend, but let’s recap the win over St. Frances first.
Duncanville quarterback Keelon Russell completed 20 of his 26 passes for 265 yards and three touchdowns, and he also chipped in 40 yards and a score on nine carries on the ground. JaQualon Armstrong led the rushing attack with 88 yards on 21 carries. Armstrong has big shoes to fill for the departed Caden Durham (LSU) who had a fantastic breakout game against South Carolina over the weekend, by the way. Zach Turner caught 11 passes for 131 yards and a score to lead the Duncanville receivers. Ayson Theus added five receptions for 101 yards and two touchdowns, and Dakorien Moore caught four passes for 34 yards.
If you want a level of difficulty gauge on this game for Duncanville, all I can provide is what the 247sports composite rankings say about the players at St. Frances. I don’t know much about St. Frances, and I would be surprised if any football fans in the metroplex did either. St. Frances is absolutely loaded on defense, featuring arguably the top junior in the nation in edge rusher Zion Elee. Safety Jireh Edwards is also ranked in the top 50 in the nation in the junior class. In the senior class, St. Frances features five defenders ranked in the top 1,000 players in the nation, including two Auburn commits, a Tennessee commit, an Indiana commit and a Syracuse commit. Ultimately, that group wasn’t enough to keep Russell from throwing three touchdown passes to lead Duncanville to a win. I would say that this is a pretty impressive win for Duncanville. The Panthers get Waxahachie to open district play this weekend.
Hebron outlasts Lancaster
Hebron beat Lancaster in a 34-33 thriller that could have gone either way. Lancaster led Hebron 27-17 in the 3rd quarter before allowing the Hawks to score 17 straight points and take a 34-27 lead in the 4th quarter. When it mattered most, Lancaster drove 62 yards and scored a touchdown as time expired, but the Tigers opted to end the game rather than go to overtime and couldn’t convert the two-point try.
Hebron quarterback Patrick Crayton Jr. completed 13 of his 21 passes for 203 yards and a touchdown, and also scored a touchdown on the ground. Ayson McCray-Jones led the rushing attack with 103 yards and two scores on 11 carries. Tyler Hoke was the Hawks’ leading receiver with six receptions for 160 yards and a touchdown.
Lancaster quarterback Carter Jones completed 27 of his 39 passes for 332 yards and a touchdown. Ja’Quavius Pipkin led the receivers with eight receptions for 141 yards and the fourth quarter touchdown reception that set up the two-point try. Da’Kariean Johnson added nine receptions for 102 yards. Izayah Lee dominated the ground game with 129 yards and four touchdowns on 21 carries.
Hebron rebounded nicely after a loss to Southlake Carroll with a good win over a quality opponent in Lancaster. The Hawks are off this week before kicking off district play at Coppell, where the Hebron defense is sure to get tested in a similar fashion to the way Southlake Carroll tested it a week ago. Lancaster owns one of the most impressive 0-3 schedules, losing by 10 points or less to North Crowley, Aledo and Hebron. The Tigers have a chance to notch that first win in 2024 this weekend when they open district play at Mesquite Horn.
Offensive Player of the Week
My co-Offensive Players of the Week are North Crowley receiver Quentin Gibson and Waxahachie receiver Kohen Brown! Remarkably, both Gibson and Brown finished with identical stat lines. Six receptions. 247 yards. Three touchdowns. Those numbers are incredibly hard to achieve, especially at the 6A level in Texas. Not only did Gibson and Brown achieve those numbers, but they did it on the same night, and both players competed in high profile games against quality opponents! This is my seventh season with Inside High School Sports, and I have still never seen something like this before. I may never see it again. Gibson and Brown are both incredible playmakers worthy of individual recognition, but I couldn’t pick one player and not the other.
Defensive Player of the Week
My Defensive Player of the Week is Argyle defensive back Maliek Bracy! Argyle took down Mansfield Timberview 24-14 and Bracy scored one of the three Argyle touchdowns. Bracy finished with two interceptions, a pick-six, two pass break-ups and four tackles in the win. Argyle improved to 2-1 thanks to an outstanding night from Bracy, and the Eagles get a talented Colleyville Heritage squad to open up district play after a bye week this week.