Photography by Silas Hartman ’20, Media Editor
Nothing is better than high school football on a Friday night in Texas, as the stands fill up around 7 o’clock, with students of both sides coming to cheer on their football team while displaying school pride.
This past Friday, on August 30th, Jesuit took on Arlington at Maverick Stadium, ready to take on the 2019 season.
The Offensive Battle
The Jesuit offense started off slow in the beginning of the first quarter, not making it in the endzone until the second quarter of the game when Rance Holman fired a strike to Wyatt Garrett to cut in to the Colts’ lead. A few drives later, Jonathon Paredes caught another pass from Holman, finding the end zone for his first varsity touchdown. After a tremendous turnover from Mitchell Campbell, Jake Taylor scored on a halfback draw to send Jesuit into halftime trailing 24-21. The Rangers struggled to score in the 3rd quarter and ended up firing one final touchdown in the 4th quarter from Holman to Garrett with 4:20 left in regulation. After recovering an onside kick, recovered by Jhalen Spicer, Jesuit’s offense couldn’t punch it in and Arlington snuffed the rally with an interception and was able to keep Jesuit out of the end zone over the final four minutes of the game.
The Defensive Side
Jesuit’s defense started out hot, with Jack Barton forcing a fumble out of the hands of Arlington quarterback on an option play to give Jesuit’s offense the ball back. After the Rangers’ following drive stalled, Arlington took the advantage with back to back touchdowns and a 41-yard field goal to take a 17-0 lead early in the second quarter. Right before the half, Mitchell Campbell came free off the edge and laid a blind side hit on the Colts’ quarterback, leading to the second fumble of the game that was recovered by Austin Wood. The Blue and Gold’s defense held Arlington to zero points in the 3rd quarter, but came up short in the 4th quarter, as Arlington scored on a 99-yard touchdown play to build the lead back to 10 points and once again took advantage with a 79-yard touchdown to take a three-possession lead with 5:59 left after the Rangers missed a 39-yard field goal.
Thoughts From The Game
After returning to the field a year later due to an ACL injury senior Chase Walker stated “I think this game was a good learning experience for us as we made mistakes that can be fixed and I think once we fix these minor mistakes we will be a hard team to beat.”
The three year varsity letterman Christian Allocco commented on the offensive performance after the game about how he “thought we came out a little flat, energy-wise, and went down early, but in the second quarter we picked up the energy and started playing a lot better. Other than that, there were some minor mistakes that will be fixed this week. We are also very pumped to get to play Desoto for our 4th year in the football program so it should be a good one.”
Up Next
Jesuit Dallas will play at Postell Stadium for the first time this season against state-ranked No. 16 DeSoto. The Eagles are 1-0 on the year after defeating Odessa Permian, 35-14. Kickoff is scheduled for 7 p.m. on the Jesuit Dallas campus with the KAAM 660AM pre-game show set to start at 6:30 p.m.
GO RANGERS!
