Highland Park Sports Club

by Kirk Dooley

Your honor, I’d like to present Exhibit One: The Longview Lobos are 2-0 in district play and have scored 56 points in both games. The evidence should prove beyond a shadow of a doubt that the Lobos are averaging 56 points a game.

Exhibit Two: Highland Park is ranked third in the state and Longview is ranked fourth.

As witnesses I’d like to call upon the Rockwall Yellowjackets to testify that in the second half of their game against Highland Park they had their jackets handed to them by the Scots defense. The HP offense scored 28 points in that second half while the Rockwall offense was held to seven. This was an offense that was averaging 67 points per game. May I point out to the court that Rockwall was predicted to win the game and to hang 59 points on the Scots.

Let the evidence reflect that the final score was Highland Park 52, Rockwall 31.

It appears that the Scots are capable of being unimpressed with offenses that have scored a ton of points before rolling into Highlander Stadium. Fear none, respect all.

But this Friday’s game could prove to be more challenging than Rockwall or Flower Mound. They play a different style of football in deep East Texas. And Longview is the king of deep East Texas football. You might call it old-school football or smash-mouth football or five yards and a cloud of dust.

They run the football – hard – right up the middle then when faced with the occasional third down will fake the handoff and hit one of their sprinters screaming down the sideline for a 65-yard touchdown.

It’s pick your poison. Load up the box and let them air it out or drop your linebackers into pass coverage and watch as their running backs chew up your real estate. Longview has it all. They are big, physical, athletic and have more speed that most track teams.

The Scots figured it out last season and beat the Lobos for the district championship in a close game. According to Coach Randy Allen, the Lobos are better this year. Their only loss was to Denton Ryan in the first weekend of the season.

The Longview quarterback is Jordan Allen, a young man who is fast, quick and very dangerous in the open field. But when he stays in the pocket he can find his speedy receivers. In the last two games he has completed 18 of 23 passes for 414 yards. Keep an eye on running back Jarrett Lewis, who averaged 9.75 yards per carry against West Mesquite, gaining 195 yards on 20 touches.

Last week Lobos sophomore cornerback Willie Nelson returned an interception 63 yards for a touchdown. This Friday the Scots hope he stays on his tour bus.

Your honor, my closing statement will address the number of points the Longview Lobos have scored in the last two games – 112. My client, the Highland Park Scots defense, requests a physical mediation to take place Friday at 7:30 at Highlander Stadium. They would like the opportunity to prove that they can slow down this scoring machine enough to earn a hard-fought, home-field victory.

That’s when the defense will rest.

by Kirk Dooley

The Scots travel up North Central Expressway to Grayson County this THURSDAY AT 5:30pm to take on the 3-2 Sherman Bearcats.  It will be the Scots’ first district game. The other six teams in District 7-5A Div. I have already played one game and so three teams are 1-0 and three teams are 0-1.

****GAME INFORMATION ALERT**** Attention, Scots fans – Varsity football game moved to 5:30 p.m. Thursday The Scots varsity football game originally scheduled for Friday night has been rescheduled for 5:30 p.m. Thursday, Sept. 30 at Sherman Bearcat Stadium. The change has been made due to expected heavy rain on Friday night. All tickets will be sold online. Click here to purchase. Tickets already purchased for Friday’s game will be honored on Thursday. At this time, halftime activities are still scheduled to be held, but may be cancelled in case of rain on Sherman ISD’s grass field. Click here for parking information, stadium guidelines and outdoor venue protocols.

Sherman is one of the three undefeated teams in district play. Last Friday the Bearcats beat up on Wylie East, 38-17. The win gave Sherman its third win of the season. The Bearcats had already edged Mount Pleasant, 36-35, and throttled Saginaw, 52-10, in pre-district play. The Bearcats dropped their first game of the season, 37-13, to arch-rival Denison and got skunked by McKinney, 56-0.

The other two games in HP’s district that played out while the Scots had a bye were Longview over West Mesquite, 56-28, and Tyler over McKinney North, 35-18.

The Bearcats have won all three of their away games and lost both of their home games. Go figure.

The Bearcats offense is averaging 27.8 points per game while the defense is allowing 31.

The key to stopping the Bearcats is bottling up their swift quarterback, Phoenix Grant. He’s a dangerous runner and a strong passer. He can even pass while on the run, so he is hard to contain. Grant leads his team in passing (146 yards per game) and rushing (67 yards per game). Last Friday in the Bearcats win over Wylie East Grant completed 18 of 31 passes for 202 yards. He also ran 17 times for 96  yards.

But while focusing on Grant, the Scots defense needs to account for running back Caleb Thompson who ran for 129 yards last Friday.

Grant has a trio of talented receivers who will be a challenge to cover. Last week Elijah Chapman averaged 23.7 yards per reception, Vontrelle Sanders caught three passes for 24 yards and Aries Jones led the team with nine receptions for 90 yards.

Meanwhile the Scots enjoyed their week off. They were able to bask in the confidence-building win over Rockwall, 52-31, a game that the Yellowjackets were supposed to win easily. But when Jack Curtis and his band of merry defenders shut down the high-flying Rockwall offense, the state of Texas took notice that this Highland Park team was becoming a powerful force. The Scots are now ranked third in the state, one spot ahead of Longview (who we will address next week).

At this point in the season, HP quarterback Brennan Storer has completed 60 of 93 passes (64.52 percent) for 769 yards and nine touchdowns. His leading receiver is sprinter John Rutledge who has caught 16 passes for 200  yards and three touchdowns. Jay Fox has caught 13 passes for 161 yards and two TDs. Jackson Heis has 127 yards and one touchdown on seven receptions. Luke Herring has 116 yards and one TD on seven catches. Luke Rossley and Ben Croasdale have also caught one touchdown pass each.

Christian Reeves leads the team in rushing with 276 yards on 52 carries. Croasdale has gained 131 yards, Storer 120 and Fox 109. The leading tacklers on defense are linebackers George Wright and Mason Gallas, followed by DE Curtis, who also leads the defense in sacks, tackles for loss and quarterback pressures.

The Scots have grown up during their difficult pre-district 6-A torture chamber. They survived it and are now experienced enough to not look past this week’s game.

by Kirk Dooley

Rockwall and Highland Park have had an electrifying rivalry the past few years. And it’s about to explode this Friday. The Scots have won four of the past five matches but this year the Yellowjackets are favored to win. Over their past two games they are averaging 67 points per game. The Dallas Morning News predicts that Rockwall will score 59 points on the Scots defense. The numbers that the Yellowjackets are bringing into Highlander Stadium are just short of amazing. Two weeks ago they beat Jesuit, 75-28, then last week they stunned Lake Travis, 59-35. Going into that 6A game Lake Travis was ranked sixth in the state.

Yellowjackets senior quarterback Braedyn Locke, who has committed to play for Mike Leach at Mississippi State, has started the season red hot in his third year as a starter. In his first three games, he has completed 66 of 100 passes for 1,042 yards and 10 touchdowns. And this was against Cedar Hill, Jesuit and Lake Travis. His favorite receiver, Noble Johnson, has caught 20 passes for 439 yards and six touchdowns. Last week he caught 12 passes for 249 yards and four touchdowns.

Highland Park coach Randy Allen believes this could be the best quarterback/receiver combination in Texas.

“Any champion wants to play the very best competition,”  said Allen, “and that’s why we have the toughest pre-district schedule since I’ve been at Highland Park. We’re making progress and we’re getting better each week. The game against Rockwall will be a great challenge for us.”

In 2016 the Scots beat the Yellowjackets, 43-21, as John Stephen Jones completed 18 of 22 passes for 327 yards and four touchdowns to four different receivers.

In 2017 Rockwall won, 53-49, as the two teams combined for more than 1,000 total yards. The Scots went on to win 15 straight games and their second consecutive state championship.

In 2018 the Scots won, 49-42, as QB Chandler Morris shocked the Jackets with a 70-yard touchdown run on the fifth play of the game. That’s the night the lights went out in Highlander Stadium, delaying the game for almost 20 minutes.

In 2019 Morris and Rockwall sophomore QB Locke put on a show that HP won, 66-59. Morris passed for 474 yards and ran for 180, having a hand in every HP touchdown. Locke passed for 516 yards. What a shootout!

Last year the Scots beat up on the Yellowjackets, 46-18, as HP QB Brayden Schager completed 22 of 31 passes for 313 and three touchdowns. Locke had an off-night, completing 13 of 28 passes for 154 yards.

Locke has a score to settle and his team has the talent and experience to put up some incredible numbers. It would be a statistical victory for the Scots to keep Rockwall under 50 points.

But this could be the game where the Scots offense matches the Yellowjackets in scoring. Rockwall has proven that it is one of the best teams in the state. The Scots hope to get to that point.

This Friday they’ll have their chance.