Category: KIRK DOOLEY’S BLOG

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.

by Kirk Dooley

The Scots travel to Coppell this Friday to battle another 6A foe, the Coppell Cowboys, at Buddy Echols Stadium. Both teams enter the game 1-1.

Coppell opened the season with a convincing 42-28 win over Sachse then were stunned by Prestonwood Christian, 55-41, last Friday. The Cowboys offense is averaging more than 40 points per game, which is enough to  beat most mortal beings. But the Coppell defense is allowing an average of more than 40 points per game, which is enough to allow most mortal beings to beat them.

Let’s start with the Coppell offense. After two games, quarterback Jack Fishpaw has completed 31 of 50 passes for 537 yards and four touchdowns. He’s a solid QB who will get better each game. The not-so-secret weapon for the Cowboys is running back Dylan Nelson who is a serious threat as a receiver coming out of the backfield. In his first game this season he caught seven passes for 246 yards and three touchdowns against linebackers who don’t have sprinter speed. He averaged 35 yards per catch. On his spare time he gained 59 yards on the ground, averaging 7.38 yards per touch, and another TD on the ground. After all, he is a running back.

Last week while the Prestonwood defense focused on Nelson (who ran four times for 50 yards and caught seven passes for 98 yards) the Coppell offense introduced its other running back to North Texas football fans. His name is Blake Robbins. He clobbered the Prestonwood defense with 143 yards on 26 carries. His job was to get into the end zone and he did it four times.

Last week the Cowboys led 21-17 at halftime. Then the Prestonwood offense exploded and outscored the Cowboys 24-7 in the third quarter and then added 14 points in the final period.

Most sportswriters have picked Highland Park to beat Coppell based on the Cowboys giving up 38 points in the second half to Prestonwood. The Cowboys will be fighting mad about that when they play the Scots.

After getting tarred and feathered on national TV against Southlake Carroll two weeks ago, the Scots had to rally to beat Flower Mound, 28-24, last week in a game where most people in the stands thought HP was playing Mesquite Horn.

After leading at halftime, 14-7, and holding a 21-7 advantage after three periods, the Scots witnessed a 17 point run by Flower Mound to take the lead with 1:55 left in the game.

This is exactly the situation coach Randy Allen wanted to put the Scots in when he scheduled four 6A schools for their pre-district games. The Scots had two minutes to win the game. Or not.

Quarterback Brennan Storer marched his team 61 yards down the field. He needed to convert a key third-and-five so he ran for a first down. He hit receiver glue-fingered John Rutledge for a 22 yard reception. Then the Scots’ power runner, Ben Croasdale, bulled his way into the end zone from the four-yard-line with 45 seconds left in the game.

Yes, an inexperienced HP offense grew up in that drive.

The next eight quarters will be more challenging for the Scots. They best take them four at a time.