by Kirk Dooley
Last week the Scots caught a glimpse of a couple of skill players who were as good as Randy Allen has ever seen. HP fans in Waxahachie who saw Jalen Reagor catch six passes for 191 yards in the second half would agree. (By the way, has anyone seen a wide receiver in high school, college or the NFL gain 191 yards in one half? Neither have I.)
This week the Scots get to see a couple of defensive ends who will also command attention. David Anenih and De’Andre Holloway anchor the Mansfield Timberview defense. Anenih (#7) goes 6’3”, 215 lbs. Holloway (#47) is 6’1”, 230 lbs. They will be one of the best sets of defensive ends the Scots see this season.
The Wolves are in district 10-5A, along with Waxahachie, Lancaster and three other Mansfield schools. That means that the Scots could face Timberview or Waxahachie in the third round of the playoffs.
Holding the Scots to 37 points normally doesn’t assure a victory, but it did last week. Timberview probably won’t score 40 points but its defense should be better than Waxahachie’s. The best way to neutralize the Wolves twin pass rushers is to throw short and quick, which is one of the top weapons in the HP wheelhouse.
In Week One, Timberview beat a very good Everman team, 21-7, and that “7” is what jumps out. The Wolves defense forced six turnovers and that is the script that the Highland Park offense needs to study before Friday’s kickoff. Last week the Wolves lost to Frisco Lone Star, 20-14, in game that could have gone either way. The Wolves held a five-point halftime lead and the Rangers won the game by recovering a fumble in the end zone and kicking a 21-yard field goal. Lone Star, by the way is ranked second in 5A in North Texas, a position the Scots held a week ago.
The HP players have been replaying the third quarter scenario in Waxahachie where they scored a touchdown to take a 17-point lead but a penalty nullified the play. The Indians got the ball back and Reagor immediately caught a 73-yard TD strike. Boom. It’s a three-point game. That sequence of events was not the end of the game but it helped determine the outcome of the game.
Although the Scots go into Friday’s game without a few starters (Jack Kozmetsky, J.T. Dooley, Turner Coxe), their replacements (Jacob Urbanczyk/Paxton Alexander, Ryan Waters and Tres Page) have been impressive getting the job done when called upon.
Very few teams have a couple of quarterbacks on the bench who could start at many schools. A good example of that is the gadget play Coach Allen called last Friday where QB John Stephen Jones lateraled the ball to Michael Clarke (who was in for one play) and he stopped and threw a 74-yard touchdown strike to Kozmetsky.
It’s like the legendary phrase “One Riot, One Ranger” except in this case it’s “One Play, One Touchdown”.