Scots Travel to West Mesquite this Evening

by Kirk Dooley

As we wind down the final two weeks of the district race, the Scots face West Mesquite this Friday and host Wylie East next Friday. Last Thursday those two teams battled for the rights to avoid the bottom of the barrel. The result? Wylie East 34, West Mesquite 8. So on Friday the first place Scots will play the last place Wranglers. Could it be a trap game? Maybe.

Although West Mesquite has lost every district game, their offense has looked good. They scored 28 points against Longview, 38 against McKinney North and 18 against Tyler before falling off the scoring wagon with only eight points last week. The difference was that quarterback Craig Dale did not play against the Raiders. 

When the Wranglers battled the Longview Lobos, the score was tied, 21-21, at halftime and the Lobos led, 28-21, after three quarters. That was your proverbial close game. Then in the fourth quarter the sleeping giant awoke and outscored West Mesquite, 28-7. The final score: 56-28, but keep in mind how close this game was through three quarters. QB Dale completed 11 of 23 passes for 156 yards and three touchdowns.

In the Tyler game Dale connected on 15 of 26 passes for 170 yards and three touchdowns.

That’s six TD passes versus Longview and Tyler. Not bad. What’s bad for the Wranglers is that Dale did not play against Wylie East last week and the Wranglers could manage only one touchdown, an eight-yard run by Gabriel Corona in the second quarter. Corona then scored on the two-point conversion and the Wranglers led, 8-0. Wylie East’s Maddox Fraley then returned the kickoff 75 yards for a touchdown and that was the beginning of the end for West Mesquite.

With Dale out, the Wrangler quarterback was Samuel Martinez, who completed five of 19 passes for 59 yards and two interceptions.

The Scots had their hands full last Friday against Tyler, a team that puts up big plays like we change shirts.

The Lions’ Derrick McFall broke away for a 52-yard touchdown sprint in the first quarter and then in the second quarter QB Eli Holt hit Montrell Wade with a 62-yard TD. Those were both impressive plays but the Scots defense kept the Lions offense in check the rest of the game. Wade, who also plays defense, intercepted two HP passes, which were two of five turnovers the Scots gave up in the game. Although the Scots won, 42-14, those five turnovers need to be examined and eliminated in future games, especially future playoff games.

My favorite play of the season took place last Friday and it doesn’t exist. But I swear I saw it.

After a late HP touchdown, the PAT was blocked and a speedy Tyler Lion picked it up and sprinted the length of the field to score two points. The Scots’ PAT holder, John Rutledge, got up and started chasing the runner who was about 15 or 20 yards ahead of him. At one point Rutledge shifted gears from football speed into sprinter speed. He looked like The Freeze as he chased down the ball carrier, who was streaking toward the end zone. Rutledge caught the runner on about the eight-yard line and pulled him down before he could collect his two points. I was stunned, but so was every person in the visitors stands. A Highland Park guy just caught their speedster from behind! What the heck?!

Tyler was called for a penalty on the play and HP was able to re-kick the PAT, the Scots’ 42nd point.

So Rutledge’s miracle play never happened.
But I will never forget it.