RB Rainford lifts Panthers to 6-0 start

SUGAR LAND — The headline touted a matchup of Travis’ high-scoring offense and Ridge Point’s stingy defense.

The fine print included a fine performance by B.J. Rainford.

The senior running back carried 42 times for 261 yards and two touch downs, pushing the Panthers past Travis 31-16 on Saturday night at Mercer Stadium and sending them to 6-0 in their first Class 6A season.

“The previous three games he had less than 10 carries each game, so I told him when he came in, we made up for it (Saturday),” Ridge Point coach Brett Sniffin said. “He’s that kind of guy. He’s a guy who, you can get on his back and he’ll carry the team.”

Travis (4-2, 2-1 in District 20-6A) came in averaging 48.2 points, including an 8620 win over Clements.

Ridge Point (6-0, 3-0) entered allowing only 4.2 points per game, with two shutouts.

The elite defense ruled the day. Billboard material

The Panthers picked off quarterback Amryn Jeffrey three times and held Travis scoreless the first 20 minutes of the second half. Linebacker Chad Bailey’s interception with 9:05 left sealed it.

“They talked a lot of trash coming into the game, so we put that on the billboard, and we knew what we had to do,” Bailey said.

Bailey also supplied the Panthers’ final touchdown on a 1-yard run, capping a 17-play, 84-yard drive that ate up almost 7½ minutes.

Travis put two more on it but finished far below its scoring average, with the Panthers taking away big plays and jumping passing lanes while holding the Tigers to 265 total yards and 13 first downs.

“They’ve got nine returners from last year’s (defensive) group, and they can do some things,” Travis coach Trey Sissom said. “The crazy thing is we moved the ball up and down the field. We just made silly mistakes with interceptions and those kinds of things early on that put us behind.

“And when we did those things, we put our defense right back on the field.” An epic drive

The Tigers held their own with the unbeaten and area-ranked Panthers in the first quarter, taking a 6-0 lead into the second quarter, despite two interceptions by Jeffrey on their first three possessions.

Sandwiched in between was his 5-yard scoring strike to Grant Griffin, but the Panthers blocked the extra point.

The offense put together an epic drive for the lead.

Rainford’s 3-yard touchdown run capped a 19-play, 96-yard march that lasted 6:56 and included seven first downs.

“We’ve been big-playing people on offense, and they tried to take that away by playing the safeties deep, so we adjusted our game plan a little bit, and when you’ve got a running back like B.J. Rainford you keep feeding him the ball, and the offensive line did a great job in the second half,” Sniffin said.