Texas High throttles Mount Pleasant to even up their record

It’s been a long, hard climb to the .500 level on the season, but Texas High made it look easy Friday night at Tiger Stadium in Grim Park.

The Tigers (4-3, 2-1 District 16-5A) rolled to a 34-0 halftime lead, then coasted in the second half in a 48-0 rout of Mount Pleasant before a homecoming crowd that enjoyed Texas High’s most complete game of the season.

“We’ll take those kind any day of the week,” said Tigers coach Gerry Stanford. “When you execute and give the effort we did to night you can win a lot of games no matter who you play.”

In posting the first shutout of the season, Texas High’s defense held Mount Pleasant (1-7, 0-4) to 102 total yards. The lop-sided margin allowed Stanford to begin substituting freely near the end of the third quarter.

“All these kids work hard all week, and you want to see everybody play,” he said. “It’s what high school football is all about.”

In only his second career start, senior Riley Russell completed 16 of 24 passes for 273 yards and three touchdowns. His third came with 4:25 left int he third quarter when TCUbound Tevailance Hunt split two defenders to complete a 51-yard score on the first play after a 24-yard punt.

“Riley has really stepped up for us,” Stanford said. “He’s getting the chance to play quarterback and he’s making it pay off.”

Tiger reserves got the final score, junior quarterback Kendall Reid, picking his way 17 yards through the middle with 9:18 remaining in the game. The drive was only 29 yards after the defense stopped a fourthdown gamble by the visitors.

Junior Chris Sutton gained 67 yards and scored twice to lead the Tigers in rushing. Hunt, the area’s leading receiver, caught four passes for 79 yards, while Sutton had 74 yards on four receptions, all in the first half.

Texas High was completely dominant in that first half, holding Mount Pleasant to an anemic 47 yards of offense and four

first downs.

Meanwhile, the Tiger offense clicked on all cylinders, scoring on all five possessions while amassing 325 total yards.

Russell was on target, completing 13 of 19 passes, including scoring tosses of 44 yards to Jaqualin Brown and 14 to sophomore Kobe Webster, the latter coming with just 18 seconds left in the half.

Sutton had a pair of 1-yard scoring runs and sophomore Trakeci Cooper tacked on a 4-yarder. The Tigers rushed for 109 yards, Sutton racking up 62 on 10 carries

Sutton's first score capped a 10-play, 71-yard drive on the opening kickoff. Cooper's score came on the sixth play of a 58-yard drive to make it 14-0 after the first quarter.

Another 58-yard drive ended in Sutton's second TD with two minutes gone in the second quarter.

The Tigers would score two more times in the half, Brown outleaping an MP defender to nab a deep sideline pass from Russell with 6:21 to go. The drive was 79 yards on seven plays.

Sutton's 34-yard punt return set up the final score, the Tigers moving 48 yards in 11 plays with Webster making the TD grab in the left corner of the end zone.

Russell was good on 13 of his 19 passing attempts for 216 yards.

The Tigers had one touchdown negated by penalty after Vonderick Stanley returned a punt 60 yards.

In pregame ceremonies, senior Morgan Cook, daughter of Monique and Jeff Cook, was crowned Homecoming queen.