ATASCOCITA ROLLS PAST KLEIN COLLINS.
HUMBLE — Atascocita showed why it’s ranked No. 6 in Class 6A on Thursday night.
The Eagles soared to a 48-7 victory over Klein Collins in a non-district game at Turner Stadium to start the 2021 season.
The game was delayed an hour and 16 minutes because of a lighting delay.
The Tigers won the toss and deferred to the second half, but the Eagles had no problem marching down the field on their first drive to end with senior quarterback Gavin Session scoring on a 12-yard touchdown run with 8:40 left in the first quarter.
“Anytime you can take the ball and score on your first drive against Collins, who has a great program, good school and a playoff team, it’s huge,” Atascocita coach Craig Stump said. “To start the game that way is what you want. That’s the way we want to start every game we play.”
Atascocita missed the extra point but on Klein Collins’ first offensive possession the Eagles’ defense forced a three-and-out.
On the Tigers’ next possession, senior defensive back Bennie Qualls read Klein Collins quarterback Justin Castillo’s eyes and caught an interception that was returned 24 yards for a score to put Atascocita up 13-0 with 3:43 left in the first quarter.
Atascocita’s defense held the Tigers scoreless through the first quarter.
Qualls made another play for Atascocita, but this time it was on special teams.
He returned a punt 39 yards to set up a Session 20yard touchdown pass to Chase Sowell, who was in the end zone by himself. Sowell finished the game with four catches for 69 yards and the one touchdown.
Atascocita running back Tyras Winfield kept the scoreboard moving with a 2yard touchdown run as the Eagles went up 27-0 with 2:19 left in the second quarter.
Klein Collins struggled on offense midway through the second quarter and made a quarterback change.
The running game wasn’t working for the Tigers, who are known to pound the ball down opponents’ throats.
“They want to run the ball,” Stump said. “Sometimes they have two running backs, sometimes three, they want to run the ball. If you can take them out of that and make them throw or scoring and getting ahead gets them out of their comfort zone. We were able to do that.”
Sophomore signal caller Tucker Parks came into the game late in the second quarter and led a scoring drive on his first possession.
Parks hit Ty Stamey for a 7-yard touchdown pass with 31 second left in the second quarter.
The Tigers’ first scoring drive was set up by a horse collar and facemask penalties on Atascocita that moved Klein Collins over the 50-yard line for the first time in the game.
The Tigers got their initial first down of the game at the nine-minute mark in the second quarter.
“He came in and wasn’t rattled by the situation,” Klein coach Adrian Mitchell said of Parks. “He was able to deliver the ball and produce and get the offense going in the right direction. We’re going to evaluate as coaches, but he showed some good stuff tonight.”
Just before the half, Session hit Keith Wheeler for a 72-yard touchdown, but it was called back because of an offensive pass interference call on Wheeler.
Atascocita went into the locker room with a 27-7 advantage.
The Eagles’ offense kept moving after Winfield busted down the sideline for a 43-yard touchdown run to start Atascocita’s opening drive in the third quarter.
Parks improved in the second half and connected with six different receivers.
Mitchell and the Tigers know it’s just one game and their goals are still ahead of them.
“All around there were positives to draw from it,” Mitchell said. “It didn’t go as planned for the people on our sideline. They got on us early and capitalized on our mistakes. When you’re playing against a good team like that, they’re going to capitalize like that. We just have to be able to bounce back and put a game together.”
Session’s night ended when he scored on a 17-yard touchdown run to put the Eagles up 41-7 with 1:13 left in the third quarter, and Atascocita never looked back.
Session finished the game 8-of-18 passing for 82 yards with one touchdown, and he ran for 139 on 11 carries.
Winfield had seven carries for 78 yards and two touchdowns for the Eagles.
The defense got its second interception of the game when De’Angelo Hayes picked off Parks to end the game.
Atascocita will hit the road next week to take on state-ranked Allen at 7 p.m. Friday.