San Antonio Express-News (Sunday)
JOURDANTON
The Indians (11-1) overwhelmed Edna (6-6) with a fast start that vaulted them into the third round of the postseason for the first time since 1985. It’s also the first time Jourdanton haswon11games since 1970.
After a string of four straight nonwinning seasons at Jourdanton, Andrus has guided the Indians to a combined 30-6 over the past three years.
“The main thing is this is just a culture you want to build, and I thinkwe’re on a path to that,” said Andrus, a 1994 Jourdanton graduate. “People say, what’s going to fix this? What’s going to fix that? Winning, man. You have to do it the right way and play it the right way.”
Jourdanton next faces Llano (12-0), tentatively scheduled for Friday at Cedar Park. The Indians will look to win 12 games for the first time since 1957.
“We’re looking forward to making even more big plays and getting this ballclub as ready as they can be on Thanksgiving week,” said Andrus, who had a successful nine-year run at Corpus Christi Flour Bluff before returning to his hometown.
His son helped him get there with a second straight 400-plus yard performance in the playoffs.
Cole Andrus threw for 405 yards on 27-of-41 passing with four touchdowns. Those included scoring strikes to Payton Gonzales (35 yards), Colton Schuchart (59 yards) and Luke Tapp (55 yards and 5 yards).
“We knewtheywere going to be in a zone package, sowe had to get a lot of crossers and find that zone out,” Cole Andrus said. “And that’s what we executed in the first half, and we did very well at it. We had good blocking up front, and it gave me time to make my reads.”
Senior receiver Jarel Lilly didn’t score, but he caught eight of Andrus’ passes for 140 yards.
“We’ve been doing it for a while,” Lilly said of his connection with Andrus. “It’s something we do every day in practice, in games, no matter where.”
Jourdanton raced to a 14-0 lead in just more than five minutes on Gonzales’ 35-yard score and the 59-yarder from Schuchart.
The Cowboys cut the lead to 14-6 onDawsonKallus’ 22-yard run with 4:01 left in the first quarter.
Jourdanton answered with three touchdowns in the second quarter. Gonzales scored from 10 yards on a reverse, Juan Lerma had a 20-yard touchdown, and
Tapp added catch.
Tapp’s 55-yarder was the Indians’ only score in the second half.
Andrus injured his foot last weekwhile throwing for 446 yards in a 56-32 win over Comfort. He showed no ill effects of that Saturday.
“We didn’t know what Cole’s abilitywould be thisweek,” Darrel Andrus said. “His foot was pretty bad all week long. He battled through that. … And Luke Tapp. What a performance by him tonight. He was banged up all week from our last our last game. The waywewere able to come out early and set the tone and playing from ahead was great.”
his
5-yard
scoring