Tigers’ offense methodical
Pearson, Witcher lead Texas High in easy victory
And then there were two. Texas High easily handled Pine Tree, 38-16, and Marshall upset Longview, 28-25, as the four-team logjam atop the District 15-5A standings was whittled down to two—the Tigers and Mavericks—Friday. Hallsville also handed Mount Pleasant its first league loss, 24-7.
Cade Pearson threw for 211 yards and three touchdowns to spark Texas High in its Homecoming game, and Jakardi Witcher ran for 218 yards and two touchdowns. Pearson connected on 15 of 20 passes with no interceptions, and he threw scores to Markese Martin, Jaylen Rhone and Kip Williams, the last coming from 41 yards out in the final minute when the Tigers were simply trying to move the chains to lock up the win with the clock running.
Ethan Montez booted a 24-yard field goal and made
all five of his PATs. Witcher had a 10-yard score in the first half and answered the Pirates’ fourth-quarter TD run by Maliq Owens, who finished with 166 yards on 18 rushes, with a 70-yard jaunt down the left sideline with 3:12 left in the game.
Texas High piled up 476 yards of total offense in the game with 265 coming on the ground.
Pine Tree’s Daniel Bonamy was 16-of-34 passing for 136 yards with a touchdown and an interception.
The Tigers had 257 yards of total offense in the first half, almost split evenly (128 rushing, 129 passing). Texas High forced four Pine Tree punts on five possessions.
Pearson connected on 11 of 15 attempts before halftime and tossed a pair of scores. He tossed a swing pass to tailback Martin on the Tigers’ fifth offensive snap, Martin found a seam down the right side, got some blocking downfield and raced 40 yards to paydirt and the early lead with 7:27 showing.
Pine Tree moved out to midfield on its ensuing drive but punted to the Tiger 14. The teams traded punts, and Texas High’s next possession ended on a failed fourthdown attempt at the Pirate 26.
Pine Tree put together its only successful drive from there, Bonamy hitting on all five pass attempts, including a 20-yard strike to a wide-open Trey Pruitt for the score with 7:35 left to play in the second.
The Tigers answered with back-to-back scores to push their lead to 21-7 at intermission.
Jacoby Block made a leaping 17-yard catch to keep the first drive going, and Witcher had runs of 3, 12 and 10 yards, the last one around the left side for the TD.
Texas High’s defense forced a three-and-out and Pearson hit on all five of his passes to go along with a pair of Witcher runs for 34 combined yards. Block made another big third-down catch to move the chains, and Rhone grabbed a short pass in the red zone and sprinted in from the 10 for the score with 23 seconds remaining.
Prior to the game, senior Anna Catherine Boudreaux was announced as the Homecoming Queen.