Friday Night Football
L-E at Gilmer; THS at Mount Pleasant,
MOUNT PLEASANT, Texas — Texas High opened District 9-5A, Division II play with a big win.
THS improved to 4-0 on the season, piled up 391 yards of total offense and shut out Mount Pleasant in the second half until the waning seconds during Texas High’s 42-24 win Friday at Sam Parker Field.
Braylon Stewart rushed 25 times for 175 yards and three first-half TDs, Caden Miller had a touchdown reception and Deshun White capped THS’ scoring with a 26-yard pick-6.
Vontrey Anderson also scored for Texas High, capping the first drive of the second half with his 4-yard bull rush on the 13th play of the drive with 6:21 left in the third quarter.
Brayson McHenry finished 11-of-22 passing for 165 yards, a touchdown and two interceptions. Rian Cellers led the receiving corps with four catches for 60 yards, and Blake Rogers added three for 49 yards.
“We felt like Mount Pleasant could pose some problems for us coming into this game,” Texas High coach Gerry Stanford said. “They’ve got some size up front, and they had two weeks to prepare for us.
“Coming out of the open week, it’s going to be a tough game for both teams because of the new things you’re going to see. And also some of the complacency that can set in over two weeks.”
Miller McCrumby snagged a 28-yard TD reception with 14 seconds left in the game for Mount Pleasant. McCrumby had three catches for 83 yards and a pair of TDs As one of the few offensive bright spots for MP.
Texas HIgh rolled up 237 yards of total offense in the first half and limited the home team to just 98 yards before intermission, when THS led 28-17.
Mount Pleasant, which took the early lead on J.D. Mendoza’s 23-yard field goal, also had a 92-yard kickoff return for a TD by Ed Wilder with 18 seconds left in the first period.
Texas High’s initial drive was cut short when Zane Phillips intercepted a pass, but the visiting defense forced
a 3-and-out. On the ensuing drive, Stewart broke a number of tackles en route to his 46-yard scoring run with 31 ticks remaining in the first.
After Wilder’s big kick return, THS drove 65 yards on seven plays with Stewart bullying in from the 1 after Clayton Smith had a 14-yard catch to gain first-and-goal.
Smith had the MP quarterback scrambling on the first play of the next possession, and the QB threw an interception to Darin Finley in Mount Pleasant territory.
“I was frustrated by some of the inconsistencies of the game; there are things we still need to improve on,” Stanford said. “But to put up 42 points and win by nearly 20, we were pretty pleased with the outcome.”
Miller hauled in an 18-yard strike from McHenry with 8:42 left in the half to give Texas High a 21-10 lead.
MP needed eight plays to march 69 yards, with McCrumby catching a 24-yard score to make it 21-17 with 5:23 left.
Stewart finished the ensuing drive with a 3-yard TD run after he covered 64 yards on the previous play. Stewart had 13 rushes for 137 yards and three TDs before halftime.