FORNEY, Texas — The Terrell High School (4-0, 6-1) Tigers came to Forney’s City Bank Stadium on Friday with a share of the district lead and a lot of momentum. They kept that momentum rolling on the strength of a fast and powerful run game and a smothering defense.
FORNEY, Texas — The Terrell High School (4-0, 6-1) Tigers came to Forney’s City Bank Stadium on Friday with a share of the district lead and a lot of momentum. They kept that momentum rolling on the strength of a fast and powerful run game and a smothering defense.
The Tigers left Forney with their perfect district record intact after a 55-39 victory over the Jackrabbits.
The game began with three scoreless possessions, two for Terrell and one for Forney. The scoring onslaught began with Forney putting the opening points on the board compliments of a Luke Skipper 5-yard touchdown run and a Drew Coleman extra point to give Forney a 7-0 lead.
In a preview of what was to come the rest of the night, Terrell answered 19 seconds later with a 48-yard run by senior running back Dawonya Tucker to tie the score at seven. The 1st quarter closed with another Luke Skipper touchdown run, this time 18 yards long. Terrell managed a field goal to close the quarter with Forney leading 13-10.
The 2nd quarter was Forney’s undoing. Elijah McQueen gave Terrell a lead when he ran through the Jackrabbit defense for a 62-yard touchdown. It was obvious at this point Terrell had more team speed than Forney and the big play was going to be a frequent occurrence in this game. Forney answered with a huge touchdown pass from Luke Skipper to Michael Prox that featured one of the best moves this writer has ever seen in a high school football game. Prox left a Tiger defender on the ground and grasping at air after an inside out move that absolutely destroyed the defender. The score was 20-17 at this point. This was the last lead of the game for the Jackrabbits.
A mere 11 seconds later, Tucker again struck with a big play and scampered up the middle for a 60-yard touchdown to give the Tigers a lead they wouldn’t relinquish. Tucker scored the next touchdown on a three-yard touchdown after a Forney fumble. After six turnovers last week against Poteet, the Jackrabbits had another two turnovers in the first half this week. Devon Riddeaux managed to squeeze in a nine-yard receiving touchdown before Tucker scored again for the Tigers, courtesy of a 16-yard run.
The Tigers went into halftime with a 38-26 lead having scored 28 points in the 2nd quarter.
Terrell dominated the 3rd quarter after getting a Devin Cobern 30-yard touchdown run to cap a 97-yard drive. The following kickoff wasn’t covered by the Jackrabbits and took a fortuitous bounce toward Terrell, who recovered the loose ball. Tucker scored his fifth touchdown of the game at the end of this drive to really put things away for Terrell with a 52-26 lead.
Forney managed to outscore Terrell 13-3 in the 4th quarter, but it wasn’t enough. For the game, Terrell outgained Forney 495 to 323 in total offense. 469 of those Terrell yards were on the ground with Tucker amassing 292 yard on his own. That’s a dominating performance by any standard. With an average of 8+ yards per rush, Terrell was able to keep the keep clock running much of the second half and reduced Forney’s chances at mounting a comeback. For Forney, Luke Skipper passed for 349 yards on the night. The -26 yards of rushing for Forney tells much of the story of the night. (NOTE: Sacks on attempted passing plays count as negative rushing yards.)
Forney now finds itself at 2-2 in district play and needs to find a way to win against West Mesquite or Rockwall-Heath to make the playoffs. The Jackrabbits travel to Rockwall-Heath next Friday night at 7:30 to see if they can stop their two-game losing streak.