Up front defensive pressure, combine with 1-2 punch of
Taylor and Young keep Cougars motionless
Adam Taylor and Donovonn Young combined for 374 yards and four touchdowns to help the Katy Tigers (10-0, 7-0) steam roll Cinco Ranch 56-3 in a battle of unbeatens, Saturday afternoon at Rhodes Stadium. The win also secured the district title and marks the ninth time that the Tigers have finish undefeated in district play.
Young’s two touchdown performance gave him the school record of 29 touchdowns on the season.
The Tigers will face Bellaire in Class 5A Division I, Region III Bi-District playoffs Saturday, 1:00 P.M. at Rhodes.
A packed house of more than 11,000 fans watched the Tigers get off to a great start, taking a 14-0 lead into the second quarter on the heels of running back Donovonn Young, who piled up 66 yards on Katy’s first two drives with touchdown runs of 8 and 3 yards.
A very stingy Tiger defense played sparingly. All game long Katy’s defensive front of Matt Dimon, Jake Grode, Tyler Droog, Jake Miller, John Sampa and Nick Narcisse wreaked habit on the Cougars offensive line.
“I think it was one of those things we could see it coming for a bunch of weeks. They definitely wanted it more than we did and I talked to our kids about humility and we needed a dose of it and that’s what we got. I Could see guys getting full of themselves about how good they thought they were, it’s not bad to get brought down to earth rather it be this week than next week. The question is, will we learn from it and can we build on it,” said Cinco Ranch Coach Don Clayton.
Running backs K.C. Nlemchi and Sophomore Jamel James were kept in check, Nlemchi picked up 66 yards on 13 carries and Jamel James added 58 on 17 totes.
The Cougar’s only points of the game came on a 36 yard field goal off the leg of Jacob Farmen
Adam Taylor, only a sophomore worked his way up the field for a 64 yard touchdown run increasing the Tigers lead 21-3 with 9:20 to go in the second quarter. Taylor had a game high 209 yards on 15 carries with two touchdowns.
Brooks Haack finished the game 9-13-113 yards with one touchdown. Young tossed in 165 yards on 22 carries and two touchdowns.
Coach Joseph credits his defense for being discipline and not trying to do too much but rather staying in their lanes and not over pursuing.
Cinco Ranch (9-1, 6-1) takes the second place spot in district play and will meet Lamar in next week’s Class 5A Division I Region III playoff opener Saturday, 1:00 P.M. at Tully Stadium.
The Tigers would score three more touchdowns to roll to a 42-3 halftime lead. Taylor scored on a 35 yard run, a drive that took two plays, Haack’s three yard bootleg run and his one yard sneak which also resulted in a two play drive.
“We’ve heard all year long and been preparing for this game all year long. We’ve played some good football teams on the road and they have a good football team. Our kids made some plays today, we talked all week about last year how they were 10 of 15 on third downs and we just didn’t do a good job of getting them off the field when we needed to. All the kids did a great job of stopping the run today,” said Katy’s Coach Gary Joseph.
Cougar’s Quarterback Justin Sawyer was pressured into three interceptions, two going to outside Linebacker Brandon Ebrecht and one to Defensive back Rykan Jone.
Two second half Tiger touchdowns closed out the scoring before the Katy pitched a second half shutout of the Cougars.
Katy amazed 527 total yards while holding Cinco Ranch to 205 yards.