3 days Ago By Lauren Rosenberg
For the first time in over 20 years, the Jefferson Bulldogs are area champions after cruising past Grandview 62-18 on Thursday. This feat did not come without overcoming some adversity, despite what the score says. On the first play of the game, Thimyus Taylor found Travis Gray Jr.
for a first down, but a fumble recovered by Grandview shifted the momentum towards the zebras. Grandview ended up striking first on a 1-yard run by Preston Carroll to take a 6-0 lead. The two-point conversion was intercepted in the end zone.
But as Jefferson has done all season, they didn’t let that one interception in the early going on in the game stop them from playing the Bulldog way. After driving down the field with a 45-yard run from Taylor, the Bulldogs found Chris Love in the end zone for a seven-yard touchdown reception to give Jefferson a 7-6 lead. The following Jefferson drive was a dynamic one.
Passing into double coverage, Taylor launched a deep ball to Jakyrie Johnson, who found separation from the Grandview secondary to take it into the end zone for a 51-yard touchdown to give Jefferson a 14-6 lead. Grandview responded with a 34-yard receiving touchdown from Mason Landers to Aiden Hill to cut the Bulldog’s lead to 14-12. But as Kamran Williams has done all season, he burst down the middle and saw nothing but green grass ahead for a 56-yard touchdown to give Jefferson a 21-12 lead heading into the second quarter.
With their defense coming up strong against the Zebras, the Bulldogs took over on offense. With their backs against the wall on 4th down and seven, the punt team faked a punt and ran it for eight yards and a first down. Taylor proceeded to find Love in the end zone for a 27-yard touchdown to extend Jefferson’s lead to 28-12.
Less than four minutes later, Jefferson got on the board again with the set up by a quarterback hurry by Kobin Tomlinson, leading to an interception by Chance Washington. After the early fumble, Gray Jr. redeemed himself with a play-action, 31-yard touchdown reception to put the Bulldogs up 35-12.
Grandview marched down the field and scored their final points of the game on a nine-yard run by Landers, with Jefferson still leading 35-18. Before halftime, Williams found the end zone once against for a 1-yard touchdown to give Jefferson a 42-18 lead heading into the break. To give the starters a few more reps in the game before calling in the reserves, Taylor burst untouched up the middle for a 45-yard run.
This set up another touchdown by Williams on a 9-yard run. He ended the night with 198 yards and three touchdowns. Instead of giving credit to himself, Williams gives credit to his offensive line for enabling him to get going and make chunk plays.
“I can’t do anything without my offensive line. If I had a bad offensive line, you wouldn’t see 90% of the plays I make. I’m just very thankful for them and the work they put in day in and day out.
I can’t do it without them,” said Williams. The final scoring play in the third quarter came from a 27-yard bomb to reserve Avery Lawson, with Taylor receiving a lot of pressure from the Zebras’ defense, to give the Bulldogs a 56-18 lead. With the backups in, the offense still worked extremely hard.
Although it might not look like it on paper, the impact of Jermaine Hopkins and his 49-yard rushing burst gave Jefferson momentum. One special moment for the reserves came at the 2:43 mark in the fourth quarter. Jacoby Morrow sprinted up field for a 54-yard rushing touchdown to give Jefferson their eventual final score of 62-18.
On the evening, Jefferson totaled four interceptions with Washington, Tomlinson and Daniel Smith coming up with all of them. Tomlinson had several quarterback hurries, with one of them involving a sack early on. “Our coaches put us in the right spots [on defense].
It’s really not us. We do what our coaches tell us to do. I’m mainly the one calling the plays [after the coaches tell me them], and I try to put the guys in the right spot.
On the interception, I was reading the quarterback’s eyes and he threw a pass that just went right to me,” said Tomlinson. With this being Coach Ty Taylor’s first season as a head coach, his leadership and belief in this team has been evident throughout the season. After this win, he is extremely proud for how his team didn’t let early mistakes get them down en route to an area championship “It’s just an awesome feeling [winning area].
This community, this program has kind of had a monkey on it’s back for a long time. It’s been 21 years since we made it to the third round, and to be able to bring that to this community, these fans and the kids is special,” said Coach Taylor. His team knew, despite going into the game as the favorites, that Grandview would not go down without a fight.
The preparation all week was to get out, work hard and know how to alleviate any mistakes that can give Grandview momentum. “We challenged our defense all week and had some pretty hard practices. We stayed on them pretty hard and especially our secondary guys.
It started out a little shaky. Grandview got some good breaks there in the first half that led to some scores. But to come out and pitch a shut out in the second half was awesome.
To see what the resiliency of the kids and the fact they didn’t get themselves down and kept playing is awesome to see,” said Taylor. On offense, everyone stepped up whether it be the starters or the reserves. They came back from making a few mistakes that gave the Zebras momentum but did not let that deter their focus, instead using it as motivation for the next drive.
“There’s a lot of guys that contributed. Chris Love had two touchdowns, Kam had three touchdowns. Avery Lawson had a touchdown.
Jermaine Hopkins did a great job at carrying the ball. Jacoby Morrow had a touchdown. So a lot of guys that we’re not seeing all the time contributed.
Our best thing is we love having Kam, but we’re not dependent solely on him. We’re able to take some pressure off of him and get the ball spread around our playmakers,” said Taylor. Coach Taylor and the Bulldogs will face their toughest opponent yet when they face off against the defending state champion Malakoff Tigers on Nov.
22 at 2 p.m. at Rose Stadium in Tyler.
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