There wasn’t a lot of things the Taylor football team did wrong during its 62-0 rout of Austin Northeast Friday night at the Duck Pond.
The Ducks scored on every possession except the final one in which the clock ran out. Quarterbacks Johnny Guzman and Jeremiah Caldwell combined to complete all six of their collective passes thrown for 121 yards and three touchdowns.
Eric Walker led all rushers with 140 yards and a touchdown on just five carries, while Caldwell scored on his only carry of the night – a 69-yard run – and Guzman scored twice while running four times for 53 yards.
“We came out, dominated, trusted our coaches and listened to every play call,” Guzman said. “We work really hard in practice and transfer that hard work to the game. We’ve been working as a team, talk to each other and let each other know what we’ve got to do.”
Taylor (3-4, 3-0 in District 13-4A-Division I) also won for the third time in as many games last Friday. The Ducks, who shut out Austin Achieve Academy, 73-0, a week earlier, recorded their second shutout in as many games, too.
“I’m definitely happy with that (consecutive shutouts), I’m definitely happy with us scoring on defense twice and we’re on the right track,” said Earven Flowers, Taylor Head Coach. “I’m happy for our guys and happy that they’re having some success.”
Defensively, Taylor limited Northeast (1-5, 0-2 in 13-4A-DI) to 48 yards of total offense. The Raiders also failed to cross the 50-yard line in the contest.
One of the biggest highlights for the Taylor defense was outside linebacker Landon Coulter. The junior scored two touchdowns in a 12-second span in the first quarter – the first was a 20-yard fumble return and the second a 20-yard interception return – both firsts for Coulter.
“I’ve never scored twice that quickly,” said Coulter, who scored a defensive touchdown for the first time last Friday. “I trusted my instincts. They ran that play a couple of times and I picked up on it and I stepped up to get the ball.”
After taking a 14-0 lead on touchdown runs from Walker and Guzman, Coulter took his two opportunistic trips into the endzone to increase the Ducks’ lead to 28-0 at the 5:48 mark of the first quarter. Guzman also hit Elijah Afenkhena for a 50-yard score later in the frame to give Taylor a 35-0 lead after one quarter of play.
The final three quarters of the game were played with a running clock that only stopped during timeouts or the two-minute timeout. That didn’t stop Guzman from adding a touchdown run and a sixyard touchdown pass to Zavier Stokes to increase the Ducks’ halftime lead to 49- 0.
The second-team offense took over in the second half and Caldwell hit Afenkhena for a 35-yard score in the third quarter and capped the scoring with a 69-yard touchdown run in the fourth quarter. Afenkhena led all receivers with 85 yards and two scores on two catches, while Caldwell added two catches for 28 yards to go with his 69 yards rushing.
Taylor does not take the field this week. The Ducks return to action Thursday, Oct. 23, when they face Austin Eastside at 7 p.m. at House Park Stadium in Austin.
“(During the bye), we’re going to work on fundamentals, doing things the right way and getting more reps,” Flowers said.
Photo by Larry Pelchat
