Senior quarterback Jayelen House racked up 181 passing yards and five touchdowns to combine with junior running back Marquis Murray II’s 193 rushing yards to crown the Austin LBJ Jaguars (7-2, 5-0) district champions after beating the Taylor Ducks (4-5, 4-1) 49-14 on Friday night at The Duck Pond.
The difference involved multiple Taylor penalties and multiple chunk plays from an LBJ offense that was only stopped on four of its drives.
Following the loss, Taylor head coach Earven Flowers said, “[LBJ] was struggling stopping our offense, and we had opportunities to make plays, but defensively, we can’t give up big plays.”
Taylor started the game off efficiently. The Ducks’ first drive went 12 plays, took up over half of the first quarter and resulted in a rushing touchdown for junior running back Eric Walker.
LBJ responded in three plays with a 67-yard touchdown pass from House to senior wide receiver Louis Hickman.
The Ducks continued to establish the run before surprising the Jaguars with pass from sophomore quarterback Johnny Guzman to freshman wide receiver Elijah Afenkhena on a jump ball.
It took LBJ seven plays to tie it back up after six consecutive rushes with Murray II and finally a 28-yard touchdown pass on the final play of the drive.
LBJ recovered the following kickoff that Taylor failed to field, putting them at the Taylor 21-yard line. The Jaguars took the game over from there and went on to add 21 more points before halftime.
Coming out of halftime down three scores, the Taylor defense showed signs of a comeback after stopping the Jaguar defense twice. The explosiveness of LBJ flourished after that, leading to their dominance.
Regarding the defensive struggles, Flowers said, “That’s something we got to adjust as coaches, and find ways to put our guys in better position and get it corrected for the future and get it corrected before the playoffs.”
Despite a hot start running the ball for Taylor, the LBJ defense never made it easy the rest of the contest and forced the Ducks to throw the ball more than they would have liked. Guzman threw three fourth quarter interceptions, making a comeback insurmountable.
Next up the Ducks will finish the season on the road against Travis (4-5, 2-3) next Friday at Burger Stadium.
Looking ahead to the regular season finale, Flowers said the key to going into playoff with a win is simple.
“Execute and make plays when it’s time they make your play. Travis will be a pretty solid team, and we just can’t make those mistakes that we did tonight,” Flowers said.
