Three hours after Tigers football players watched their head coach inducted into the Rockdale Athletic Hall of Honor they walked into Tiger Stadium and thrashed the Jarrell Cougars 56-17.
“I’m really pleased with the way we came out. We kind of got over the last two weeks,” said Jeff Miller, Rockdale High School head football coach.
The Tigers took control of the game after Kesean Raven returned a kickoff for a 97-yard touchdown to make the score 14-10 halfway through the first quarter.
“The long kickoff return at the beginning of the game was definitely a momentum shifter,” said Amos Davidson, Jarrell High School head football coach. “It seemed like everything went their way and with all the pageantry before the game, it was probably added motivation for them.”
Miller said, “It was 10-7 them, and all of the sudden, we exploded. With 42 unanswered points in the rest of the first half. That’s what we like to see, we want to strike fast and hit some home runs.”
After Raven’s return, the Tigers scored twice more in the first quarter. Ross Loth scored on a pass from Jace Robinson for 79-yards with two minutes left in the quarter. Cam’Ron Valdez ended the first with a 71-yard breakaway run down the field. Due to Luis Iruegas having a banged up shin from the Cameron game, Ross Loth kicked all the PAT’s (points-after-touchdowns) and made both to put the Tigers up 28-10 going into the second quarter.
After getting the ball back in the second, Quentin Hughes scored on a 41-yard touchdown pass from Robinson. Loth made the PAT to put the Tigers ahead 35-10. Four minutes later, Raven scored his third touchdown of the game on Robinson’s fourth touching the Tigers lead 42-10.
Jarrell got the ball back, but lost it three plays later when Jackson Perry made his second interception of the season taking it back to the Cougars nine-yard line.
Valdez scored two plays later on a nine-yard run. Loth made the PAT to give Rockdale a 49-10 lead at halftime.
“In the second half, we tried to keep the score down,” Miller said. “But at the same time, we wanted to give our kids a chance to play, and not handcuff them too much.”
The Tigers scored one last time at the beginning of the third quarter when Loth caught his second touchdown pass from Robinson for 55 yards. He also made his eighth PAT of the night to give the big blue a 56-10 lead.
“Ross kind of had a breakout game,” Miller said. “We didn’t target him enough against Troy or Cameron, that was our mistake.
“Jarrell got in his face, and didn’t put anybody on top of him. It was one of those deals where we felt like we could capitalize on the situation. Jace also threw some really good passes to him.”
Loth caught four passes for a total of 200 receiving yards, with two touchdowns, and eight PAT’s. Robinson threw for 329 yards with five touchdowns in the evening.
The Cougars scored the last touchdown of the game when Jasper Compton scored on a seven-yard run halfway through the third. Jesus Perez made the PAT to make it 56-17, the final score of the evening. Compton also scored six-minutes into the game on a five-yard run. Perez’s 33-yard field goal was the only other points the Cougars put on the board.
The high-scoring game ended late. Of Jarrell’s 28 pass attempts, only eight were complete, which contributed to the slow pace of the game. Miller said the one late game he could recall was their 80-54 win over Cameron in 2016, which ended at 11 p.m.
“That first half took forever. We had things to do and we were ready to go,” Miller said. “In the second half, they just kept throwing the ball. I appreciated the many fans that stayed around as long they did.”
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