After a two-week stretch of taking on teams that have a great chance of heading to the post-season, the 7-1 Thorndale Bulldogs were host to Bruceville-Eddy Friday night, a 1-6 team that lost their first two district contests to Hearne and Thrall by a combined 78 points.
Despite how Bruceville has fared against other district opponents, THS head coach John Kovar knew anything could happen and knew his team needed to prepare as if they were playing Holland or Rosebud-Lott, their two previous opponents that they defeated 35-14 and 23-7.
“The whole Holland thing was such a big deal because it’s been so many years (in a row) that they’ve beat us and they’re such a physical team,” Kovar said. “And as soon as we get through that, we’re kind of beat up a bit and we had to get ready for Rosebud-Lott, who has a really good football team this year. We got through that and then this week was a week off from school and we had to get them going against a Bruceville team that isn’t really good on paper, but kids are kids.”
Things started off rocky. After holding the Eagles at their own 23-yard line, the Bulldogs fumbled a punt recovery that landed in the hands of the visiting team, giving them the ball at the 50-yard line.
However, the THS defense, led by seniors Stryker Leschber and Hayden Kylberg, persisted by holding Bruceville to three yards on their next series and getting the ball back. This led to Leschber showcasing his offensive capabilities and scoring on a three-yard touchdown midway through the first to put his team up 6-0.
In the second, Thorndale built their lead to 26-0 with junior quarterback C o y S t u t t s finding Luke Merz open for a 30-yard TD pass four minutes into the quarter before Leschber returned to the end zone with a little more than four minutes on another goal line run.
Junior Clason Beasley scored his 10th touchdown of the season on a 29-yard pass from Stutts after making a 50-yard kickoff return the play before which got the maroon-andgold to the 29.
In the second half, Thorndale sustained their lead with Leschber’s third touchdown towards the end of the quarter and an 18-yard TD run by Raymond Avalos early in the fourth, Thorndale prevailed 40-0.
After the game, Kovar talked about his team and how they focus on taking things one day at a time while ensuring they make progress.
“ W e ’ r e always telling (our players) that you go in a direction every day,” he said. “You’re either going in a positive direction or a negative direction every game, every practice...so we’re really pushing to these kids that we want to take steps forward.”
“I think for the most part, we took a positive step tonight,” he added.
Top performers for the Bulldogs were Stutts, who was 7 of 11 with 153 passing yards and Beasley, who led the receiver core with three catches for 88 yards.
On defense, Kylberg had 23 total tackles, two tackles-for-loss and one sack while Leschber had 12 total tackles, one TFL and one sack.
Through eight games, Beasley is the team’s top receiver with 607 yards on 15 receptions and Stutts has 1,158 yards and 16 touchdowns with a completion percentage just over 54-percent.
BATTLE OF ‘79—On Friday, THS plays in what is many Bulldog fans most anticipated game of the season, the Battle of Highway ‘79 with Thrall.
Playing in Williamson County this year, the Tigers started off the season on a high note when they fell to perennial power Lexington 37-34 in non-district play. LHS was without Texas A&M commit Jared Kerr when they met up on Sept. 3.
Since starting district play, 1-3 Thrall has sent mixed signals to future opponents losing their opener 54-45 to Rosebud-Lott before taking down Bruceville-Eddy 55-7.
This past Friday, they were shutout 25-0 on the road in Hearne.
“Thrall is going to be a really tough opponent for us,” Kovar said. “So we have to have a great week of practice and we have to prepare.”
“Hopefully we take care of business because that’s a really good football team,” he said.
The Bulldogs have won 37 of their last 42 meetings and lead the series 57-30-3.
This is the 91st meeting between the two schools.
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