Thorndale vs. Johnson City at Hutto Memorial Stadium Kick-off: 7 p.m. Tickets available online via etix.com
Last year, Thorndale fell to Hearne in their district finale, 21-14. A win over the Eagles would’ve secured a district title for the oneloss Bulldogs. But losing to the Robertson County squad pushed THS from first to third place in District 12-2A-I, since Hearne and Holland each lost just one district game. This loss had a major impact on their 2021 destiny as the Bulldogs ultimately had to face topranked Timpson in round two of the playoffs, who beat Thorndale. If the Bulldogs would’ve beat Hearne, they wouldn’t have encountered Timpson until round four, in the state quarterfi nals.
This past Thursday, Thorndale left noth- ing to chance when facing Hearne once again. The Bulldogs caught fire immediately, scoring three unanswered touchdowns in the opening quarter.
With a 21-0 lead, THS continued to dominate in the second. Luke Merz scored on an eight-yard run at the 10:02 mark and Noah Crabtree made the score 34-0 mid-way through the second on a 15-yard sprint.
Keyshawn Langham put some points on the scoreboard for Hearne with nearly two minutes left in the half, but the points were canceled out by a one-yard TD run by Stutts with 19 seconds left in the first half. This gave the Bulldogs a 41-7 lead at halftime.
A lot less scoring occurred in the second half, but Thorndale went on to win, 53-16.
After the game, Thorndale head coach John Kovar described how impressed he was with his team’s effort.
“After a bye week, you don’t know how you’re going to come out,” Kovar told David Hall on Thursday. “But we’ve had some great practices and boy, we came out in a hurry.”
“We had some balls bounce our way early on and we just kept pushing the ball. I don’t think we had to punt all night,” he said.
STATS— Stutts was 6 of 10 with 128 passing yards. The THS senior also had 147 rushing yards and four touchdowns. Crabtree was the team’s leading rusher with 155 yards on 20 carries and Clason Beasley was Thorndale’s top receiver with 76 yards on four catches.
PLAYOFFS— Finishing second in District 13-2A-I, Thorndale is scheduled to face Johnson City, the third place team from District 14-2A-I.
The Eagles are a younger team under new head coach Nelson Kortis, but have battled throughout the year. On Oct. 14, they went head-tohead with perennial power Mason on the road and lost in a close one, 29-17. They ended up in third after losing to runner-up Stockdale this past Friday, 24-21. Johnson City can push the ball on the ground with running back Tyler Lorenz but quarterback McCray Jacobs has multiple targets including Ryan Shipley.
Game time between the two schools is 7 p.m. Thursday at Hutto High School.
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