In an explosive, highly-energized first half, Cam’Ron Valdez and Kesean Raven accumulated more than 300 yards worth of touchdowns during the Tigers 45-13 win in Lexington on Friday.
“We started fast on offense,” said Jeff Miller, Rockdale High School football coach and athletic director. “That’s what we did against Giddings and that’s what we wanted to do against Lexington.”
Although quarterback Jace Robinson was sacked for a seven-yard loss on the first play of the game, running back Valdez more than made up for the loss on the next play with a 70-yard touchdown run. Ross Loth made the point-after-touchdown (PAT) to put the Tigers up 7-0.
Three minutes later, Valdez returned to the end zone after eluding a couple of Lexington defenders and teetering along the out-of-bounds line for the final 10 yards of a 55-yard touchdown. The PAT was blocked, but Rock-dale led 13-0 with 7:40 left in the opening quarter.
Near the end of the first, Raven made his way up the middle for a 74-yard TD run. Loth made his second PAT and the game was 20-0 at the close of the first.
In the second quarter, the Eagles finally put points up on the scoreboard with a six-yard sweep to the right by Dakota Smith. Lexington’s PAT was no good and RHS led 20-6 with 6:23 left in the first half.
For the remainder of the second half, Raven exploded for two TDs.
He turned a third-and-16 drive into a first down with a 23-yard diving catch from Robinson. Two plays later, Robinson found him open again for a 43-yard touchdown pass. Loth’s made PAT-put RHS up 27-6.
Thirty seconds later, Raven scored again when he intercepted a Sheldon Springer pass for a 60-yard touchdown. The PAT was no good but Rockdale went into halftime up 33-6.
In the third quarter, the Tigers were far from done. After getting the ball back with 10:02 left in the third, Robinson found Anthony Dansby open for two-first down passes before finding Loth open for a 14-yard touchdown pass. Loth missed the extra point that followed.
Dansby scored on Rock-dale’s next possession on a 20-yard pass from Robinson. The conversion failed but Rockdale led by the final score of 45-6 with 4:43 left in the third.
After Dansby’s touchdown, Coach Miller pulled his starters from the game. Kobe Mitchell took the majority of snaps in the half and threw one 11-yard pass to Landon Towns, who primarily plays defense. Jose Young was the main ball carrier in the backfield with 20 yards on six attempts.
The Tigers ran the clock and ended the game remaining undefeated with a 3-0 record.
Robinson was 11-of-16 with 231 yards and four passing touchdowns. Valdez had 200 yards on nine carries, the second highest yardage he’s had besides last year’s game against Little River-Academy on Nov. 9, 2018 when he ran for 260 yards on 17 carries.
Raven had 136 receiving yards on four catches. He also scored three touchdowns, his career game-high as a Tiger varsity football player.
The game was a stark contrast from last year’s battle in Taylor where six touchdowns were scored in the fourth before the Tigers came back to win 29-27.
“I also really thought our aggression on defense was much better,” Miller said. “Against Caldwell, we were on our heels.
“So I thought we did much better Friday.”
HYDE PARK–The Tigers host Austin’s Hyde Park Baptist on Friday at 7:30 p.m.
Rockdale faces a different Panther team with only four starters on each side of the ball returning from a team RHS beat 21-17 in overtime last season.
As of press time, they are 0-3 with double-digit losses to Austin-St. John’s, Comfort and San Antonio-Holy Cross. The Panthers lost quarterback Ben Ballard to graduation, who is now a walk-on at University of Texas.
“They still have some really talented kids,” Miller said. “And they’re a really disciplined group so they’re not going to make a lot of mistakes.
“But we’re not really focused on opponents right now, we’re just trying to get better every week. We want this one to be a fine-tuned, well-executed game. Especially going into our open week afterwards.”
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