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Broncos unable to buck Plano from non-district sweep
BY Matt Welch, mwelch@acnpapers.com
MANSFIELD -- It might not be reflected in the final score, but the Plano Senior football team’s defense might as well have erected a brick wall around the end zone for the Mansfield Legacy offense.
The score indicated a 23-7 final, the third consecutive win for the Wildcats, as a defensive score that accumulated all of 10 seconds saved face for the Broncos. The other 47 minutes and 50 seconds of Thursday’s matchup from Vernon Newsom Stadium was a tale of the ups and downs for both squads, with the end equating a Plano sweep through non-district play for the third time in the last four years.
“It’s a win and I’m excited about that,” said Jaydon McCullough, Plano head coach. “We’ve still got some things we need to clean up. We had a turnover that was pretty costly but other than that, I felt like we dominated the game.”
But in the end, it was the scoreboard which bore the difference, as the Wildcats made good on their time-consuming offense.
Operating just behind midfield at its own 46-yard line midway through the second quarter, Plano pillaged the Broncos for a mixture of inside runs by senior Murat Kuzu and short, pinpoint passes from senior Conner Michelsen, who tallied 150 yards on 14-of-22 passing and three total touchdowns.
Stringing together 12 plays to amass just 54 yards, Michelsen capped things on an open look to senior Clayton Parlin, who covered 10 yards en route to a touchdown to give Plano a 14-7 edge. Parlin finished the night with 78 yards on four receptions; the third different Wildcat to lead the team in receiving in as many games this year.
“If we trust every player on the field, good things are going to happen,” Michelsen said. “We’ve got a lot of athletes who can go out and make plays and I think we showed tonight that we can feel confident in every single one of them.”
While Parlin helped put the exclamation point on the Panthers’ second scoring drive, the shifty slot receiver set the wheels in motion for the team’s first trip to the end zone by taking a screen pass downfield for 33 yards on the Wildcats’ second possession of the contest.
Needing just seven plays to find pay dirt, Michelsen capped the 53-yard series with a 1-yard rush to give Plano the early 7-0 lead.
The Plano scoring drives bookended a Michelsen interception one series prior to the Parlin touchdown, as a short pass zipped into the waiting arms of Legacy linebacker Kendall Washington, who returned the pick 25 yards to knot the action at 7-7.
Plano’s first scoring drive was predicated on a special teams stop, as senior Zach Laures seeped through the Bronco unit to block the punt. One play earlier, Laures recorded a sack of Legacy quarterback Quentin Hasten and nearly hauled in an interception the play prior to that.
“[Legacy] does a rugby-style punt,” Laures said. “Our coach set us up to where the guy is going to block either me or [senior defensive back Collin Brence]. Luckily for me, I was unblocked and just went in there looking for the ball.”
The rest of the half saw the Wildcats bend but not break, namely in stifling a 16-play strike by the Broncos that consumed seven-and-a-half minutes and sending Legacy away empty-handed on a missed 29-yard field goal.
Legacy had its chances though, nabbing 11 first downs to Plano’s 13. Quarterback Quentin Hasten distributed the ball between five receivers and the ground, a slew of well-executed zone reads between Hasten and rushers Ian Simon and Andrew Antia kept the Wildcats honest.
“[Legacy] is a better football team than what their record indicates,” McCullough said. “They passed the eyeball test, they’ve got some great athletes and they’re a very well-coached team.”
But to Legacy’s undoing, mixed into the fray was a trio of Hasten interceptions, as junior Sam Morell and seniors Matt Johnson and Blair Burns each recorded takeaways on the night.
“We’ve got great coaches who put up great schemes,” Morell said. “We’ve all been playing our positions, doing our jobs and just being in the right place.”
In winning the turnover battle, it meant advantageous field position. In other instances, the Wildcats sought to attack with a good, old-fashioned 80-yard drive off a touchback. Such was the case to open the third quarter, as Plano scampered downfield on seven plays before Michelsen found senior Steele Hoetger in the corner of the end zone for a touchdown. A blocked extra point left the score at 20-7, with the final three points tallied behind a 20-yard field goal by senior Chris Moore; a score aided by a second blocked punt by Laures.
The Wildcats enter their bye week with two weeks of preparation before commencing play in District 8-5A opposite reigning kingpin Allen.
“We’re 3-0,” McCullough said. “Last season, we were [1-2] and had to fight for our lives to block an extra point at the end (vs. Hebron). We’re going to heal up over the off-week and psychologically, it’s going to be a grind and we’ve got a challenge ahead of us.”
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