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Wildcats' balance bombards Broncos in 62-21 rout
BY Matt Welch, mwelch@acnpapers.com
The Plano Senior football team got production from all ends Friday night in its home opener at Clark Stadium.
Be it the offense, defense or special teams, the Wildcats (3-0) found their way onto the scoreboard all evening, putting visiting Mansfield Legacy (0-3) on its heels early and often for an eventual 62-21 win to cap non-district play.
"We're excited, but we've got to keep things in perspective," said Jaydon McCullough, Plano head coach. "Our kids played well and I thought they came out very focused. We made some tweaks and personnel changes, and to be honest, we're probably going to make some more."
All three turnovers led to points as Plano jumped out to a 21-0 lead by the end of the opening frame and found the end zone on all five of its first-half possessions.
With senior Marcus Davis coming up with the ball after Kijana Amous fumbled away Legacy's opening drive, the Wildcats blitzed the Broncos with a no-huddle smattering of rush and pass to march within 9 yards of the end zone in just two minutes time. Senior Kevin Merrill covered those final yards on a rushing touchdown for a 7-0 Plano lead.
The Wildcats rinsed and repeated on the ensuing Legacy possession, after Amous coughed the ball up for senior Dwayne Hicks. Operating from just 30 yards out, a 13-yard screen pass from junior quarterback Richard Lagow to Merrill highlighted a seven-play drive capped by a 1-yard keeper from Lagow himself.
Lagow finished his one half of action with 154 yards on 12-of-18 passing. Leading targets included Merrill, who bagged 47 yards on three catches, and senior Hunter Gore who caught four passes for 42 yards.
"We're a no-huddle offense now," McCullough said. "That's something (offensive coordinator Lynn) Dickey and our staff have implemented and they've done a great job with it.
"We had 40 plays by halftime and that'll wear a defense down."
The offense would be spared a hand in the Wildcats' third score of the quarter after a 4th-and-2 went awry for Legacy. Operating at Plano's 40-yard line, Michael Sanders misjudged a handoff from David Ellis, fumbling into the waiting hands of senior Sean Oliver, who returned the ball 55 yards for a 21-0 lead.
"You get what you expect," McCullough said. "We tell these kids all the time that we expect them to create turnovers. We talked about it in practice; emphasize it and when they get the ball, we're yelling for them to go score."
The remainder of the half was a bit more standard for a Plano team averaging 40.5 points per contest on the year, albeit with a few dabs of trickery mixed in.
Fielding a toss from Lagow, Merrill handed the ball off to senior L.J. Ausama, who sealed the reverse for a 6-yard run that capped the Wildcats' fourth drive of the evening. Ausama wasn't done as with 2:50 left in the opening half, the Wildcats turned what appeared to be a 28-yard field goal attempt into seven points after Ausama, set to hold, took the snap and scampered 9 yards to the house to give Plano a 35-7 advantage entering the break.
All the Broncos could muster in response was a 10-play, 74-yard scoring drive early in the second quarter. There, Dacarlos Humphrey gashed the Plano defense for 44 yards after fielding a shovel pass from Ellis. The big gain was later followed with a 13-yard run by Xavier Wilborn for Legacy's lone first-half score.
The Wildcats didn't record a single pass in the second half, but still mustered 21 points on offense. Fourteen of those came during Plano's first two plays of the second half when Morell and senior Rakeem Crawford poured on touchdown runs of 58 and 34 yards, respectively. Morell tallied 76 yards on just four carries.
The two scores bookended a special teams stop by Plano, as Hicks' towering 6-foot-6 frame blocked a Legacy punt, subsequently recovering the ball in the end zone for a touchdown.
The subs came in from there, which equated a heavy dose of carries for Crawford, who finished the night with 123 yards and two touchdowns; the last being a 1-yard run with 4:55 left in the third quarter to put Plano up, 62-7.
Defensively, Plano didn't miss a beat as Legacy didn't record a first down in the second half until there were nine minutes left. It was during that frame that Legacy tacked on two final touchdowns on a 59-yard pass from Ellis to Conner Smith and a 4-yard run by Humphrey.
The Wildcats cap non-district play at 3-0 for the second straight season and will enjoy a bye before kicking off the District 8-5A schedule Sept. 23 against Allen.
"I'm going to talk to these kids all week about matching Allen's resiliency and toughness," McCullough said. "Last year, we didn't do that. We played pretty well, but that wasn't good enough."
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