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Bookends: Broncos power 31-21 win against Garland with pair of dynamic plays
Photo courtesy of Jennifer Santos / jennifersantosphotography.com
By Andrew Snyder, asnyder@starlocalnews.com
GARLAND—McKinney Boyd's 31-21 win against Garland on Friday was an open-and-shut case for senior running back Bryan Driskell, who opened the game with a 96-yard kickoff return for a touchdown and closed it on a 51-yard touchdown run.
Driskell rushed for 219 yards on a season-high 28 carries to more than double his season total and surpass 3,800 career rushing yards. He provided the bulk of his team's 292 total yards and helped seal the game with a 120-yard fourth quarter.
“Bryan was outstanding,” said Don Drake, Boyd head football coach. “He was lights out tonight.”
That score pushed the Broncos back in front, 24-21, and their defense safeguarded the lead by forcing a turnover on downs at their own 29-yard line with 4:37 left in the game. Garland had converted on fourth-and-7 once during that drive but failed on its second attempt.
“[Our defense] played great,” Drake said. “The last series was a great example of that. We put them on the field, they had to hold on to the lead and they did. I was very proud of our kids on both sides of the football. They fought, they played together, they played hard and they did it for four quarters.”
Driskell carried the ball six consecutive times on the ensuing possession to ice the game with his second and final touchdown. The 71-yard drive put the Broncos ahead by their winning margin and gave them their first victory of the season.
Boyd is now 1-2, while Garland remains winless at 0-3.
“It's great to get a victory,” Drake said. “The last two weeks, unfortunately, we haven't played well enough to win, but tonight we did. I was real proud of our effort in the second half. We had a couple of chances in the second half where we could have gotten down on ourselves and faltered but we didn't. We kept fighting and got the win.”
The Broncos opened Friday's win in equally powerful fashion. Before two minutes had run off the clock, they were ahead, 10-0, courtesy of Driskell's return and a 42-yard field goal from senior Jared Symmank set up when Garland muffed its first kickoff return.
The Owls were plagued by turnovers throughout the game. They fumbled and lost the ball three times to sabotage an otherwise strong performance from their offense that saw senior quarterback Carvontez Gates throw for 217 yards and two touchdowns on 15-of-26 passing (57 percent).
Garland totaled 431 yards of offense and also got big contributions from running back E'Lon Green, who rushed for 132 yards and a 32-yard touchdown that put Garland ahead, 14-10, at the start of the second half.
The game became a back-and-forth affair from there as the Broncos answered to retake the lead. After stumbling through the first half offensively, they strung together a 10-play, 52-yard drive capped by a 1-yard keeper from Ladd to go back up, 17-14.
It was the first offensive possession of the night in which Boyd crossed midfield, though they did have what would have been a 57-yard touchdown reception at the close of the first quarter called back for illegal formation.
“I thought we did some great things in the second half offensively,” Drake said. “I'll be honest, I was pretty disappointed with the first half because I thought we had some great opportunities field position-wise and we didn't take advantage of them as well as I'd hoped we would.”
Ladd finished the night with 54 yards and a touchdown on 6-of-16 passing (37 percent) and 12 rushing yards and a touchdown on five carries. Driskell caught two passes for 11 yards and Patrick Ladd caught four for 43 yards and a touchdown.
Despite the Broncos' early struggles on offense, their defense was able to keep them in contention with a set of big plays. They blocked a 24-yard field goal attempt from Garland in the first quarter and forced and recovered a fumble on the Owls' following possession.
With the win, the Broncos made up for a 38-20 season-opening loss to Mesquite Horn and a 31-6 loss to Coppell last week.
Boyd will return to the gridiron next week when it hosts Rockwall at 7:30 p.m. Friday at Ron Poe Stadium.
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