Bearcats get revenge in season opener

The Robby Jones era of Aledo Bearcat football is officially underway.

The defending 5A Division I Texas state champions wasted no time handing their newly-minted head coach his first win as they rolled to a 50-35 victory over Dallas Parish Episcopal on Friday, Aug. 25 at Tim Buchanan Stadium.

“If feels good to get the first win of the season,” Jones said after the game. “We had a bad taste in our mouth after last year starting off 0-2. We wanted to get off to a good start and I think we did that.”

The Bearcats haven’t dropped back-to-back season openers in 32 years since the start of the 1990 and 1991 seasons. After falling to Parish Episcopal 24-17 to start off the 2022 season, Aledo dominated the Panthers on Friday, exacting revenge in the champion-versus-champion showdown.

“We came out with a sense of purpose knowing that we were going to execute when we needed to,” senior quarterback and TCU-commit Hauss Hejny said after the game. “There’s a few things to clean up with penalties and stuff like that. But, I thought we competed overall really well. We were able to move the football, throwing the ball and running the ball. I’m super proud of everyone. Coach (Joe Ryan) Williams called a great first game. It’s good to get Coach Jones his first big win of the season. I’m pumped to see what the season holds.”

Despite it being the first game of the season, the Bearcats appeared to be in midseason form. Four-time defending TAPPS State Champions Parish Episcopal had no answer for Aledo’s offense. The Bearcats found paydirt on six of nine offensive possessions. Aledo’s starting offense was kept out of the end zone just one time in the entire contest and the backups came close to scoring twice.

The Bearcats’ quick-strike capabilities were on full display throughout the game, but especially early on. In total, the home team held the ball for just 8:27 in the first half, but took a 36-14 advantage into the break in spite of Parish Episcopal possessing the football nearly twice as long.

On their first play from scrimmage, newcomer Raycine Guillory, who led Mansfield Lake Ridge in rushing as a freshman last season, caught a swing pass from Hejny before making his way around the far end of the line. Once out in space Guillory put a couple of shifty moves on the defense before winning the 75-yard foot race to the end zone to put Aledo ahead 7-0 just 13 seconds into the game.

The Panthers answered with a nine-play, 75-yard drive of their own, capped off by Sawyer Anderson hitting Carson Darby for the 10-yard pitch and catch to tie things up a 7-7 with 7:16 left in the first quarter.

From there, Aledo went on a tear.

The Bearcats took just 1:52 to run six plays in their ensuing drive spanning 75 yards. Guillory scored his second touchdown of the game on a 33-yard scamper to put the home team back out in front, 14-7, with 5:24 left in the first quarter.

Aledo’s rushing attack was effective all night largely due to the work of the big guys up front. Guillory and Hawk Patrick-Daniels combined for four rushing touchdowns and 206 yards on the ground, thanks to all the space the offensive line created up front. The lanes the Bearcat running backs were able to run through coming out of the backfield were large enough for a developer to start Aledo’s next housing addition in the middle of Buchanan Stadium.

“I really like the run game,” Jones said. “The run game with Ray and Hawk mixed in there, that’s going to be big. Then, once we start using Hauss a little bit more in the run game, that’s pretty dangerous with those three guys running the football.”

Offense wasn’t the only thing clicking for the Bearcats in the opener.

On the defensive side of the ball, Aledo’s front four were impenetrable for the Panthers’ runners. In 18 rushing attempts, Parish Episcopal managed just 29 yards with their ground attack.

Highly-touted Panthers running back Maddux Reid carried the ball 16 times in the game for just 38 yards. Aledo’s front seven closed up running lanes like Chick-fil-A on Sunday. Every inch of positive yardage Reid gained was hard-earned as he was mauled by a pack of Bearcats.

The only way the Panthers managed to move the ball down the field was with the air attack. Even that was a hard way to make a living. Aledo’s defense had pressure on Anderson all night, never allowing him to get comfortable in the pocket, which led to a significant number of third-and-long situations for the visiting team. Parish Episcopal went 8-of-12 on third down thanks in large part to Anderson’s right arm.

“ made plays,” commended Jones of the Panthers signal-caller. “[He] made some funky throws – kind of Patrick Mahomes-type of throws. He did a really good job.”

As many highlight throws as he made on third down, there were an equal number of pay-to-play moments on first and second down for Anderson. Aledo’s senior linebacker and LSU-commit Davhon Keys made sure Anderson’s stat line wasn’t unblemished on the night, as he picked off the opposing quarterback a pair of times.

Keys first interception came with 5:15 remaining in the first quarter when he jumped a route on an attempted bubble screen. With the entire offense behind him and nothing but sweet, green pasture in front of him, Keys took the ball to the house from 27 yards out to put the Bearcats up 22-7 following Cole Crawford’s extra point.

With just under four minutes remaining in the third quarter, Parish Episcopal took over on their own 27-yard line following the lone punt of the evening by Aledo. With the Panthers attempting to stretch the field with a big first-down passing play, Keys dropped into coverage running stride-for-stride with his man while staying in his hip pocket. Anderson’s pass down the middle of the field was slightly underthrown, but Keys made him pay for it dearly as he made a diving catch at the Aledo 47 for his second pick of the game.

“Our defensive line is super fast this year, which is something Aledo’s never really had is a fast defensive line,” said Hejny. “We’re able to get to the ball quickly. We were swarming around the ball tonight. Davhon Keys, I mean I wouldn’t want anybody else leading the defense. He gets the guys rallied together. He gets them where they need to be at the right time. He’s a stud. He’s a versatile athlete, and he proved it out there tonight with those two athletic picks he had. He’s just a smart football player. Our whole defense is really good.”

The defense taking the ball away is always a  good thing, especially when the offense does their job by putting points on the board.

That’s exactly what the Bearcats did following Keys second pick of the night. Aledo needed just three plays along with a little help from a Panthers penalty to dive 53 yards for their sixth score. The 37-second drive was capped off by a highlight-reel touchdown catch by Trace Clarkson as he beat two defenders to make the leaping grab in the corner of the end zone from 15 yards out.

Aledo’s revenge tour continues next week as they travel to Denton-Guyer on Friday. The Wildcats handed the Bearcats their second loss in a row during Week 2 of the 2022 season on Aledo’s home field, 44-14.

“That’s a really good football program,” Jones said in anticipation of next week’s matchup. “They’re a strong 6A. They’re always good. It’s going to be a big test for us to see how we do against those guys. They put it on us last year. A lot of it was self-inflicted. We turned the ball over against them. We’ve got to take care of the football. We had two bad snaps on punts. We also had some bad center-quarterback snaps that hurt us in that game. We just kept shooting ourselves in the foot. If we keep from doing that, it’s going to be a heck of a football game.”

 

Aledo 50, Dallas Parish Episcopal 35

Parish	7	7	7	14	-	35
Aledo	22	14	14	9	-	50

A – Raycine Guillory 75 pass from Hauss Hejny (Cole Crawford kick)
P – Carson Derby 10 pass from Sawyer Anderson (Dylan Sherman kick)
A – Guillory 33 run (Hejny run)
A – Davhon Keys 27 INT (Crawford kick)
A – Hawk Patrick-Daniels 8 run (Crawford kick)
P – Maddux Reid 4 run (Sherman kick)
A – Guillory 17 run (Crawford kick)
P – Hutch Crow 16 pass from Anderson (Sherman kick)
A – Trace Clarkson15 pass from Hejny (Crawford kick)
A – Patrict-Daniels 2 run (Crawford kick)
P – Bryson Fields 8 pass from Anderson (Sherman kick)
P – Caleb Bowers 80 INT (Sherman kick)

Unofficial team statistics
First downs: Aledo 20, Parish Episcopal 19.
Rushes-yards: Aledo 32-257, Parish Episcopal 18-29.
Passing yards: Aledo 230, Parish Episcopal 278.
Caught-thrown-intercepted: Aledo 14-23-1, Parish Episcopal 27-39-2.
Punts-average: Aledo 1-6, Parish Episcopal 2-31.5.
Fumbles-lost: Aledo 0-0, Parish Episcopal 0-0.
Penalties-yards: Aledo 12-122, Parish Episcopal 11-95.
Third-down conversions: Aledo 4-of-6, Parish Episcopal 8-of-12.
Fourth-down conversions: Aledo 0-of-1, Parish Episcopal 1-of-1.
Time of possession: Aledo 22:17, Parish Episcopal 25:43.

Unofficial individual leaders

Rushing
Aledo: Raycine Guillory 11-123, 2 TD; Hawk Patrick-Daniels 10-83, 2 TD; Austin Keith 1-(-4); Gavin Beard 1-(-5); Hauss Hejny 1-9; Chase Wilburn 7-45; Blake Burdine 1-6.
Parish Episcopal: Maddux Reid 16-38; Sawyer Anderson 2-(-9).

Passing
Aledo: Hejny 9-of-15, 185 yards, 2 TD, 0 interceptions; Beard 5-of-8, 1 interception.
Parish Episcopal: Anderson 27-of-39, 278 yards, 3 TD, 2 interceptions.

Receiving
Aledo: Trace Clarkson 5-for-82, TD; Guillory 2-for-70, TD; Colton McCoy 2-for-39; Patrick-Daniels 1-for-8; Tyson Timms 2-for-6; Kaydon Finley 2-for-25.
Parish Episcopal: Carson Darby 9-for-82, TD; Hutch Crow 13-for-182, TD; Maddux Reid 3-for-2; Bryson Fields 2-for-12.

Interceptions
Aledo: Davhon Keys 2 (1 TD).
Parish Episcopal: Caleb Bowers 1 (1 TD).