DISTRICT TIME | Kilgore, Pine Tree battle at Bulldogs’ R.E. St. John Memorial Stadium
Coming off its third win of the season, third-ranked Kilgore returns home to R.E. St. John Memorial Stadium to open District 9-4A Division I play against the Pine Tree Pirates tonight.
Hear the game through the call of Ragin’ Red Broadcasting on KDOK 105.3-FM, streaming on www.kdokradio.com, and one easy way to find it: come here to ETBlitz.com, and click on the Kilgore helmet on the home page. It’ll take you right to the broadcast.
Each of these longtime rivals have overcome early-season setbacks. For Kilgore, it was Carthage in week one. For Pine Tree, it was a couple of 7-4A Division II opponents, Gilmer and Van. Like the Dawgs, the Buckeyes and Vandals were ranked when the season opened and both were coming off playoff seasons.
But then, so are coach Jason Bachman’s Pirates, who were 10-2 last season, finishing as the runner-up behind Kilgore in district play with a 5-1 record.
After back-to-back losses to start this season, the Pirates have regained their footing, beating Dallas Carter 46-29 and Hallsville 28-21 the last two weeks.
“Our kids have showed up and continued to work the last two weeks,” said Bachman, in his fourth season as the Pirates head football coach. “There’s still a lot of room for improvement, but the kids have hung in there.
“Ours is certainly a tough district and you’ve got to play every week to have a chance to reach the playoffs,” the Pine Tree coach continued. “Kilgore is really well coached and they’re the standard in our area.”
There’s a mutual respect on both sides. “Pine Tree is a dangerous football team,” said Kilgore coach Clint Fuller, earlier this week. “They are good up front on both sides of the football. They have a lot of team speed and Colton Croft, their quarterback, is a very good young quarterback.”
Croft was 18-of-26 for 262 yards with a 25-yard scoring strike to Bosston Johnson in overtime to beat the Hallsville Bobcats a week ago. Croft had scored on a 2-yard run in the third period to give the Pirates a momentary 21-14 advantage.
He also had a 74-yard scoring pass to Rashaad Wofford to knot the score earlier in the contest at 14-all.
Johnson had 6 catches for 88 yards and Wofford had 4 receptions for 94 yards against Hallsville. Besides those two, other receivers of note are Taibran Homer, Ashton Valentine and Desmond Williams.
Croft, only a sophomore, at 6-3 and 200 pounds, has already passed for 797 yards this season. That’s an average of 199.25 yards per game.
The Pirates have used not only junior Ja’Karius Timmons, who scored on a 5-yard run last week against the Bobcats, but seniors Roger Attaway (5-9, 150) and Dalon Montgomery (5-9, 160) to run the football.
A couple of offensive linemen of note are center Alex Lara and tackles Tristan Peel and Jacob Graugnard.
Standouts defensively, Bachman pointed to include outside linebacker Anthony Anderson (5-9, 165), defensive lineman David Lively (6-2, 255), Attaway and Montgomery, a pair of linebackers, as well as free safety Johnson, along with Homer, a corner, and Valentine, another safety, in the secondary.
Lively had 24 tackles and 19 quarterback pressures last season.
“I feel we’re ready for district. We’ve worked and improved every week since the beginning of the season,” said Fuller.
He especially pointed to the play of his front seven on defense as well as the showing of his kicker Eddie Jimenez, who had field goals of 23-, 38- and 32-yards besides his extra point following a Brooks 1-yard run.
Defensive leaders against Pleasant Grove last week were safety Ja’Kalen Sheffield, outside linebackers Travis Holmes and Lakeyleon Graves, and defensive lineman Bi’Syn Williams.
Besides his first interception of the season, coming in the second half, Sheffield had 8 tackles and broke up a couple of passes, while Holmes with 7 tackles, had 2 tackles for loss as well as a forced fumble. Graves chipped in with 7 tackles, 6 of those unassisted, and a fumble recovery, while Williams contributed 6 stops and a tackle for loss and a quarterback hurry.
Inside linebacker Isaiah Watters continues to lead the Ragin’ Red in tackles with 38, while Graves follows with 35. Sheffield (31), and Bi’Syn Williams (29). Holmes (25), David “Bubba” McGowan (24) and Cam Christian (22) are also on that leaderboard.
Brayden Williams leads in takeaways with 2 interceptions and 2 fumble recoveries.
Offensively, quarterback Kayson Brooks is off to another good start, completing 46-of-92 passes for 823 yards and seven touchdowns with only two interceptions. His primary receivers have been Graves (13-192 yds, 1 TD), Dre’ Sanders (10-156, 1) and T.K. White (8-133, 2). Others with more than a handful of catches are Tyler Johnigan (7), Rayshaun Williams (7) and Sheffield (6). Brooks has thrown to 11 different receivers.
Williams, a junior, with four touchdowns and 494 rushing yards has been the leading ballcarrier for Kilgore thus far this season. Against the Hawks last week, he rushed for 111 yards on 26 carries.
