ANOTHER ONE BITES THE DUST | Kilgore slams Palestine, 55-3

KILGORE – Turns out Kilgore is just as good on Thursday nights as they are on Fridays, by the way.

And Palestine found that out the hard way.

Kayson Brooks enjoyed a Kayson Brooks kind-of-night, passing for three touchdowns and running for two others as Kilgore scored 55 unanswered points to rout Palestine, 55-3, Thursday night at R.E. St. John Memorial Stadium.

The game was moved back a day due to forecasted thunderstorms, to avoid a potential mess on Friday night. Other games were, as well, including Pleasant Grove at Gilmer, Chapel Hill at Pine Tree, and Carthage at Bullard. See results from all of those games and more, including Beckville at Hawkins, here on ETBlitz.com, and we’ll be back tonight with coverage of games like West Rusk at Troup and Atlanta at Tatum.

Yes, Thursday night lights were big and bright for the third-ranked Bulldogs, as they won for the eighth consecutive week (8-1 overall) and they’re now 5-0 in District 9-4A, Division I action, sitting comfortably atop the district standings.

Oh yeah, coach Clint Fuller’s Bulldogs also moved a step closer to their third consecutive outright district championship, and fourth in the last five years.

With a game remaining on the regular-season schedule, following next week’s open date. That will be against Mabank in Mabank for the Bulldogs on another Thursday, Nov. 6.

In other district action, also a night early, Lindale beat Mabank 49-0 and Pine Tree defeated Chapel Hill 35-28. Henderson had the open date.

“I’m really proud of our kids,” Fuller said. “We were on a short week after a tough game (Lindale) last week. Our kids’ toughness and resiliency really shined through, though.

“We started slow on both sides of the football, but were able to refocus, reset and play well in the second half.”

Brooks, a senior, was 12-of-18 passing for 211 yards with scoring strikes of 51-yards to T.K. White, and 31- and 51-yards to Isaiah Watters. Relatively short passes that the receivers turned into big yardage for points. The Bulldogs’ QB1 also ran for 8- and 18-yard scores.

Kilgore’s Tyler Johnigan, La’keyleon Graves, Isaiah Watters, Dre’ Sanders and Brayden Williams each had two receptions. Johnigan (2-19), Graves (2-5), Watters (2-82, 2 TDs), Sanders (2-27), Williams (2-25), while T.K. White (1-51, 1) and Rayshaun Williams (1-2).

Rayshaun Williams, like Brooks, had two scoring runs of 28- and 60-yards. He led the Bulldogs’ rushing attack with 179 yards on 15 carries. Maddox Wright came on late and added 73 yards on six carries and a touchdown run of 51 yards to wrap things up with just 33.6 seconds left to play.  

The Ragin’ Red rolled up 309 yards rushing on 35 carries. The Kilgore defense limited Palestine to 63 yards rushing on 23 carries and 74 yards passing on a 13-of-22 performance by quarterback London Brown (12-of-19, 69 yards) and his backup Noah Hutchinson (1-of-3, 5).

S’Vioarean Martin, a Texas Tech verbal commit, led the Wildcats receiving corps with three catches for 16 yards. De’undre Turner (2-37), Jayden Oliver (1-2), C.J. Jones (1-0), Don Brooks (2-12), Ashton Cook (1-minus 3), Braylon Beckworth (1-minus 1) and Colt Medders (2-11) also had catches.

Beckworth, who came into the contest as the Wildcats’ leading rusher with 376 yards, led Palestine with 43 yards rushing on 13 carries.

Kilgore took the opening kickoff, but a turnover, a Cook interception of Brooks at the Palestine 15-yard line and subsequent 35-yard return to the 50 gave the Wildcats excellent field position. A 25-yard Brown completion to Turner moved the visitors to the Kilgore 25-yard line.

The Ragin’ Red defense stiffened, though, and Palestine settled for a 32-yard Colt James field goal to take a 3-0 lead with 3:37 remaining in the first quarter.

Just a minute later, Brooks answered, going to White on a screen pass, giving Kilgore a 7-3 lead, after Eddie Jimenez converted his first of seven extra points.

Brown, a left-hander, was 12-of-19 passing for 69 yards. He suffered two interceptions. The first of those came on Palestine’s second possession of the contest as Ja’Kalyn Sheffield collected his second pick of the season at the Kilgore 40.

Brooks would finished the 60-yard march with an eight-yard run with 10:26 remaining in the second quarter to give the Bulldogs a 14-3 lead.

Kilgore’s fifth possession of the contest was set up by La’keyleon Graves’ fourth interception of the season, this one at the 50- yard line. On the fifth play of the sequence, a 31-yard Brooks-to-Watters completion extended the Bulldogs lead to 21-3 with just 2:30 remaining in the first half.

The Bulldogs would score twice in the third quarter, extending their lead to 35-3 on runs of 28-yards by Rayshaun Williams and 18-yards by Brooks. The scoring drives covered 59-yards in five plays and 60-yards, also in five plays.

The Ragin’ Red would add three touchdowns in the fourth period to wrap up the scoring. The first of those came on the first play of the quarter, a 51-yard Brooks-to-Watters completion and run to complete another scoring march of 59 yards, this one in just three plays.

Rayshaun Williams authored his second scoring run of the evening, a 60-yarder, to cap a two-play, 62-yard drive with 5:52 left to play in the ballgame.

Kilgore’s final touchdown came on a six-play, 73-yard march with backup quarterback Shaun Moyers in the contest, and Wright doing the heavy-lifting, six carries for 73 yards, the last one covering 51 for the touchdown.

The Bulldogs have the bye next week. In other games on Halloween night, Pine Tree (3-1) visits Lindale (3-1), Chapel Hill (2-3) hosts Henderson (2-2), and Mabank (0-4) travels to Palestine (0-4).