When Jason Garrett coached the Dallas Cowboys, a sign on the team meeting room wall said, “The Ball, The Ball, The Ball.”
It served to remind players that turnovers win and lose games.
The St. Mark’s Lions, coached by the former NFL coach’s nephew, Harry Flaherty, demonstrated the impact of the saying Friday night in a 47-7 win over Greenhill. Jax Blalock, Ford Robinson, Tobias Pulido and Tripp Schellkopf had interceptions, and Reid Smith and Omar Jenkins recovered fumbles for a 6-2 edge in turnovers that helped break open the game in the second and third quarters.
“We talk about one of the keys to winning any game is winning the ball,” said Flaherty, in his fifth year at the Dallas school. “It’s really important to focus on it on both sides of the ball, so I thought defensively we did a good job of that. Offensively we’ve got to take care of the ball a little bit better to consistently win the turnover battle.”
Greenhill got its takeaway when Trey Daivs intercepted a first-quarter pass one play after St. Mark’s had intercepted a pass.
It set up a 10-play drive to the game’s first score, Grayson Gordan’s 7-yard touchdown catch and a 7-0 lead. Gordan finished with 12 catches.
Neighborhood Spotlight
Preston Hollow
St. Mark’s matched the TD with an explosive play, David Dickson’s 47-yard catch and run on the first play of the second quarter. A high shotgun snap stopped the next Greenhill possession, and one play later it was 14-7 on Dickson’s 18-yard run.
By halftime, Greenhill had lost the ball twice more and trailed 27-7 to the Lions (2-1), who also got a 40-yard touchdown run by Braden Scott, a 73-yard touchdown catch by Dickson and a 45-yard touchdown catch by Matthew Wier in stretching the lead to 47-7 by the end of the third quarter.
Blaize Schumacher threw for 195 yards and three touchdowns for St. Mark’s, which had a manpower advantage over the Hornets (0-3), who were missing their starting quarterback, starting left tackle and starting right guard.
“We have an extremely young football team,” coach KJ Williams said. “They’re starting to learn, they’re starting to get adapted to certain situations. We’ve just got to do a better job of not getting behind the 8-ball, taking care of the football and sustaining drives.”
The Hornets, like their hosts at Hunt Family Stadium on Friday night and teams all over, are seeking to be better in time for their league schedule.
“The goal is to get a little bit better every single week,” Williams said. “The first week against TCA, we gave up a lot of points. Against Crossing Christian, it was not so many points but a lot of penalties. Tonight, not so many penalties but we’ve got to stop the explosive play.”
