By Todd Jorgenson
Considering the degree of difficulty in its non-district schedule, Jesuit Dallas is nowhere near ready to hit the panic button.
The Rangers weren’t looking for moral victories following a 51-28 loss to Rockwall in their home-opener on Friday, although they showed enough signs of progress to be encouraged.
After all, wins would be nice to have now, but they’ll be more vital later this season. And perhaps these challenges and lessons will pay dividends down the road. At least that’s the idea.
“We’ve got to play teams that are tests for us, we try to schedule big,” said Jesuit head coach Brandon Hickman. “We’re looking to jell at the right time. I feel good about where we’re at.”
The Rangers were forced to play from behind all night following an impressive opening drive by the up-tempo Rockwall attack that culminated with a 14-yard touchdown strike from Collins Jones to Brayden Puffer.
It was the first of five scoring passes for Jones, who also ran for a pair of touchdowns. Ryan Wiley was the top receiving target with seven catches for 109 yards and two scores.
Jesuit remained within striking distance, answering the early tally with a 10-yard touchdown connection between J.P. Livingstone and Joseph Konings. Early in the second quarter, the Rangers trimmed the deficit to 17-14 on a 7-yard Ty Daboub scamper.
Daboub paced Jesuit with 136 rushing yards and three touchdowns, including an 11-yarder just before halftime to cut the Rockwall advantage to 24-21. That followed a fumble recovery by Alex Barrenechea near midfield a few plays earlier.
“We ran the ball well and made some nice throws early in the game.” Hickman said. “Defensively, they had a lot of size and skill, but we moved the ball well and scored some points on them. We converted some things and made some 1-on-1 plays when we needed to.”
However, Rockwall regained momentum early in the third quarter when a blocked punt by Bruin Shawver deep in Jesuit territory set up a short scoring toss from Jones to Wiley.
The Rangers responded again less than a minute later, after Livingstone found Konings on a clutch fourth-down play in Rockwall territory. On the ensuing snap, Daboub reached the end zone from 18 yards out to make the score 30-28.
But the Jackets subsequently put the game away with three touchdowns in a six-minute span, including a second hookup between Jones and Puffer.
Jones finished 17-of-25 passing for 210 yards. Kaydon Castro ran for 168 of Rockwall’s 369 yards on the ground, which helped to negate 115 penalty yards for the Jackets.
Meanwhile, the Rangers will seek their first win of the season next week against Forney in a final test prior to the District 6-6A opener Sept. 18 at Princeton.
“Our kids played extremely hard,” Hickman said. “We kind of let it slip from us, but we improved a ton from Week 1, and that was our goal.”
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