By Kyle Roberts
ALVARADO, Texas – It wasn’t pretty, but it sill was a 49-21 win.
After amassing a huge first half lead, Ruston High (4-0) had some uncharacteristic struggles in the second half on defense and special teams, allowing Midland Legacy (1-4) to creep back and stay somewhat competitive for the final two quarters of the night before the final horn sounded.
“I’m pretty disappointed with our play and execution in a lot of different areas,” Ruston High Head Coach Jerrod Baugh said. “We’ve got a lot of things to clean up, and we need to get those things straight. I know it’s a long trip, but we should be used to that stuff by now. I did sense a lack of focus when we got here. We’ll get a chance to look at things tomorrow and talk to the team and hopefully regroup.”
Ruston looked to be in total control of the game early after junior Jayden Anding picked junior quarterback J.P. Reyes off and returned it into the end zone for a 17-yard touchdown with 11:53 to go in the first quarter of play for a 7-0 lead.
On Midland’s ensuing drive, the Bearcat defense was suffocating and forced a three-and-out, which led to a negative 5-yard punt by the Rebels to set Ruston’s offense up for its first drive of the night at the Midland 13-yard line. Four plays later, senior fullback Lander Smith took a dive play up the middle for a two-yard touchdown run with 8:32 to go in the first quarter for a 14-0 score.
Sophomore Dalen Powell scored a few minutes later for Ruston from seven yards away at the 6:01 mark of the first for a 21-0 lead, and junior Sam Hartwell got his first touchdown of the night on the ground from seven yards away, as well, nearly four minutes later for a 28-0 lead.
The ‘Cats got their five-score lead 35-0 after senior Jeremiah Freeman got his first touchdown of the season from 30-yards away with 9:44 to go in the first half.
The Rebels finally got on the scoreboard on their ensuing drive after H-back Humberto Hernandez hauled in a 10-yard reception to cut Ruston’s lead to 35-7. The Bearcats had another chance late in the first half to add points to the board, but a turnover on downs ended the drive and Ruston took the 28-point lead into the halftime locker room.
“We jumped on them early, and it’s eerily similar to the ball game last year — we intercepted a pass and ran it in,” Baugh said. “But they recovered and played better as the ball game went on and it went the other way for us. We took advantage of some miscues on their part early, and then it’s like we wanted to coach from there. I thought their kids continued to play hard throughout the ball game, and we’ve got to do a better job of staying focused on what we need to take care of, regardless of how good or bad the other team is.””
Midland Legacy came out to start the second half with an onside kick and recovered. Reyes would complete a long pass to sophomore Ja’Braylen Anders for 47 yards on third down to set up a first-and-goal from the three. Two plays later, junior running back Hayes Hamm scored from two yards away to cut Ruston’s lead to 35-14 with 11:33 to go in the third.
The Bearcats answered on the ensuing drive after Powell scored his second touchdown of the night at the 10:21 mark of the third — this time from 34 yards away to give Ruston a 42-14 lead. Hartwell added another touchdown a few minutes later with a 13-yard touchdown to go up 49-14 with 3:38 to go in the third.
Midland would score its final touchdown of the night late in the third when senior wide receiver scored on third down to cut the Bearcat lead to 49-21.
The night saw multiple penalties for both teams and punting miscues, including a negative yardage punt for the Rebels and an errant snap before the punter took the field for the Bearcats.
“I’ve been coaching a long time and I don’t know that I’ve ever seen that,” Baugh said. “It was too late by the time I noticed to call a timeout. It’s really uncharacteristic of what it is that we do, and I’m disappointed in that. We were originally going to try a field goal and missed an opportunity to do that. And then the punt team turns into that. It’s a lack of focus particularly in the second half, and it snowballed on us.”
Unofficially, Powell and Hartwell combined for over three hundred yards rushing and a pair of touchdown apiece. Altogether, Ruston rushed for 409 yards compared to just 50 yards for the Rebels. Midland’s Reyes finished with 217 yards passing and two touchdowns.
The Bearcats will return to action Friday, Oct. 3, at 7 p.m. against Stephenville in the final non-district matchup of the regular season. The game will be held at Longview High School for a neutral site contest.
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