The Llano Yellow Jackets spent last Friday night taking down a good Orange Grove team 34-6 in Area play. Llano has now won 10 games in a row. They have now beaten five teams in a row that had made the state play offs. They have won by over 22 points per game over the five game streak. The Jacket defense has allowed 14 points or less in 9 of their 12 games. The 11-1 Jackets are tied with the third most wins in a season in the history of LHS. Only the 2020, and the 2022 teams with 13 wins each have more.

I could say the Jacket defense started slow against Orange Grove. The Bulldogs took the opening kick off and drove a whopping 14 plays down to the Jackets 20 yard line. 4 completions for 34 yards. 10 running plays…but for only 21 yards net. Llano’s defense lead by Tate Morgan, Carter Bickett, Carsten Hays, Michael Logan, Austin Humphries, and Logan Van Pelt dropped the Bulldogs on five plays for zero or loss yards. The Bulldogs went for a fourth down on 4th and 3 yards to go. Senior Colton Bailey, junior Gavin Hays and sophomore Cole Kennedy stopped the run. Llano took over.

Here comes the Yellow Jackets. Sophomore quarterback Luke Davis runs for 11. Senior Trey Mote has a catch. Junior Graham Prokop has two catches for 14 yards. Mote for 10 more. Luke runs for 9. On the 33 yard line of the Bulldogs and on fourth down and 9 yards to go, Luke hits Graham again for a 23 yard gain and a first down. Two plays later Trey scores from four yards out. Llano never looks back

After an exchange of punts, Llano takes the ball on the 34 yard line. Luke throws to Trey for 14 yards. Then Trey does his thing…running behind senior center Will Landers, juniors Zach Driskel and Cason Stephenson…a 40 yard burst down to the 8 yard line. Luke picks up 3 and then Trey takes it in for a 13-0 Llano lead The first quarter totals has Llano at 116 yards of offense, while Orange Grove has 55.

Another exchange of punts. Junior Jose Sillas punts for 47 yards with no return.. Austin Humphries, Carsten and junior Niko Arms prevent any run backs with their hustle down field. Jose only punted twice in the game, both punts for 47 yards. On the second of his punts in the third quarter….senior Heith Rhea covered well. Jose has no hang time on his punts. But for some reason unknown to me, they are barley over the heads of the linemen, and the punts bound down the field slow enough for Jackets coverage teams to get down fast and prevent run backs. It works.

The Jackets took the opening kick off by senior RJ Coplin 15 yards to the 31 yard line. Trey had a 10 yard run over sophomore Mario Hernandez. Luke completed two more passes to Graham for 18 yards, and Trey had a catch for 11 more, and on second down from the Bulldog 24 yard line, Trey scores again. Fransico Caravan kicked good and the Jackets were up 20-0.

The third quarter was not kind to the Bulldogs. On their first possession they ran 7 plays with two first downs. But losses of 12 yards on two plays lead by a sac by Cole forced a punt. Junior RJ Friday had two tackles from his secondary position. Isaiah Aguilar was in on several stops, as was senior Wesley Whitaker…they were not taking their foot off the pedal. As on the next possession of the Bulldogs, junior linebacker Jose Sillas intercepted for the Jackets and set up Llano’s next score.

On the second play from the 22 yard line, Trey scores again. Blocking by senior Rice Thomas, junior Konrad Zwicke, seniors Marshall Henderson and Stephen Barrack make for a fun night for the Jackets running attack. Fransico kicks again and the score is 27-0.

The Jackets try an on side kick. It looked perfect. Bounded perfect….but somehow the Bulldogs recovered, but to no avail. The Jacket defense held again. Colton, Tate and Carter made the stops and another failed fourth down try by the Bulldogs.

Llano scores again. Luke completes passes of 13 yards to RJ, 14 to Heith, 4 to Graham. And then on the Jacket 47 yard line, Luke finds Heith for a 53 yard strike. Score 34-0.

The Bulldogs managed to score with 4:35 left in the game. RJ and Wesley made plays. And Llano finished the game by handing off to junior Cody Greenwood several times. Brady Kelly had a catch from Luke. And Llano was 11-1.

Thanks for the corrections from last week…..Trey’s 99 yard run that broke Lance Dickey’s record of 97 yards was in 2007…not 1997. And…Carsten Hays and Gavin Hays are not brothers! Just sounded good at the time!

Goliad is good. At this level, everyone is good. There are only 16 teams left in the state playing 3AAA, Division 1 football. Goliad has lost only to East Bernard who is ranked in the top ten of Division 11, and Edna, who is ranked # 2 in Harris Ratings. They have averaged 56 points a game over their last 4 games. Goliad was 10-3 last season, and are 10-2 now. Their best player is linebacker Angel Hernandez who is a four year starter.

Llano and Goliad have only played one time before, with Llano winning two years ago in the play offs.

Randolph is playing Edna Friday as we play Goliad. When we win, we will play the winner of that game in the quarterfinals.

I was told that the Jacket’s focus is on Goliad, but goal is to be playing in December. That happens with a win Friday afternoon at Ferris Complex in San Antonio.

Llano 18 Goliad 7