Published: September 06, 2008 12:35 pm            

Big plays key Jackets' offense, defense in win

FORT WORTH — The Cleburne Yellow Jackets went into the football season hoping to make big plays on both sides of the ball.

In Thursday’s opener against South Hills, quarterback Ty Taylor threw touchdown passes of 64 yards to Semaj Holderness, 16 yards to Trace Turner and 23 yards to Holderness on the way to completing 11-of-18 passes for 181 yards.

“They’re starting to understand some things,” Cleburne head coach Phil Young said. “We got some matchups that we liked, and our line protected and our backs protected. Our receivers coach, coach [Brent] Burton, does such a great job with our routes. We feel real confident that we can throw deep any time we want to if they give it to us.”

But the Jackets’ offense wasn’t only explosive through the air, as several running backs broke off long runs.

The longest run of the night came in the third quarter when Micah McCoy slashed through the Scorpions’ defense for a 69 yard scoring run, giving Cleburne a 42-7 lead on the way to a 48-7 victory.

The big plays didn’t just come from the offense.

Several Jacket defenders also had solid games on Thursday, as Jose Martinez and Markus Hardemon intercepted passes, with Martinez returning his for a touchdown.

The Jackets held the Scorpions to negative rushing yards with key sacks by Robert White and Justin Gauntt.

Cleburne also forced seven fumbles, recovering three, while the offense only turned the ball over once on the night.

“It was huge, huge, huge,” Young said. “That’s what we’ve been preaching for so long. To kind of see it come to fruition tonight, when you win the turnover battle, is pretty important for us. We want to try to continue that. We want to go block punts and we’re going to try to get takeaways.”

After taking control of the game with a 35-7 lead at the half, Cleburne was able to rotate several players into the game, which Young said allowed the backups an opportunity to play leading up to Friday night’s home opener against Granbury.

“It gives us a chance for a lot of young men to play that have practiced real hard,” Young said. “They got themselves prepared and everybody got to play tonight. That’s the thing that’s fun is when you can see all these young men out there having fun and playing hard. You know you’ve done your job of getting them prepared and they’re enjoying the game. It’s a fun night tonight, but we’ve got to get back to work on Monday.”

Kickoff for Friday’s game is scheduled for 7:30 p.m.

        

• Click to discuss this story with other readers on our forums.