By Zack Cunningham/sportsreporter@trcle.com
FORT WORTH — The skies above Farrington Field may not have been pouring the type of rain Cleburne saw last week against Granbury, but the Yellow Jackets made sure Fort Worth Western Hills got rained on with an aerial assault that was Cleburne’s best passing display so far this season.
To supplement the barrage, the Yellow Jackets’ running game exploded for four touchdowns and 164 yards en route to a 45-10 win.
Jacket head coach Phil Young said the effort of Taylor Calahan, who went 10-of-13 for 222 yards and tossed a touchdown was his best of the season.
As for the team as a whole?
“I haven’t looked at the film yet,” Young said, smiling. “But we played with a lot of emotion and energy tonight.”
Cleburne took what the Cougar defensive unit gave them, and it was a lot, Young said.
“Our coaches do a great job of recognizing what’s going on,” Young said. “They gave us some stuff in the zones, and we got our guys there, we protected and Taylor delivered the ball.”
Turnovers were a factor in the win as Western Hills coughed up five fumbles and lost four of them.
The Jackets swarmed to the ball throughout the game, Young said.
“They were tackling hard,” Young said. “They were making big hits and the ball was popping out, and we were getting there.”
The scoring started quickly for Cleburne as Calahan capped off the opening march with a 10-yard scoring run to give the Jackets a 7-0 lead.
In the second quarter, a trick play allowed Robert White to throw his only pass of the game for the Jackets.
It was successful.
“We have about three trick plays every week we try and throw in,” Young said. “We try to run a couple every game and we thought the opportunity was there [tonight] because the cornerback was sitting hard when we pitched the ball.
“We pitched it to Robert and let [Brodrick Martin] go deep.”
51 yards later, Martin was standing in the end zone and White had his first touchdown pass of the season, and the Jackets had a 14-0 lead.
L.J. Holmes got in on the action in the second quarter by rushing for two 14-yard scoring scampers to keep Cleburne balanced on the offensive end.
Holmes finished with 81 yards on nine carries, but also caught four passes for 107 yards.
The Jackets led 28-3 at halftime, and Calahan tossed his first touchdown of the game with 9:35 left in the third quarter on a 44-yard strike to tight end, Bubba Oakes, who leapt into the end zone to give Cleburne a 35-3 lead.
With another perfect non district run behind them, Young said his team is already focused on a more important goal.
“We start [district play] next week,” Young said. “The kids are already saying, ‘Forget about this. Let’s get ready for [Waco] Midway.’ So here we go.”
