FRISCO — The Cleburne Yellow Jackets may have fallen, 24-10, to Frisco Centennial on Friday night at Pizza Hut Park, but head coach Phil Young said his team improved leaps and bounds following last week’s 62-9 home loss to Dallas Madison, another spread-based team.
Centennial featured quarterback Nick Foster, a player who Young termed “one of the better quarterbacks in the Metroplex” before Friday’s contest. Foster dazzled with a 21-of-27 performance for 280 yards and two touchdowns, but Young said the Jackets adapted to Centennial’s quick offense after some early jitters.
“I think in the first half, we were real big-eyed,” Young said. “We were scared of what they were doing because they were so quick and aggressive. [Foster] is good. He’s very composed in that pocket. We gave them a short field and they scored.”
After Cleburne’s opening drive stalled, the Titans marched down the field and Foster found Zach McCown for a 12-yard scoring strike to give Centennial a quick 7-0 lead.
The Jackets had a chance to respond after Chaston Cuffee bolted 68 yards on Cleburne’s ensuing drive to set up first-and-goal from the 3, but the Jackets lost three yards in the next three downs, and then missed a 23-yard field goal attempt.
The Titans responded with a 16-play, 80-yard drive that was capped off by Foster diving into the end zone from a yard out on fourth-and-goal to make it 14-0.
Cleburne entered the Titans’ red zone once more in the first half, but managed to come away with just three points on Coy Womack’s 32-yard field goal.
Young said his defense solidified after the first quarter.
“We stayed in the game plan,” Young said. “We played a very strong three quarters, but we didn’t tackle well at times. At other times, we tackled real well. They didn’t get many first downs in three quarters.”
Centennial finished with 16 first downs to Cleburne’s 14, and the Jackets held the Titans to negative yardage on the ground while racking up 160 yards on 31 carries.
Cleburne’s defense continued to hold in the third quarter as Centennial managed just three points on a Clay Williaford 44-yard field goal with 2:08 left in the period.
The Jackets had chances to narrow the gap in the fourth quarter, but Foster’s 31-yard touchdown pass to a leaping Mark Stewart with 2:09 left in the game all but did Cleburne in.
Cuffee helped the Jackets respond on the next play from scrimmage by hitting Cooper Walls for a 60-yard scoring strike up the sideline, but it wasn’t enough.
Centennial ran out the clock and claimed the victory.
Even in the defeat, Young said the mistakes that were made on Friday night are fixable, and said that’s something the Jackets will work on in their bye week.
“You have guys with a young team that grow up every game,” Young said. “These guys did that some tonight. We’ve got a lot of things to correct, but the mistakes that we made are correctable on offense.”
Cuffee finished 8-of-17 for 121 yards and a touchdown. L.J. Holmes topped 100 yards rushing for the second straight week with 104 on 20 carries. Cleburne didn’t have a turnover.
The Jackets are off this Friday, but will return to action at 7:30 p.m. Sept. 17 at home against former District 16-4A rival Waco University.
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