Burnet football to take on Stephenville
CAPTION: The Burnet offensive linemen Shane Ikonen (50), Ellis Starkey, Adam Heffingen and Mason Roberts are preparing to face a stout Stephenville front. Photo by Martelle Ludecke/Luedecke Photography
The Burnet High School football team will travel to face Stephenville at 7:30 p.m. Friday, Nov. 7, at Art Briles Stadium.
The Bulldogs (3-6, 1-2) enjoyed a bye last week, while the Yellowjackets (9-0, 3-0), ranked No. 2 in the latest Class 4A Division I poll, shut out Brownwood 49-0.
Burnet head coach Ben Speer noted film study exposed several traits about the Yellowjackets.
“They don’t have a weakness,” he said. “They’ll mess up a little bit, but there’s not a weak spot that you look in and say, ‘Oh, we can attack there’ or ‘that’s where we need to work at.’ They’re a complete team. They have great depth. You look at who they have and then their backups are also getting good (reps). There’s no real let-up when anybody comes off the field. It’s a big, big task in front of us.’
The Yellowjackets scored twice in the first quarter against Brownwood for a 14-0 half-time lead before scoring 35 in the second half. They limited the Lions to 46 yards of total offense and minus 8 rushing yards on 30 carries.
The Stephenville defense averages 80 tackles, 3.1 sacks and an interception per game. It is led by senior Caleb Taylor, a three-year letterman, who has 83 tackles, two sacks, seven quarterback hurries and three caused fumbles, senior Hudson Butcher, who has 80 tackles, fives sacks, three quarterback hurries, a pass deflection and a fumble recovery, senior Briar Floyd, a three-year letterman, who has 56 tackles, two sacks, three interceptions and three pass deflections, senior C.J. Spellmeier, a three-year letterman, who has 52 tackles, seven sacks, 12 quarterback hurries and a pass deflection.
“They can pressure with their front four, they don’t have to send backers,” Speer said. “They’ll play some twist games and add some guys, so that’s something else we had to work on. I think they’re better than they were last year. I know they are on defense since they returned a lot.”
The Bulldogs will rely on their ground game, which averages 5.5 yards per carry and 195 yards per game to jumpstart the offense. Senior running back Josiah Coronado has 116 rushes for 711 yards and five touchdowns and junior quarterback Bryan Johnson has 88 carries for 604 yards and 14 touchdowns.
Offensively, the Yellowjackets average 16.3 yards per completion and 236 yards per game from their passing game and 7.7 yards per carry and 203 rushing yards per contest.
Junior quarterback Trot Jordan has completed 111 of 165 passes for 1,888 yards, 27 touchdowns and one interception and has 19 carries for 138 yards and a score. Senior receiver Brighton DeVivo has 33 catches for 708 yards and 10 scores and junior Adan Jergins has 30 receptions for 512 yards and four scores.
Junior running back Tyler McClendon has 119 carries for 1,060 yards and 17 touchdowns.
Speer credited this Stephenville unit’s success to the offensive line “that’s very, very good.”
“They’re massive,” he said. “They’re led by (junior center Cooper Doty), the (head coach Sterling Doty’s) son. They’re real proud of those guys and the backs, and they have some young kids behind them that you’re just like ‘wow, they can play, too.’ It’s a challenge before us and we’re going to go out and do our best.”
Burnet will rely on senior linebacker Adler Goehring, who has 92 tackles and two quarterback hurries, senior defensive back Trevin Park, who has 70 tackles, a sack and a fumble recovery, and senior defensive back Cason O’Hair, who has 68 tackles, a quarterback hurry, an interception and caused a fumble.
“In your career you get chances to go against teams that are good, that are great,” the coach said. “You get to really size yourself up or see what that looks like, and this is one of those opportunities. You get to go play in a $40 million stadium, so that’ll be a neat experience for the kids and cool for us as well. There’s not many high school stadiums like it. It’s almost like a small college.”
Speer said the Bulldogs want to lessen penalties, especially pre-snap penalties, and other objectives that football teams that want to extend their seasons into the playoffs need to do.
“You can’t give them anything cheap,” he said. “We have to get them on the ground, not get beat deep, force them to drive, to earn it. We had a good week. We’ve had a good week of practice, and there’s a lot of things we still got to work on and need to get right. It’s more about us than them and you say that all the time, but this is kind of what it comes down to and getting in November and playing football and all those things. It’s fun, it’s exciting and those things don’t change. There’s stuff we have to clean up and we have to work on. We want to make sure we’re healthy next week or it won’t matter. So we have to be smart with that.”
