Llano football beats Edna

CAPTION: As Llano football head coach Matt Green congratulates his Yellow Jackets on another impressive playoff win, this time against Edna Dec. 5, seniors Brady Kelly (left) and Hayden Bigger dump icy water down his head and back. Staff photo by Jennifer Fierro

The Llano High School football team defeated Edna 35-31 Dec. 5 to advance to the Class 3A Division I state semifinals.

In winning, these Yellow Jackets (13-1, 5-0 District 13-3A Division I champions) became the second Llano football team ever to advance this far.

And in their return to Dub Farris Athletic Complex — where they completed an improbable comeback to shock Goliad 30-29 a year ago — the Jackets had to erase a 35-17 deficit in the final 22 minutes

A joyful head coach Matt Green, who shivered slightly from the icy water poured on him by seniors Brady Kelly and Hayden Bigger, revealed what he said at the intermission when the Jackets trailed 28-17.

“You’ve played good,” he told the players. “But you’ll have to play great to win.”

That greatness began showing in the final 22 minutes.

After the Cowboys (10-4, 6-1 District 15-3A Division I c-champions) took a 35-17 lead by scoring on their opening drive of the second half, they were flagged for illegal formation. Officials told the crowd they were adding the five-yard penalty to the end of the Llano run.

But Green told the officials Llano wanted Edna to re-kick. Then special teams coordinator Robbie Coplin and Green made a change by inserting senior Graham Prokop.

The Jackets faked the handoff after Prokop caught the ball as he moved from right to left and followed the wall of Llano blockers that led to the end zone right in front of the Llano sideline. Though the two-point pass failed, the Jackets trimmed the deficit to 35-23 with 9:57 remaining in the third stanza.

“We said, “Get to that wall and you’ll score,” and he got to it,” Green said.

Though the Cowboys recovered the onside kick, the Jackets forced a punt. That was the first of seven consecutive possession exchanges until the 10:05 mark of the fourth quarter.

After Llano forced another punt, junior quarterback Luke Davis found Kelly for an 11-yard completion. Then freshman running back Cole Landers ran for two yards. After an incompletion, Davis ran for seven yards and five yards for first and 10 on the Cowboys 28-yard line.

Then Davis found junior receiver Cash Lynch for the touchdown. Senior kicker Francisco Parravano added the point after to trim the deficit to 35-30 with 7:45 remaining in the contest.

“Cash made an unbelievable catch,” Green said. “Luke threw a ball up, we had a good matchup, and Luke threw a really pretty ball and Cash goes up and half-points it. It was absolutely gorgeous.”

Edna handled the next onside kick, taking possession at its 49-yard line.

On third and eight on the Llano 49-yard line, senior quarterback Trevor Floyd found junior Aidan Lugo for his only catch of the night, a 30-yard completion. But the Jackets were up for the task, stopping junior running back Maverick Robertson after a one-yard gain then stopping the next runner at the line of scrimmage. On third and nine, Floyd’s pass to senior athlete Keegan Hicks went for minus 1 yard for fourth and 10.

The Cowboys elected to attempt a 38-yard field goal, but it was wide left.

As the Llano reserves celebrated with the defense and special teams, offensive coordinator Ryan Priem and Green found senior tight end Konrad Zwicke. They made it clear the next play was for him.

With 4:10 left in the contest and Llano on its own 20-yard line, the Jackets lined up in what looked like a one-back formation with Davis. But he motioned and moved the running back elsewhere and left the quarterback by himself.

“We motioned the back out of the backfield to the single receiver, basically getting it empty,” the coach said. “But we knew nobody would account for the tight end, and he released right up the seam.”

Just as Green predicted, Zwicke was all alone in the middle of the field and simply had to catch the pass from Davis and then outsprint the Cowboys for the 79-yard touchdown.

“We had a play that we’ve been holding on to,” Green said. “We ran it against Marion, but it was a different version. In fact Edna ran it on us, and they got a motion penalty and we declined it. We got set up pretty well and hit Konrad on a beautiful pass. He housed it.”

Then they decided to go for two.

When the ball was snapped, Davis pitched it to senior running back Sillas, who was tackled as he turned to pitch it back to Kelly, who was coming left to the right. Kelly caught the ball and found Davis almost by himself in right side of the end zone. He lunged forward to make the catch and made sure to keep both feet in bounds to complete the two-point play and the 38-35 lead with 3:55 remaining in the game.

The last time the Jackets ran that play was in in 2021 when Maddox Green was the quarterback and Jackson Dillard was a receiver.

“I get to talk about my two boys,” the coach said. “We hadn’t run it since then, but it came at the right time. It was pretty.”

After the kickoff, Edna took over at its 35-yard line and suffered a two-yard loss on first down. Then Floyd threw his second interception of the game when senior defensive back J.D. Friday made a leaping grab to give the Jackets a first down on their own 33-yard line with 2:55 left in the contest.

Davis and company trotted back on the field at their own 33-yard line determined to get a first down to run out the clock since the Cowboys were out of timeouts.

The quarterback ran for two yards then seven yards. On third and one from their own 42, Edna was called for an illegal shift. The five-yard penalty gave the Jackets the first down and the Llano faithful rejoiced.

After the two-minute timeout, Davis and the Jackets went back on the field. As he lined up, he checked behind his left shoulder and saw Prokop behind him. Then he gave the count for the snaps and took a knee in victory formation.

While the Yellow Jackets celebrated outscoring the Cowboys 21-7 in the second half, it didn’t start that way.

Llano won the coin toss and elected to receive. They marched 74 yards in eight plays that ended when Parravano connected on a 21-yard field goal for the 3-0 lead with 8:12 remaining in the first quarter.

It took Edna two plays to take the lead. After a two-yard pass, senior athlete Keegan Hicks scampered 62 yards to the end zone for the 7-3 advantage midway through the first period.

Both offenses suffered two turnovers each and Llano punted to end the opening stanza.

Edna needed four plays to complete a 51-yard drive that ended when Robertson ran 11 yards to paydirt and the 14-3 advantage with 11:19 remaining in the half.

Llano responded with a 44-yard touchdown pass to Prokop from Davis to trim the deficit to 14-10 with 9:04 left in the half. The five-play, 73-yard drive took 2:09 to complete.

Just when it looked like the Cowboys were going to add to the lead by reaching the Llano 16-yard line, senior Evan Gomez caught an interception ran it back to the Edna 42-yard line.

But the drive stalled and Llano punted.

The Cowboys didn’t waste their next drive. After gaining a first down and getting to their own 39-yard line, Floyd hit Hicks on a 61-yard touchdown pass and a 21-10 lead with 3:20 remaining in the second period.

But the Jackets responded with a five-play, 70-yard drive that ended when Davis ran 36 yard to the end zone to cut into the deficit 21-17 with 1:40 left in the first half.

Edna answered with another two-play drive that ended when Hicks caught a 50-yard pass from Floyd for the 28-17 advantage with 58 second remaining in the first half.

Llano reached the Edna 17-yard line, but the Cowboys ended the threat with an interception on its one-yard line with 11 seconds left.

But the Jackets stripped the ball carrier and recovered the fumble on the Edna one-yard line with two seconds remaining.

Llano called for a pass where Davis rolled to his right and threw back to his left to Zwicke. But it was too far allowing Edna to lead 28-17 at the intermission.

Edna scored on its opening possession of the second half, covering 55 yards in four plays highlighted by a 50-yard Robertson scamper to the end zone for the 35-17 advantage with 10:18 remaining in the third stanza.

That set up the Llano comeback.

“We scratched, we clawed, we fought,” Green said. “We did everything we had to.”

Llano had 485 yards of total offense with 281 yards coming from its passing attack.

Davis completed 15 of 30 passes for 281 yards, three touchdowns and two interceptions and had 19 rushes for 76 yards and a score. Lynch caught eight passes for 118 yards and a touchdown, while Zwicke had an 80-yard touchdown, Prokop had a 42-yard touchdown, senior receiver Austin Humphries had two receptions for 25 yards, Kelly had a 12-yard catch.

Landers had 11 rushes for 64 yards, senior running back Brayton Shaw had five carries for 58 yards, and Sillas had three carries for six yards.

The Cowboys had 460 yards of total offense with 233 coming from the ground.

Floyd completed 12 of 19 passes for 227 yards, two touchdowns and two interceptions and had four carries for six yards.

Robertson had 19 carries for 142 yards and a score. Hicks had eight receptions for 135 yards and two touchdowns and had eight rushes for 85 yards and a score. Senior Jordan Bryant caught two passes for 34 yards, junior Aidan Lugo had a 30-yard receptions and sophomore Keegan Rodas caught a 28-yard pass.

“They’re winners and their coaches are never going to give up either,” Green said. “We did tell them when we went into halftime that we played good, but we didn’t play great. And if you want to win this game, you’re going to have to play great and play even better. And I’m telling you, it was a real team win.”