Llano football hits the road to play at Jim Ned
CAPTION: Llano senior quarterback Luke Davis and the Jackets will be taking a long road trip Friday, Sept. 4, when the Yellow Jackets travel to play at Tuscola Jim Ned. Photo by Martelle Luedecke/Luedecke Photography
The Llano High School football team will travel to play at Tuscola Jim Ned Friday, Sept. 4, at 7 p.m. in non-district play.
The Yellow Jackets (1-0) defeated Burnet 38-31 and the Indians (0-1) lost to Greenwood 39-12 both on Aug. 28.
Llano head coach Matt Green and his coaches began studying tape of Jim Ned, a team the Jackets haven’t played since he was hired almost a decade ago.
“the No. 1 thing that stands out to me is that they are really large, they’re big,” he said. “Their kids are very, very big up front on the offensive and defensive lines. Then you look at their skill kids, and they definitely have talent there.”
Junior quarterback Jackson Beard completed 9 of 17 passes for 92 yards with a touchdown and an interception and had eight carries for 19 yards. Sophomore running back Kaileb Garcia had 12 carries for 72 yards and a 29-yard reception and senior Cole Chittum had 14 rushes for 33 yards and a score.
“Their quarterback throws the ball well,” Green said. “They have a couple of receivers who are really outstanding. That’s what jumps off the screen to me is big up front and skilled kids, and that’s what you want. They’re well coached. There is zero doubt that their kids know what they’re doing. They are not hurting for knowledge in their scheme. You can definitely tell that their kids are carrying out the things their coaches are teaching them.”
Llano will counter with linebacker Jason Cherry, who had 10 tackles, defensive back Emerson Pool, who had 10 tackles and an interception, linebacker Evan Gomez, who had a sack, two quarterback hurries and a pass breakup. All three are seniors.
“You just have to get ready for a balanced offense,” Green said. “They throw the ball quite a bit and on top of that they have a hard-nosed run game. They’re going to come down with those big offensive linemen and try to wear on you and then they throw the ball.”
Jim Ned used 17 players on the defense. Senior linebacker Tucker Deal and linebacker Garcia each had eight tackles, while junior linebacker Colson Baird, senior free safety Cason Cumby and senior defensive back Kai McClendon each had six tackles.
“On the flip side, the other thing that stands out is they’re pretty thin,” the coach said. “They don’t have a lot of depth, but I do think the players they have are very high-quality. You see a lot of their kids having to play both ways and right now in the early season, getting kids into shape to do that is difficult.”
Llano will lean on senior quarterback Luke Davis, who completed 9 of 18 passes for 158 yards with a touchdown and an interception and 24 carries for 97 yards and four scores, sophomore running back Cole Landers, who had 23 rushes for 198 yards, and senior receiver Cash Lynch, who had six receptions for 125 yards and a score.
Green said this game will be decided late.
“Nobody’s going to run anybody off the field in the first quarter or the second quarter,” he said. “Number two, you’re going to have to wear them out. That has to be our goal every week. Our goal is to try to wear teams down with our fast-paced offense, and that has to be a goal here. We have to do our best to try to wear them out and wear them down.”
There was a chance in the last several years the two teams would have met – in 2020 at the Class 3A Division I state championship. But Llano lost to Hallettsville 53-28 in the semifinals. Jim Ned beat Hallettsville 29-28 in overtime to win the state title.
The win against Burnet didn’t happen until the last two minutes in a contest the Jackets seemed like they were in control of going into the fourth quarter. The Bulldogs made it interesting by forcing a turnover on downs they turned into a touchdown to trim the deficit to 31-24.
Then Burnet recovered the onside kick and later scored to tie the game at 31-31. Once Llano got the ball back, the Jackets were forced to punt.
“Momentum is like a snow ball at the top of a mountain and the farther it goes down the hill, it gets bigger and it gets going faster,” Green said. “And so I think that’s one of the hardest things in sports to do is to truly stop a heavy momentum run.”
But the Jackets did by giving up only two yards on fourth and 3 and returning the ball back to the Llano offense, which the Jackets turned into the game winning touchdown on a run by Davis from the two-yard line. Senior defensive back Josiah Wood sealed the victory with an interception with two seconds left in the game.
“It’s just a great game,” Green said. “Obviously a good rivalry game and a lot of fun to witness and see it and win. And we’re grateful to be on the winning side.”
