Llano football beats Poteet for bi-district title

The Llano High School football team was unstoppable in crushing Poteet 49-14 Nov. 13 for a bi-district championship in Kerrville in the first round of the Class 3A Division I playoffs.

The Yellow Jackets (10-1, 5-0 District 13-3A Division I champions) will face London (7-4, 5-2 District 15-3A Division I third place) at 7 p.m. Friday, Nov. 21, at D.W. Rutledge Stadium in Converse.

With this victory, these Jackets etched their names in the 115-year history of the Llano football program when it comes to single season records.

“This team is pretty elite status,” head coach Matt Green said. “They are a 10-win team. They are the sixth team ever in Llano history to win 10-plus games.”

Llano got the offense going in a hurry.

Deciding to receive the opening kickoff, the Jackets marched 67 yards in nine plays thanks to a six-yard rushing touchdown by freshman running back Cole Landers. In the process, Llano overcame two holding penalties with Landers catching a 15-yard pass from senior quarterback Grayson Lilie after one penalty. Then Lilie found senior receiver Austin Humphries on a 31-yard reception on another play to overcome the second penalty. The two-point pass failed, but Llano led 6-0 thanks to a drive that took almost 3 minutes to finish.

After the Jackets forced the Aggies to punt, Lilie and company drove 79 yards in six plays that ended when senior receiver Graham Prokop caught a 46-yard passing touchdown. Senior kicker Francisco Parravano added the extra point for the 13-0 lead with 3:09 remaining in the opening stanza.

Another Poteet punt and another Llano touchdown. This time Lilie found Humphries on a 12-yard pass to complete a six-play, 60-yard drive that took 90 seconds to finish. Senior Brady Kelly caught the two-point pass for the 21-0 advantage with 11:53 left in the half.

Llano’s next touchdown came with just under nine minutes remaining in the second quarter. Landers completed the 14-play, 71-yard drive with a 10-yard run to pay dirt and a a 28-0 lead with 3:27 remaining. The drive took 4:52 to finish.

Llano senior defensive back J.D. Friday had a 40-yard interception he returned to the Aggies’ 39-yard yard line. Landers completed the five-play drive with a three-yard run to the end zone and a 35-0 advantage at the half.

After the Aggies punted on the opening possession of the second half, Llano went 47 yards in four plays that ended when Kelly scored on a one-yard yard for the 42-0 lead with 9:00 left in the third quarter.

Poteet finally got on the scoreboard when the Aggies completed a 26-play, 75-yard drive thanks to a four-yard passing touchdown that cut into the deficit 42-6. It took 13:16 to finish. They were aided by Llano holding and defensive pass penalties on third down and fourth down.

But the Yellow Jackets got the score back on the next offensive drive when Kelly ran to the end zone from a yard out to complete a seven-play, 49-yard drive that took 3:03 to complete for the 49-7 advantage with 4:30 left in the contest.

The Aggies added their final touchdown late. By then, Llano coaches had pulled the starters.

Green said aside from the win, which made him the happiest, he was excited for the reserves who got to experience the thrill of competing in a playoff game.

“What I’m really thrilled about as a coach is that we got to play all of our kids tonight,” he said. “We have kids who work their tails off at scout team and nobody ever sees that. They don’t get playing time in these big games sometimes. They stand there and support their teammates. And they do an unbelievable job. I wish people could really see the job they do and tonight, those kids got to play in a playoff game. They got playing time when it mattered. In the second half, we got to play so many kids. We actually got some junior varsity kids in, and I thought they did great. And I’m just so happy for our (second team varsity members). Again, they don’t get their names called like they should. Nobody knows what they do for this team in practices. But I’m telling you they are as integral as any starter we have on this football team.” 

The Llano defense was so dominant in the first half that it allowed only 3 first downs, one on the opening drive and another two in the final 3:27 of the second quarter. The Aggies had 53 yards of total offense in those two periods, all unofficial.

What is official are the 60 Llano tackles, five sacks and four quarterback hurries led by junior linebacker Evan Gomez’s two quarterback hurries and a sack and junior defensive end Cole Kennedy’s two sacks and a quarterback hurry. Other sacks came from nose guard Mario Hernandez and linebacker Cody Greenwood, who are both juniors. Seniors Niko Arms, a cornerback, and Isaiah Aguilar, linebacker, had seven tackles each, while senior defensive back Gavin Hays recorded six.

“Our defense was so dominating,” Green said. “They smothered Poteet. Poteet didn’t even threaten.”

Meanwhile, Llano had 356 yards of total offense in the first half, which is unofficial.

For the game, the Yellow Jackets racked up 476 yards of total offense with 280 coming from the passing game.

Lilie completed 13 of 15 passes for 200 yards and two touchdowns, while junior quarterback Luke Davis completed 4 of 6 passes for 80 yards. Prokop had five receptions for 89 yards and a score, while junior receiver Cash Lynch caught four passes for 59 yards, Humphries hauled in three passes for 58 yards, and Landers had four catches for 34 yards. Junior Emerson Pool had a 38-yard catch and senior tight end Konrad Zwicke had a two-yard catch.

“I thought Graham played really well tonight. We really wanted to get him involved and let him make some plays,” Green said. “And we have to establish him in the playoffs because he is a weapon. We’re excited to see Grayson play as well as he did — that’s not a shocker — he’s been doing it. I thought Luke was really good. After he played that well, his confidence level went really high. He giggled and goes, ‘Coach, I can’t explain to you how nervous I was when I went in the first half,’ because he hadn’t played in a while. They get used to it when they’re starting every week, but it was just good for him to get back in there and play.” 

Landers had 12 rushes for 72 yards and two touchdowns, senior running back River Thomison had 10 carries for 60 yards, Lilie had five carries for 59 yards, and Kelly finished with three rushes for five yards and two scores.

“It’s always a lot of fun when you have a lot of kids who get to score,” the coach said. “Obviously our running back combinations, predominantly with River and with Landers, they were most spectacular. Your offensive line played like they have been. They opened up holes, and those guys hit those holes and really proud of that. Just a solid performance from the whole offense.”

With the win, Green and his staff secured their 80th Llano victory.

“This staff is unbelievable,” he said. “That just shows up here tonight. We played great on both sides of the ball. Our special teams were solid, and that goes back to having an amazing coaching staff and the kids doing what they’re coached to do. This is a team effort. And I’m so proud of the staff we have.”