Strong second half leads to Llano football’s win against Edna
CAPTION: Llano ISD Superintendent Mac Edwards (center) presents another gold ball trophy to head coach Matt Green (left) and the Yellow Jackets after they defeated Edna 38-35 Dec. 5 in San Antonio. “Just keep winning,” he told his student athletes. Staff photo by Jennifer Fierro
Trailing 28-17 at the half and 35-17 two minutes into the third quarter against Edna may have disheartened some football teams.
But not the Llano Yellow Jackets.
That’s because Llano made the key adjustments Dec. 5 in the second half of the Class 3A Division I state quarterfinals that limited the Cowboys’ three most impactful skill players: senior quarterback Trevor Floyd, senior athlete Keegan Hicks and junior running back Maverick Robertson.
Those adjustments paved the way to a 38-35 victory that sent the Yellow Jackets into the Class 3A Division I state semifinals against Yoakum at 7 p.m. Friday, Dec. 12, at The Pfield in Pflugerville.
When the Cowboys had their biggest lead at 35-17 with 22 minutes left to play in the contest, the three led Edna to around 260 yards of total offense.
But when Edna didn’t score again, the Cowboys had no more than 100 yards of total offense.
“It’s just a testament to the kids,” Llano head coach Matt Green said. “We get to coach the way they respond to their coaching, and they don’t ever give up. We saw that. I just couldn’t be prouder. This team is the second in Llano history to go to the semifinals. We are the first team to ever beat Edna in the playoffs.”
Robertson finished with 19 carries for 142 yards and two touchdowns. He had nine carries for 68 yards and two touchdowns coming during the 18-point lead.
The passing attack also was generating yards with Floyd completing most of his 12 passes during that time. He finished with 12 completions for 227 yards and two touchdowns, while Hicks had eight receptions for 135 yards and two scores.
But as the Yellow Jackets were making their comeback, the Cowboys couldn’t get the explosive touchdown plays that led to the lead: a 62-yard Hicks scamper, 11-yard and 50-yard Robertson runs, and 39-yard and 50-yard touchdown passes to Hicks from Floyd.
Green had nothing but respect for Hicks and Robertson.
“Those two players were very complete, and they definitely presented problems,” he said. “(Robertson) was a very physical runner and fairly elusive. It’s not like he couldn’t make you miss — he certainly made us miss — but he was a very powerful runner. And clearly (Hicks) could do it all. He didn’t need much room at all to get loose. He not only posed problems in the run game but in the passing game. He clearly got open and made some big catches and then scored. When you put those two kids together, they were really, really good and very dynamic. So they just present you with a lot of problems, because if you try to take Hicks out of it, you have to be careful not to get that box too light because they’ll run the ball with Robertson and Floyd. But if you load the box up too heavy to stop Floyd and Robertson, then they’ll throw it to Hicks. So they definitely gave us some real issues.”
But once the Yellow Jacket defense adjusted, the rest of the Cowboys second-half possessions went like this: three punts, a turnover on downs, a missed field goal and an interception. senior Gavin Hays had an interception and a fumble recovery, while junior Evans Gomez and Sillas each recovered fumbles.
“When you get in the playoffs, you’re in round four, you’re going to face a really good team,” Green said. “And they’re going to present those problems, and you make adjustments at halftime based off what you feel like they’re trying to do. I feel like our defensive staff did a tremendous job of adjusting at halftime. They scored on their opening drive, and after that, they never scored again. So very proud of our defensive staff and our defense for making the adjustments and figuring out how to get them stopped.”
The only other opponent that may have had the size the Edna linemen had with the striking skill players was Jarrell, which beat Llano 40-29 Sept. 19.
“Nobody else has come even close to that (Edna) offensive line, not across the board though Goliad last week had a couple of really big athletic linemen who were huge,” Green said. “But they didn’t have five of them. Edna’s offensive line was huge and physical. Their defensive line was really good as well. We knew they were good.”
Meanwhile, Llano scored 15 points in the final 10 minutes of the game, including a two-point conversion where Green went back to his playbook from four years ago.
He called on junior quarterback Luke Davis, a three-year starter who got the job because of his moxie, to deliver a bullet to junior receiver Cash Lynch for the a 28-yard touchdown pass to trim the deficit to 35-30 with 7:45 left in the contest.
It wasn’t the first time the two connected for a touchdown at Dub Farris Athletic Complex. Last year, Davis hit Lynch on a 30-yard touchdown pass and the ensuing two-point conversion for the 30-29 victory against Goliad to send Llano to the Class 3A state quarterfinals where the Jackets lost to Edna 41-14 to end their season.
But when the Cowboys’ 38-yard field goal attempt went wide left Dec. 5, Green and offensive coordinator Ryan Priem had the right play called for senior tight end Konrad Zwicke. He lined up and was by himself when the ball was snapped, an easy read for Davis who delivered the ball on target to the tight end for the 80-yard touchdown toss for the 36-35 advantage.
The Jackets elected to go for two and the offensive staff had the right call again – a toss to senior running back Jose Sillas, who stopped, turned and tossed it behind him to senior tight end Brady Kelly, who threw to Davis in the right side of the end zone for the 38-35 lead with 3:55 remaining in the game.
Llano senior defensive back J.D. Friday caught his sixth interception of the season, 12th of his career, to give the ball back to the Jackets’ offense to run out the clock.
Green said the he told his players at halftime they had played well. But if they wanted to win, they had to be great.
“In those types of games, you have just to keep playing,” he said. “When you get both teams fresh early in the ball game, nobody’s tired yet. You saw us have real problems with that because they were big, talented and weren’t very tired. They pounded on us on both sides and gave us fits. But as that game wore on and as that game got later into the late third and early fourth (quarters), you began to see us start to to take some control. As far as their run game, we were able to finally slow it down. And then on our side of the ball on the offensive side, we were able to run the ball some and we were able to pass protect. They couldn’t get to Luke and we got guys open. That’s why it’s a 48-minute game. And I’m so glad it’s not a 24-minute game, because we probably would have lost a lot of games if that was the case. We finally wore Edna down some and it paid big dividends for us on both sides of the ball in the fourth quarter.”
