Sep. 9—The all-time series between the Palestine Wildcats and the Jasper Bulldogs heading into Friday night’s contest favored Jasper, 5-0.
After Week 2 of the High School football season, that went to 6-0 as the Bulldogs defeated Palestine, 35-21 in the home opener at Wildcat Stadium.
When it came to defensive standouts, senior lineman Garrett Steadman was flying around to the football early with a fumble recovery on the Jasper 21 to give the Wildcats the early momentum.
Palestine Athletic Director and Head Football Coach James Reyes said the momentum was good early on in the contest.
“We have to keep it there,” Reyes said. “We have to put the pedal to the metal and it is all gas, no brakes. It is a full throttle model that we have. We have to do things that we are coached to do. We did some things on the offensive line that we didn’t coach them to do this week. Once we figured out, ‘hey this is what we are coached to do,’ we moved the ball up and down the field in the second half.”
Following the touchdown from senior Dreylon Spurlock, Jasper scored 28 unanswered points to quiet the Wildcats crowd until late in the fourth quarter. Spurlock led the way with 13 carries for 76 yards and three touchdowns rushing.
“We can’t turn the ball over. We had two turnovers early and we can’t do those things,” Reyes said. “That is a top 10 football team in the state in Class 4A, Division II. Jasper is always traditionally good and we knew it was going to be a dogfight.”
The Wildcats made changes on the offensive line following last week’s 34-17 loss to Nacogdoches. Reyes knew they needed to change things up to get junior quarterback Rohyn Price in a rhythm against Jasper. Price finished 14-of-26 passing for 206 yards and had 11 carries for 22 yards.
A big key this week as the Wildcats head to Athens at 7:30 p.m., Friday, Sept. 13 is making sure Price is ready to handle a tough Hornets defense in game three of the season.
Reyes knows on the offensive side of the ball, they have some areas they want to address this week.
“We have to stop the pre-snap penalties offensively and we have five turnovers in two games,” Reyes said. “That is unacceptable and we have to know what we are doing up front on the offense line. We have to not bust routes and we have to make plays and make tackles defensively. We did a good job in the secondary and we got to get the quarterback down.”
Against Jasper, the Wildcats defensively handled top 5 tight end Kiotti Armstrong well during the game as he never got into the end zone. The Bulldogs mainly used him in third and short situations at the quarterback position.
Reyes said when it came to Colt James and the punting duties, he was pleased to have just seen him three times against Jasper.
He said the communication with the special teams unit is something to work on in week three.
“We have to get better on special teams,” Reyes said. “We have a bunch of guys running on and off the field. We have to get better and that is what we are going to do this week.”
As the Wildcats prepare for the final two weeks of non-district play, the coaching staff will play a key role in making sure they get better in the next two weeks to try and get to 2-2 when the district season comes to a close.
“We are young and we have a lot of guys who haven’t played varsity football,” Reyes said. “We have to keep getting better as a staff and as a group. We have to learn the game of football and overall I am pleased with the way the guys are playing. We played a good football 5A opponent last week and a good 4A opponent this week. We have another good one coming up and then Marshall the following week. This has to prepare us for our really good district.”
