It was easy to see early that the Early (TX) Longhorns came to play, as they used a 29 point first quarter to send the Pilot Point Bearcats (TX) home Friday night in the first round of the 3A Texas High School Football playoffs. Early made up for a 14-year playoff win drought by beating Pilot Point 43-21 to move on to the next round.
Early junior Athlete John-Stewart Gordon was a key part of the Longhorns fast start, as he had a interception return for a touchdown, caught a touch pass, and forced a fumble that senior Athlete Tre Beam returned for a touchdown all in the first quarter. Gordon capped off his night with a 5-yard touchdown catch. Gordon was very excited about the victory, 'It was cool to have that start, but it's just not about me it's about the whole team as one. To come together and succeed like that it meant everything to me."
Junior Quarterback Jaxyn Price commanded the Longhorn offense with great efficiency throwing for 118 yard and 3 scores on only 7 completions. Price threw two of his touchdowns to Gordon and one to sophomore Wideout Ki Houston.
The Longhorns relied on the run to control the clock and set up play-action passes. Beam led the Longhorn rushing attack with 214 yards and a touchdown on the ground. Beam, made tough runs late to secure the victory for Early.
Even though Pilot Point got off to a slow start, they fought back to make a game out of it. Junior Quarterback Wyatt Smith threw for 254 yards and 3 touchdowns to lead the Bearcats offense. Senior Wideout Aydon Cox (Week 10 Sleeper Of The Week), was Smith's favorite target hauling in 6 catches for 175 yards and 2 scores. Senior Tight End Cade Carter had 5 catches for 51 yards and a score. Pilot Point Senior Athlete Texas A&M commit Ish Harris got injured early, but fought through the pain to account for 51 total yards and a some big hits on defense. Harris, will enroll at A&M in January.
Early Head Football Coach Daniel Price knew it was important to get off to a fast start if the Longhorns wanted to get passed a very talented Pilot Point team. "We been here last year and this was the goal to get back to the first round and win. We knew we had to start fast against a good Pilot Point team and we were able to do that early. Proud of these boys!"
Early will move on to Shallowater (TX) next Friday.
Photo gallery link: https://www.brandidsports.com/post/photo-gallery-pilot-point-tx-vs-early-tx