Texas High won their second varsity football game of the season and advanced to 2-0 in non-district play. The Tigers struggled in the first half but exploded in the second half. Scoring 21 unanswered points, Texas walked away with a 34-13 win. 

Both teams started the game with fumbles on each of their first possessions. The Jackrabbits bounced back strong, driving down the field and scoring on a 4 yard touchdown run from senior quarterback Jake White. After a defensive back and forth, the Tigers answered back with a 4 yard touchdown run from senior running back Braylon Stewart. With a missed PAT, Texas ended the quarter down 6-7.

“We had to come out here and execute and we knew that we were behind a little bit, but we knew we just had to go out there and make some plays,” Stewart said.

The Jackrabbits continued to gash the defense with another touchdown rush by running back Jon’Richard Washington to keep Forney atop Texas 13-6. With another defensively dominated stretch of play, the Tigers finally struck back, after a muffed punt, with a 5 yard touchdown reception to senior Derrick Brown, tying the game 13-13 at halftime.

“We had a lot of adversity,” Stewart said.“We had to lock in because we can’t start off late. If we start off late, that’s what’s going to kick us in our butts.”

Texas High seemed to explode right off the bat in the 3rd quarter, scoring efficiently with a pair of touchdown runs by Stewart. The Tiger defense began to step up and really shut down the Forney run game. With the run game being denied play after play, Forney seemed to begin to panic.

“We just settled down and got back into our game plan, and we stuck to our game plan,” head coach Gerry Stanford said.

The Tigers forced an interception to defensive back Tyriq Robinson, his second in two games, with which Stewart capitalized with his 4th touchdown run. With the defense shutting down the second half offense, the Tigers milked the clock which led to a 34-13 win.

“We’ve got to take care of us,” Stanford said. “As long as we focus on us and not the people we’re playing or the extremities of who we’re playing or what our travel is like, we’ll be fine.”

The Tigers will face off next against Mount Pleasant on Sept. 24 for the homecoming game at 7:30 p.m.