Leopards Pluck the Taylor Ducks 35-7
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La Grange’s Dillan Johnson breaks free for yardage Friday. Photo by Hope Michalke -
La Grange’s Dwodney Thompson dives over the goal line for La Grange’s first touchdown of the game Friday. Photo by Hope Michalke
It’s been five years since the Leps have started a football season this well.
Behind their second stellar defensive performance in as many weeks, and touchdowns from five different players, La Grange beat Taylor 35-7 Friday to improve to 3-1 this season.
That hasn’t happened since their start to the 2019, when they ultimately went 8-4 and advanced to the second round of the playoffs.
“It feels really good. We’re on top of the world,” said La Grange defensive back Cordale Knapik, who snagged two interceptions Friday.
“I’m very proud of our kids,” said La Grange head coach Kyle Cooper. “3-1 is a good start. I think we are getting better ... we’ve got to keep plugging away, find ways to do the little things better and start faster, but they finished strong. Our defense played outstanding. Our O-line got in there and pushed them around.”
Friday the Leps got fastpaced, pin-point accuracy from senior quarterback Clayton Cooper. He began Friday’s game completing 12 of his first 13 passes and ended up throwing for 251 yards on 20 of 27 passing.
That was in sharp contrast to Taylor’s passing attack that saw the Ducks complete just 12 of 36 passes for 160 yards. Two different Taylor quarterbacks were intercepted by La Grange’s Knapik.
“It was magical. You dream about those,” Knapik said of those interceptions.
Max Dixon also recovered a Taylor fumble.
The Ducks fell to 0-4 this season with the loss.
Da’von Giscome again led the Leps rushing attack with 106 yards on 16 carries with a touchdown.
Some of the biggest moments of Friday’s game came from La Grange’s youngest players.
The Leps built their 14-0 halftime thanks to touchdown catches by sophomores Dwodney Thompson and Eli Gillum.
Thompson dove into the endzone for his 14-yard score and Gillum streaked past the Ducks defense for a 74 yard touchdown reception.
“They are an extremely talented group and so smart,” Coach Cooper said of the six sophomores seeing a lot of playing time on varsity. “I love coaching smart guys. It’s so fun, their confidence is growing and they are getting better and better.”
Sophomore Dillan Johnson has also been a big part of the Leps’ offensive attack. Sophomores Luke Anderson, Christian Biles and Chris Supak are also contributing big things on the Leps defense.
“Practice has been hard, I’ve been beat up quite a bit, but I love varsity football games – Friday Night Lights – it’s a lot of fun,” said Anderson who has earned a starting spot on the defensive front.
La Grange actually could have led by a lot more at halftime, but they had three first half possessions inside the Taylor 20-yard line where they came away with no points.
But the Leps got those points back in the second half scoring on a Cooper 13-yard run, a 68-yard run by Giscome and a four-yard run by Le’Kayvion Broussard.
The La Grange offensive line was really dominating “We mesh well,” said Elmer Saldierna of the entire offensive line. “We want to run it down team’s throats.”
It appeared that the Leps were headed toward their first shutout of the season, but Taylor finally found the endzone with just 12 seconds left in the game on a 33-yard pass from Eli Laurence to JeMarcus Seawood.
“We wanted the goose egg today. We will get it eventually,” Knapik said.
After three consecutive road games the Leps finally return home this Friday as they host the Navasota Rattlers.
Navasota is 2-2 and is on a two-game win-streak after they started the season with losses to Sealy and Madisonville. They blew out Royal 49-8 two weeks ago and beat 5A Waco High 34-12 last week.
“It was a good night for the Leps. Now we’re excited about Navasota coming to town,” Coach Cooper said. “It’s a pretty tough run we’re fixing to make.”
After Navasota, the Leps start district play against the two favorites in 11-4A, Madisonville and Bellville.
La Grange 35 Taylor 7
Score by quarters
La Grange 7 7 7 14 – 35 Taylor 0 0 0 7–7
LG Tay.
Rushes-yds 48-168 31-183 Passing yards 251 160 Total yards 419 343 Comp-Att-Int 20-27-0 12-36-2 Fumbles-lost 4-3 3-1 Penalties-Yds 4-26 11-92
Scoring summary FIRST QUARTER
LA GRANGE – 4:28, Dwodney Thompson 14 pass from Clayton Cooper (Taylor Cook kick) SECOND QUARTER
LA GRANGE – :20, Eli Gillum 74 pass from Cooper (Cook kick) THIRD QUARTER
LA GRANGE – 7:08, Cooper 13 run (Cook kick) FOURTH QUARTER
LA GRANGE – 11:31, Da’von Giscome 68 run (Cook kick) LA GRANGE – 9:09, Le’Kevion Broussard 4 run (Cook kick) TAYLOR – :12, Jemarcus Seawood 33 pass from Eli Laurence Miguel Morales kick)
INDIVIDUAL STATS Rushing: La Grange: Da’von Giscome 16-106, Clayton Cooper 23-66, Le’Kayvion Broussard 5-10, Eli Gillum 2-3, Team 2-(-17); Taylor: Andrias Fisher 11-85, Johnny Guzman 10-81, Walter Calvac 5-26.
Passing: La Grange – Cooper 20 of 27 for 251 yards with 2 TDs and 0 INTs; Taylor: Laurence 9 of 29 for 135 yards with 1 TD and 1 INT, Guzman 3 of 7 for 25 yards with 1 INT.
Receiving: La Grange – Eli Gillum 4-104, Dwodney Thompson 8-78, Giscome 4-26, Mason Kleiber 3-24, Dillan Johnson 1-19.
District 11-4A
La Grange 3-1 Sealy 3-1 Bellville 2-2 Caldwell 2-2 Madisonville 2-2 Giddings 1-3
Friday results:
Hitchcock 21, Bellville 14 Bay City 35, Sealy 34 Caldwell 49, Smithville 24 Rockdale 26, Giddings 21 Columbus 62, Madisonville 35 La Grange 35, Taylor 7
This week’s games: Navasota at La Grange Bellville at Columbus Needville at Sealy El Campo at Giddings Madisonville at Center Caldwell is off