Leps Make Halloween Night Scary for Giddings, Win 66-42

The La Grange and Giddings football teams have been playing each other for over a century, but these historic rivals have never lit the scoreboard up like this before.

In a Halloween night slugfest, the Leps beat the Buffaloes 66-42 to officially clinch a playoff berth in what was their home finale.

“It’s awesome. It’s everything,” said junior offensive lineman Sterling Walla, of making the playoffs.

“It’s what you play the game for,” said La Grange head coach Kyle Cooper, of that postseason berth.

La Grange amassed 533 total yards and never punted Friday.

Junior running back Dillan Johnson had a big night for the Leps, rushing for a career high five touchdowns and a teamhigh 117 yards Friday.

'Feels good. All the hard work we’ve been putting in is paying off,” said Johnson, who also plays defense and special teams for the Leps. “We’re a dedicated team, we’re grinding. We know how much this rivalry meant.”

Friday’s victory improves La Grange’s overall record in this rivalry against Giddings to 52-49-2 (meaning this was actually the 103rd overall meeting between these two schools).

“You always want to win those rivalry games, that’s what Texas high school football is all about,” said Cooper. “This is such a historic one, a fun one to win.”

For the second consecutive week, the Leps used a big second quarter to break the game open.

La Grange outscored Giddings 28-0 in that second quarter to take a 42-14 lead into halftime.

Giddings tried to fight back in the second half but it was too little too late.

La Grange’s Dwodney Thompson caught a pair of long touchdowns from Eli Gillum in that second quarter, and ended the night with four catches for 147 yards.

Koen Zbranek caught his first-ever varsity touchdown, a 11-yard touchdown pass from Gillum, that started the scoring for the Leps Friday. “It was legendary,” Zbranek said of his first varsity touchdown. “We’ve been working it all week.”

Gillum ended the night passing for 276 yards and three touchdowns. He also ran for 57 yards and a score.

The Leps forced four turnovers.

Trey Broussard snagged a pair of interceptions, and had another negated because of a teammate’s penalty. Broussard also returned one of those interceptions for a touchdown but had that called back because of an illegal block on the return.

“Trey is starting to figure it out, and he’s just a sophomore,” Cooper said.

Penalties, like the ones that negated those two big plays by Broussard, were an issue all night for the Leps Friday as they were flagged 12 times for 115 yards.

Thompson also snagged an interception for the Leps and Darius Johnson recovered a fumble. But there was a lot defensively to clean up for the Leps, who were not happy about giving up 42 points to the Buffaloes.

“Defensively, we’ve got to get better,” Cooper said. “That’s something we’ve got to look at.”

Special teams shined for the Leps.

Graham Youens recovered a La Grange kick-off that Giddings misplayed. Aaron Torres was perfect on extra points and booted a 28-yard field goal. Caleb Norwood recovered a pair of Giddings onside kick tries as the Buffaloes tried to engineer a second half comeback.

Now the Leps turn their attention to the regular season finale at Sealy (which is 8-1 overall and 3-2 in district). The Tigers are coming off a 72-12 win over Caldwell last week.

But no matter what happens this Friday in Sealy, the Leps know their season will continue into the playoffs.

District 11-4A Football Standings

District Overall

Bellville 4-0 7-2 Sealy 3-1 8-1 Madisonville 2-2 5-4 La Grange 2-2 5-4 Caldwell 1-3 3-5 Giddings 0-4 2-7

Friday’s scores:

La Grange 66, Giddings 42 Sealy 72, Caldwell 12 Bellville 48, Madisonville 45

This week’s games: La Grange at Sealy Caldwell at Bellville Madisonville at Giddings