Tough Opening Act
Leps Fall to Rockdale 40-14 in Football Season Opener
Both La Grange and Rockdale lost explosive quarterbacks early in the game Friday.
But Rockdale seemed to handle the change of script a lot better.
La Grange star quarterback/ running back/safety Matthew Johnson was sidelined in the first quarter with what was believed to be a concussion and never returned.
The Tigers, meanwhile, were clinging to a six point lead after their college prospect quarterback Jace Robinson suffered a horrific broken leg right before halftime, but the Tigers then rallied for 20 unanswered points after the break to defeat the Leps 40-14 in the season opener for both teams.
“Football’s blocking and tackling and they did that better tonight,” La Grange head coach Matt Kates said. “They are hard to tackle.”
Without Johnson (who carried the ball twice for 13 yards before his injury), La Grange struggled to gain just 202 total yards of offense.
“He’s going to touch the ball more than anybody for us on a game-by-game basis and when he’s running around it frees everybody else up,” La Grange head coach Matt Kates said.
Rockdale, the No. 7-ranked team in the state in 3A, had more than twice La Grange’s total yards (422) as Cam’Ron Valdez (who has college offers from Arkansas Nebraska and several others) led the way with 123 yards and three touchdowns. Rockdale’s Kesean Raven, who is also weighing several D-I college offers, scored a pair of first quarter touchdowns (one receiving and one running).
“They are as good as we’ll see in 3A/4A football. They are for real,” Kates said of Valdez and Raven.
La Grange’s D.J. Taylor was a bright spot, rushing 16 times for 98 yards and scoring a touchdown on the Leps’ opening drive of the game. Ryder Imhoff had all four of La Grange’s catches in the game for 36 total yards, all thrown by Caden Cooper. Imhoff scored the Leps’ only other touchdown on a eight-yard run with 1:45 before halftime, followed by a Cooper conversion run. That cut the Rockdale lead to just 20-12, but La Grange never got closer.
“We just didn’t execute the way we needed to,” Imhoff said.
Four turnovers didn’t help the Leopards’ cause in this one.
A late fumble recovery by La Grange’s Colton Knape was the lone turnover forced by the Leps.
This was a weird night all around.
There was the build up from the pandemic as this being one of the first big public gatherings in months. Facemasks and distancing were required at Leopard Stadium (though masks could be taken on when family groups clustered by themselves in the stands).
Attendance looked about half a normal game.
But the bands from both schools were in attendance (La Grange’s band was spread out beyond their stands with some students on chairs on the track to achieve distance), to give the game a more normal soundtrack.
Mother Nature halted the proceedings with an hour-long lightening delay with 9:03 left in the second quarter. The stadium was cleared and people waited in their cars before play resumed when the storm rolled by (which didn’t cause any rain at Leopard Stadium.)
The Leps trailed just 13-6 and had just forced Rockdale’s first (and only) punt of the night right before the lightning delay, but La Grange never got that momentum back.
Then there was a lengthy delay after Robinson’s injury as an ambulance drove out onto the track to cart the injured Tigers quarterback (who threw for over 2,000 yards a year ago and was getting a lot of college interest himself) away.
“You feel for that quarter-back,” Kates said. “Then the other one becomes a running threat more so than a passing threat and he was pretty good too.”
Backup Rockdale quarterback Kobe Mitchell ran for 67 yards, including a 42-yard touchdown scamper.
La Grange travels to Canyon Lake this Friday for a 7:30 p.m. game. Canyon Lake lost their opener last Friday 24-22 to No. 4 ranked Wimberley.
“It doesn’t get any easier,” Kates said. “It was up in the air two months ago if we were even going to have a game so every one we get we better be grateful for and learn from it and get better.”