Finger Lickin' Good: Colonels deep fried by Wolves, 31-21

The Plano West football team entered its locker room at Clark Stadium Friday night to the echoing tones of "Jump Around" by House of Pain as several players nodded their heads or even jumped in accordance with the song.

The Wolves had reason to be excited.

One week after losing to Lake Highlands, Plano West (2-1) regrouped with a 31-21 victory over South Garland (1-2).

"It was good to bounce back from a loss," said Mike Hughes, West head coach. "We always talk about celebrating a win or being disappointed about a loss for 24 hours and moving on, and the kids showed they were capable of doing that with this performance."

The game was broken open late in the first quarter.

South Garland scored a touchdown on its opening drive to tie the game, 7-7, with 1:42 remaining following a 30-yard touchdown connection from Isaiah Harris to Branden Moore. That was the Colonels most effective tandem on the night with Harris completing 16-of-32 passes for 202 yards while Moore caught nine balls for 129 yards.

That tie lasted for 18 seconds.

On the next play from scrimmage, West junior running back Auston Anderson broke off a 76-yard touchdown run to make it 14-7.

"It was good to see Auston get off quickly with that big run," Hughes said.

Anderson finished the game with 107 yards and two touchdowns on 12 carries.

"Yeah, that run gave me a lot of confidence early," Anderson said. "But it's easy to run through when the offensive line is creating those good holes. Our line did a really good job tonight."

Any attempt for South Garland to respond went nowhere.

In the Colonels' ensuing seven drives, South Garland punted the ball six times and threw an interception.

"We have some young guys out there, but our defense played very well," Hughes said. "If you don't fit in and get gap control, you can get burned for some big plays and we saw a few of those, but we had good pad levels and tackled a lot better than last week, that's for sure."

Of South Garland's next seven drives, five ended on three-and-outs and another was stopped via a pick from West senior Collin Eberle. Mixed in those stops were sacks from seniors Davis Roeschke, Rel Cooper, juniors Parker Dunn and Lance Cottrell as well as a plethora of tackles by senior Jake Wodka.

"Our defense was phenomenal tonight," Anderson said. "The defensive line came to play and the DBs put South Garland in a closet and threw away the key."

During that span, West scored 24 unanswered points.

"When the defense shuts it down like that, you can't help but be incredibly confident when you go back out on offense," said Travis Korry, West senior quarterback.

Anderson's 76-yard score was followed by a 33-yard field goal from Wolves senior Zakk Meyer that made it 17-7 at the half.

Part of West's offensive success was predicated by poor punting from South Garland and good field position. The Colonels had punts of 8, 22 and 16 yards as West started five of its 12 possessions in South Garland territory with another at midfield.

In the third quarter, the Wolves got a 2-yard touchdown from Anderson to make it 23-7 following a blocked extra point and then advanced that advantage with a 33-yard scoring run from sophomore Sotonye Jamabo. So-So, who had 135 yards on 19 carries, ran straight up the middle for the touchdown and junior Will Baldridge caught the 2-point conversion to set the score at 31-7 with 2:08 remaining. That was the only pass completed by West in the second half as the Wolves stuck with the run, which amassed 242 yards.

"The running game is really important to us," Korry said. "It's the foundation to everything we do."

The same could be said about Korry, who completed 5-of-10 passes for 33 yards and ran for a touchdown in his return Friday after missing last week's game due to an ankle sprain.

"The ankle feels good," Korry said, "and I felt like I needed to be out there tonight."

His coach concurred.

"Travis is our leader," Hughes said, "and it's incredibly important to our team to have him out there."

Korry got the game started on the right foot for the Wolves, leading a 13-play, 69-yard scoring drive. Aided by a steady dose of runs from Anderson and Jamabo, Korry finished the drive with a 3-yard touchdown run that made it 7-0 with 6:47 to go in the first frame.

Korry was able to sit with West up, 31-7.

He was, however, called back in after South Garland pulled to within 31-21 with 3:28 remaining in the game.

The Colonels got a 22-yard touchdown connection from Harris to Jerminic Smith, who had four catches for 58 yards, and a 46-yard scoring scuttle from Marquel Mcnac, who ran for 137 yards on 25 carries.

South Garland would get no closer though, dropping a 31-21 decision.

"We've gotta put teams away when we have the opportunity," Hughes said. "But credit to South Garland too because they just kept fighting."

West returns to Clark at 7:30 p.m. Friday against Mesquite.

"Obviously we still have room for improvement," Hughes said. "But this was definitely a step in the right direction."

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