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Mess with the bull: Horn hands McKinney Boyd season-opening loss
By ANDREW SNYDER, asnyder@starlocalnews.com
MCKINNEY-Mesquite Horn used its powerful ground game Friday to pound out a 38-20 season-opening win against McKinney Boyd at Ron Poe Stadium.
The Jaguars rushed for 275 yards to dictate the pace of play and hand the Broncos their first opening loss in five years.
"I think they probably grew up a little tonight," said Don Drake, Boyd head coach, about the young defensive line after the loss. "That's why we're playing these games. Obviously we want to win, but ultimately we want to improve as a football team and find out some things about ourselves early so we can get those things fixed and we can improve and prepare ourselves for later games."
The one-two punch of speedy running back Treyvon Marsh and bruiser Jay'lyn Lynch helped keep the Broncos off balance. Marsh rushed for 131 yards and one touchdown on 28 carries, while Lynch and wide receiver Jarrison Stewart each added an additional rushing touchdown.
"They were big up front," Drake said. "They did a good job up front in their offensive line. They had a great quick back and then they had a big back that we saw. They were doing a good job up front. I thought our kids kept battling and putting them in short-yardage situations, fourth-and-short and those kind of things, but we've just got to get them off the field. We learned a lot about ourselves tonight."
Horn quarterback Destri White brought additional options to the Jaguars' offense. He threw for 147 yards and two touchdowns on 17-of-26 (65 percent) passing and rushed for 60 yards on 11 carries. His scoring connections went to wide receivers Brian O'Bannon and Derell Bullocks.
Boyd struggled to find consistency on offense, instead relying on a few big plays to pace its production. Senior running back Bryan Driskell provided the game's opening score on a 40-yard touchdown run in the first quarter that gave the Broncos an early 7-0 lead, but the Broncos failed to gain anymore traction until the second half. The kind of methodical drives that Horn strung together eluded them, and by the end of the game, the Jaguars had run nearly twice as many plays.
"I thought our kids gave great effort," Drake said. "I don't think it was a deal of lack of effort. I think we've just got to get better on both sides. I thought defensively, we kept battling all night long and put ourselves in position to make some plays right before the half that we didn't. If we've got people there to make those plays, we've got to make them."
Driskell helped the Broncos pull within a touchdown at the start of second half by opening their initial drive with a 56-yard kickoff return and closing it with a 15-yard touchdown rush. Driskell finished with 114 yard and two touchdowns on 19 carries.
Horn answered with a 14-play drive that covered 73 yards and was capped by a 3-yard rush from Marsh. That touchdown pushed their lead back to two touchdowns, 28-14, and they widened the gap further on a 30-yard field goal from Michael Sylvester that opened the fourth quarter.
Boyd junior quarterback Curtis Ladd threw for 86 yards and a touchdown on 10-of-18 passing (55 percent) and rushed for 44 yards on seven carries. He connected with senior wide receiver Kevin McCormick on a 34-yard pass in the fourth quarter for the Broncos' third and final score. That drive capped a promising seven-play drive.
"In the first half, we made some errors that put us in really bad field position and down-and-distance situations," Drake said. "You can't do that against a good football team and expect to move the chains and score points. In the second half, I thought we did some good things offensively and put some points on the board. I was pleased with how our kids battled back and kept fighting and working in the second half."
The Broncos will continue their difficult pre-district slate Friday when they visit Coppell at 7:30 p.m. .
"It doesn't get any easier, but we've talked about that," Drake said. "We talked about the schedule we're playing and it was scheduled that way on purpose. We've got a tough schedule, we know it, but you've got to play tough people if you want your level of performance to improve to the point that we're looking for. We're okay; our kids will bounce back, they're resilient. We'll get ready Monday morning for Coppell and we'll go out and give them a fight next Friday."
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