Football: Turner out of sync in opener against Denton, fall 35-6

CARROLLTON - Both R.L. Turner and Denton's football teams showed the rust of playing early non-district games Thursday as the Lions and Broncos battled in a mistake-riddled contest at Standridge Stadium.

Turner was taking the field for its season opener and was debuting its new-look wing-t offense, while Denton was coming off a 30-14 loss last week in its opener against Bishop Lynch.

And while the Lions made improvements and found positives as they prepare for life in Class 5A, Turner didn't have enough to hang with the Broncos, suffering a 35-6 defeat.

"Offensively, we never got started," said Tyrone Larkins, Turner head coach. "We had a lot of missed snaps. When you're a rhythmic offense, you have to keep that rhythm going. And it seemed like whenever we got something going, we would put it on the ground. But that's fixable and it was the first game. We know what we want to do, we just have to do reps and reps and reps on it and we'll fix it."

Denton's offense was powered by quarterback Cy Ward, who completed 15-of-25 passes for 345 yards and two touchdowns. Ke'Von Buris and Deandre Coleman each hauled in a pair of scores and totaled 116 and 76 yards, respectively, while Adarian Harris chipped in a touchdown and 70 receiving yards.

After Turner was forced to punt on its opening possession, the Broncos and Lions each had difficulties on their ensuing drives when fumbles set them back in long distances. It proved to be a sign of things to come as the squads combined for 12 fumbles on the night, including nine from Turner (three lost). Many of Turner's miscues came as a result of poor exchanges between the center and quarterback.

"I think part of the issue with the snap was it being our first game taking snaps after spending the past few years in the shotgun," Larkins said. "It's a skill. A lot of people think it's easy to get that snap but it's a skill and it takes timing. We're going to have to keep working at it."

Each club also threw a pair of interceptions while Denton hampered itself with penalties, totaling 17 for 159 yards on the evening, and had a pair of punts blocked by the Lions.

Turner quarterback Saul Aguirre blocked one of the punts and also had an interception, while Rudy Arita recorded the first block, which was returned 18 yards for a touchdown by Jazhaiel Patterson to get the Lions within eight midway through the second quarter at 14-6.

"Our defense played awesome tonight," Larkins said. "Our offense is designed to keep the opponent off the field and we didn't do that tonight. The defense was out there for a lot of plays and I'm proud of their effort. We know we can play some defense."

Patterson got the job done on the ground for Turner as well, leading the squad with 129 yards on 17 carries to go with nine receiving yards.

"We know we can play some offense, too," Larkins said. "Like I said, it's a new offense and it's going to take time. But Patterson did a good job running the ball and we made some progress."

Denton got on the board on its second drive when Ward found Buris for an 82-yard touchdown pass. Ward also threw touchdown passes of 15 and 34 yards.

Turner continues at 7:30 p.m. Friday at Little Elm.

"We're going to go look at the film and work hard in practice and be ready for Little Elm on Friday," Larkins said.

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