High School

A Look Back at the Six-Man TAPPS D1 Championship

by
Adam Ogburn
April 27

Heading into the six-man TAPPS Division I State Title Game, Emery-Weiner’s last nine opponents had all fallen victim to mercy rule defeats.

In their championship showdown against San Marcos Academy, not even a power outage at Waco ISD Stadium could slow down the Jaguars as they scored a dominant 69-24 victory for their third state title.

In a game where the Jaguars racked up 266 of their 291 total yards on the ground, senior running back Leo Gerst led the way with 208 yards and six touchdowns on 24 carries.

“This year we used [Gerst] like a Reggie Bush. Catching the ball a lot, running the ball, and he even threw some,” Emery-Weiner head coach Jason Reimers said. “We felt like we might be able to pound it [against San Marcos Academy] and that’s what we did. He did a great job. The offensive line blocked for him well and our quarterback got out in front on sweeps. If you give him a couple of blocks and he gets one-on-one in the second level, he’s hard to stop.”

First Half

The Jaguars took advantage of San Marcos Academy’s mistakes for their first two scores as they turned a fumble and interception by the Bears into rushing touchdowns of 11 and 12 yards by Gerst.

And although San Marcos Academy soon found the end zone on a 13-yard touchdown catch by Mason Loep, Emery-Weiner answered with yet another Gerst touchdown run.

The Bears kept fighting as Chizi Efobi broke free for a 60-yard touchdown run, but Gerst responded by taking the ensuing kickoff back 75 yards for the score on the final play of the first quarter to give the Jaguars a 32-16 lead.

Gerst kept racking up the scores, slicing through San Marcos Academy defenders for a 13-yard rushing touchdown before Doran Yustein connected with center Ari Strauss for a 7-yard touchdown on the following Jaguar possession.

A few minutes later, Bijan Bobrow extended the Jaguar lead on a short-yardage rushing touchdown. However, Efobi answered for the Bears by taking the following kickoff 80 yards for the score to cut the Jaguars’ halftime lead down to 54-22.

Second Half

But as the authorities worked to get the power back on in Waco, Gerst quickly turned out the lights on the Bears, scoring on rushing touchdowns of six and eleven yards to make the score 68-24 before Vincent Banks scampered around the edge on a pitch from a fake two-point kick for the clinching extra point in the fading sunlight.

Final Thoughts

2021 was truly a season of dominance for the Jaguars as they never trailed in their 12 games.

Before he was promoted to head coach prior to the 2018 season, Reimers worked with his current players while they were in middle school.

And after an unbelievably successful season, he said it was special for this group of “lifetime Jags” to end their high school careers on top of the TAPPS world.

“It’s been pretty exciting to coach them all the way through,” Reimers said. “From seventh grade on up, they’ve developed year in and year out. That experience really played out this year. It was just an amazing ride and for their last game being on the biggest stage to be able to do it that way, it’s just kind of storybook really.