FRISCO — In a battle of two Associated Press top 5A high school teams, neither Denton Ryan or Frisco Lone Star disappointed in Thursday’s 28-21 finish at one of Texas’ swankiest venue’s — The Star.
And for Jeff Rayburn, the solution was easy after losing starting running back Emani Bailey to an undisclosed injury in the third quarter. Break glass, remove quarterback Spencer Sanders and use early, often, and late.
“Emani went down and we weren’t running the ball real well to begin with and had pretty much become one-dimensional,” said Rayburn, Denton Ryan High School’s head coach. “Spencer made a lot of plays with his legs. We had a touchdown called back that would’ve iced the game but there were a lot of kids that did a lot of good things. It was a good win, man.”
Sanders’ 320 yards and four touchdowns on 18 for 28 passing and 24 yards on the ground, though, nearly wasn’t enough to upend Frisco Lone Star High School at home after a near tone-setting interception, a late drive and wild finish. Or after a Herculean 56-yard pass from MJ Rivers to Marvin Mims that put the Rangers on the goal line and in position to send the game into overtime.
Raiders’ gunslinger Spencer Sanders threw four touchdowns against Frisco Lone Star on Thursday (Lauren Landes/Texas HS Football).
“I told him that they hadn’t stopped us, we had stopped ourselves,” Rayburn continued. ” I told him it was the penalties and the drops early in the game that cost us drives. You know, he doesn’t throw many interceptions. That was pass interference, but who’s counting?”
The undefeated Ryan Raiders’ signal caller settled after chucking a near pick-6 to Trey Taylor — pass interference or not — that set up the first of Kirby Bennett’s two scores.
According to Rayburn, either Denton Ryan (4-0), ranked No. 3, or Frisco Lone Star (3-1), ranked No. 8, had to lose.
Both teams went blow for blow in the first 24 minutes of football, trading Bennett touchdown rumbles for scoring strikes of 48,18, and 11 yards to Gabriel Douglas and 6-foot-2 and 200-pound possession receiver Chritauskie Dove. The Raiders also overcame a bout of inaccuracy from All-State kicker Jacob Click, who missed a 39-yard field goal with minutes to spare before halftime.
If Sanders was Denton Ryan’s Batman, then Douglas may have been the Raiders’ Robin 2.0 after finishing with nine catches for 117 yards and a pair of touchdowns. Dove caught five balls for 54 yards — including one for a touchdown and another for a key two-point conversion – in his first game back from a high ankle sprain.
“He’s a good scrambling quarterback and a big factor for our team,” Dove said about Sanders’ ability to escape from the pocket and extend plays with his legs. “He stepped up and made big plays to help us win. That’s what we look for from him and today he was big. Really big.”
With Bailey down for the count and the Raiders’ streak in peril, Sanders and Denton Ryan’s defense went from impressive to electric. After gaining 79 yards and scoring two touchdowns on 11 carries in the first half, Bennett ran for only 22 and was held scoreless in the second.
Kirby Bennett ran for more than 70 yards and two touchdowns in the first half (Lauren Landes/Texas HS Football).
The Raiders, true to their moniker, harried and harassed Lone Star’s gunslinger and flushed him outside of the comfort of the pocket on multiple occasions. Sanders needed one play — a 61-yard strike to Jamarion Robertson — to give Denton Ryan an eight-point lead with 11:42 in in the third quarter.
Lone Star refused to go quietly, capping a nine-play, 60-yard drive with Rivers’ 11-yard touchdown throw to Kavika Pittman — a score that whittled the Raiders’ lead to a single score with 5:04 in the fourth quarter. Rivers marched his team down the field again, this time reaching the 1-yard line via a pass that split two defenders and fell into the hands of a diving Mims.
In the waning moments of the game, however, it wasn’t Sanders that played hero for Denton Ryan. It was a defense that sealed entryways through the middle of the field and stuffed Rivers sprinting around the edge at the goal line.
“Championship teams make plays,” Rayburn affirmed. “It’s tough, but that’s the type of adversity you have to paddle through and you have to have to win big games. That’s what we prepared for, but I don’t think you ever expect it to come out like that. This is a deep, playoff-type team [we faced] in a deep, playoff-type atmosphere. It shouldn’t have ever come down to that. They should never have gotten by us in that situation. To come out with a win and still have a lot of things to work on is positive because that’s the type of game that helps you down the road.”
