Traveling to a high school football game in Texas is a great experience. Unless you actually have to play the best team in the Lone Star State.
Led by the all-around play of
Ja'Quinden Jackson and two touchown runs by
Trysten Smith, the Panthers scored the last 21 unanswered points to break a 14-14 tie. Jackson threw for two touchdowns and ran for another as the Panthers improved to 3-0 on the season.
Video: Top 10 games of the week
St. John's at Duncanville game the No. 2 Game of the Week.
St. John's, coming off a tough 34-30 loss to No. 12 St.
Joseph's Prep (Philadelphia), dropped to 2-2.
Smith struck first for Duncanville, with a 5-yard touchdown run up the middle, giving the Panthers a 7-0 lead with 8:00 left in the first quarter.
Five minutes later, St. John's struck right back as
Sol-Jay Maiava fired a 41-yard touchdown pass to
Colby McDonald to tie the game at 7-7. McDonald took a swing pass to the right and made several nifty moves, before sprinting into the end zone.
Jackson got to work with a 48-yard touchdown pass to
Roderick Daniels, making it 14-7 early in the second quarter.
The defenses did a lot of bending the rest of the half, before St. John's tied it at 14-14 on a McDonald 61-yard touchdown run early in the third quarter. Jackson, as he did all game, had an answer, not once but twice, first connecting with Daniels again on a 39-yard TD pass before rushing it home from 29-yards out, making it 28-14 heading into the fourth quarter.
A 16-yard touchdown scamper by Smith — his second of the game — sealed the win four minutes later.
Duncanville lost in last year's Texas 6A-1 state finals on a Hail Mary 45-yard pass on the final play of the game. The Panthers are playing like they have a point to prove.
Ja'Quinden Jackson, Duncanville
File photo by Robbie Rakestraw
