Paradise rolls past Millsap in high school football doubleheader at AT&T Stadium
The UIL football state championships aren’t until mid December at AT&T Stadium, but for four schools on Thursday night, they got a chance to play at Jerry’s World in Week 4 of the season.
The first of two games featured two Class 3A schools, Paradise and Millsap and for Paradise, the Panthers looked comfortable playing under the big lights, in hopes they return to AT&T Stadium in three months.
Paradise scored five first-half touchdowns and quarterback Austin Iglesias accounted for 291 yards in a 56-14 rout over Millsap. The Panthers improved to 4-0 on the season for the second straight year.
Prior to the 2021 season, the program last started 4-0 in 2010 when it won the first five games.
Millsap (2-2) had no answer for the Panthers all day, who scored on five of six first-half possessions and eight of 10 overall while amassing 302 yards of total offense by intermission. The Panthers didn’t score on their final drive of the first half when they missed a 47-yard field goal and their final drive of the game when they took a knee.
The Paradise defense held Millsap to a three-and-out on its opening drive, and the Panthers scored two plays later on a 67-yard touchdown run by Iglesias, who had six carries for 105 yards in the first half and 124 yards on the ground overall.
Millsap was forced to punt for a second straight time and the Panthers went to work again. Will Johnson capped off an 80-yard drive with a 6-yard touchdown run and Paradise upped its lead to 14-0 with 3:17 to go in the first quarter.
The Bulldogs punted again and Paradise capitalized with a 38-yard touchdown pass and catch from Iglesias to Landon Holley to make it 21-0 with 10:28 left in the second quarter.
Iglesias completed his first six pass attempts and was 9 of 10 for 167 yards with two touchdowns in the game.
Millsap responded with its best drive when the Bulldogs marched 56 yards on eight plays. Ryder Oliver scored on a 7-yard touchdown run, but the extra point was blocked, bringing the score to 21-6 midway through the period.
Mason Burns had a 12-yard catch and Oliver also had a 12-yard run to highlight the drive.
Paradise scored its fourth touchdown on as many possessions with a 43-yard Iglesias to Holley connection down the left sideline to make it 28-6 with 4:49 to go before the break.
Holley had three catches for 88 yards.
Three plays later, on Millsap’s drive, the Bulldogs fumbled and Cazen Woolsey found the end zone on the scoop and score to extend the rout to 35-6.
Then Millsap was able to get from its own 37 to the Pardise 17 on the ensuing drive, but it ended in a Paradise interception. Koby Dickens got a hand on the ball and Holley came down with it, and returned it 22 yards.
Millsap had a touchdown in the second half, a 7-yard run by Burns late in the third quarter.
Paradise’s second-half scores came from a 13-yard run by Iglesias and 11-yard run by Leonardo Hernandez, both in the third quarter, and an Ayden Winters’ 7-yard run in the fourth.
Paradise, which is in the same district as Brock, Peaster and Boyd, finished with 504 yards with 337 coming on the ground. Winters and Hernandez had 70 and 60 yards rushing, respectively.
Millsap had 163 yards with 141 coming on the ground. Oliver had 12 carries for 49 yards. The Bulldogs look to rebound when they visit Clifton on Friday Sept. 23.
This story was originally published September 15, 2022 at 6:11 PM.
