Big rushing game from running back pushes Fort Worth Dunbar past Western Hills

Fort Worth Dunbar running back Murry Moore rushed for 346 yards, 224 in the second half, as the Wildcats ran away from Fort Worth Western Hills 60-33 in a District 6-4A Division 1 football game on Thursday night at Scarborough-Handley Field.

The Wildcats lost to the Cougars a year ago and were determined not to repeat the feat as Dunbar (2-3 overall, 2-0 district) scored 60 points for the second consecutive week to get a leg up for a playoff spot.

“They beat us last year so we just came out with the dog mentality, come dog ‘em out,” said Moore, who likes to be called ‘Mean Gene’. “It’s my senior year and I’ve had the mentality to just go all out.

“Coach (Todd) Lawson was just asking for us to bring the beast out in everybody. This game was important and we’ve been working hard all week to show up and show out.”

Moore carried the ball 34 times, almost as many rushes as the entire Western Hills team (38), and out rushed the Cougars (254) by almost 100 yards. The Wildcats piled up 607 yards of total offense with 495 coming on the ground.

“Just the physicality of our offensive line,” said Dunbar coach Todd Lawson on the success of his ground game. “We’ve been talking with our big linemen about being physical and they’re starting to gel. Zion Williams is one of our biggest kids (6’5, 325 pounds) and he’s just a freshman, Marcelino (Arias) our center is a junior and only have one senior (Jayden Sheppard) on our line.”

Western Hills (3-2, 1-1) pulled to within 24-19 after Aaron Martin returned the opening kickoff of the second half 89 yards for a touchdown.

It was the first of three kickoff returns for scores for the Cougars after the intermission. Martin added an 81-yard return with 8:25 left in the game and Cam Hawkins had an 88-yard kickoff return to close out the scoring in the third quarter.

But the Dunbar defense and special teams, as it had in the first half, created opportunities to help the Wildcats pull away.

Tajahn Odom’s 3-yard scoring run put the Wildcats up 31-19. An interception by linebacker Ja’Marion Garrett was returned 16 yards to the WH 49 and on the next play Moore scored his only touchdown of the game.

Jonathan Stewart stripped the ball away from a Cougar return man on the ensuing kickoff to set up a 30-yard scoring pass from Bryton Woodard to Keylon King that gave Dunbar a 45-19 lead with 5:25 left in the third quarter.

Odom had five touches in the game, scoring four times. The senior had three receptions for 82 yards with TDs of 16 and 34 yards and two carries for 32 yards with scoring runs of 3 and 29 yards.

Woodard finished completing 4 of 8 passes for 112 yards and three touchdowns.

Western Hills quarterback Keyon Butler played well rushing for 214 yards on 25 carries and one TD and completed 8 of 23 passes for 117 yards.

The teams traded scores early before a couple of Western Hills miscues let Dunbar build an 11-point lead at the half.

A 4-yard touchdown run by Ben Smith for the Wildcats was countered with a 30-yard scoring pass from Butler to Gavyn Harris for Western Hills. Butler scrambled out of the pocket and was a step from the left sideline before finding Harris in the back of the end zone to tie the game at 7 with 3:43 left in the first quarter.

Dunbar survived a 15-yard personal foul penalty on its ensuing series driving 73 yards in nine plays. The march was capped with a 16-yard scoring pass from Woodard to Odom, who made a terrific catch at the goal line before falling into the end zone.

But Butler answered right away with a 58-yard TD run as time ran out in the first quarter. The point after was missed and Dunbar led 14-13.

The Wildcats’ defense set up Dunbar’s next two scores.

Smith, who also plays defensive back for the Wildcats, picked off a Cougar pass and returned it 20 yards to the WH 44. The drive stalled at the 15-yard line and Jorge Patlin came on to boot a 32-yard field goal.

“You only get one chance and the chance you get you’d better show out,” said Smith, who gave Moore a breather at running back before scoring his TD. “On defense we had a phenomenal game. We practiced hard all week and were really prepared for this.”

Four snaps later Dunbar’s Garrett grabbed a fumble off the shoulder pads of Butler, who bobbled the ball after a high snap, and raced 32 yards for a score to up the lead to 24-13 with 4:00 left in the half.

“I just saw the ball up in the air and I grabbed it and took off,” said Garrett, who also saw time at running back with 5 carries for 58 yards. “We showed up. We’ve been practicing hard all week and we were ready for them. They had been talking all week on social media and we just had to get after them.”

“The game was very, very important, because last year it came down to us making the playoffs with them and losing and being the fourth seed,” said Lawson. “But this year we knew we had to get them and this really let the kids know how good they can be.”

This story was originally published September 30, 2022 at 12:34 AM.