‘We were ready to play from the start’: North Crowley cruises past Fort Worth Paschal
FORT WORTH — North Crowley set the tone out of the gate and never looked back on Friday.
Chris Jimerson Jr. hit Mason Ferguson for a touchdown on the first play from scrimmage and Panthers, ranked No. 2 in the Star-Telegram’s Class 6A rankings, got on the board only 9 seconds into the game against Fort Worth Paschal.
North Crowley scored on six of seven drives in the first half and rolled to a 62-0 victory in District 3-6A at Crowley ISD Multi-purpose Stadium.
“We were ready to play from the start and that was our focus this week,” North Crowley head coach Ray Gates said. “You know, we didn’t have the best start last week and that was our emphasis coming into the game. To start playing the way we know we can and our guys came out and did that.”
The Panthers had a great deal of success by mixing in the passing of Jimerson and the running of Ashton Searl to win in the district opener.
Jimerson accounted for more than 300 yards of total offense, throwing two of his three touchdowns in the first half. After throwing the 53-yard score to Ferguson, Jimersn threw a 30-yard score to Quentin Gibson with 47 seconds left in the second quarter.
“I love my offense, we can run and we got the speed outside with the receivers,” said Jimerson, who holds a trio of division one offers that includes TCU.
Searl made the most of his limited touches with four scores on eight carries and 70 yards. The senior ran for touchdowns of 3, 3, 17 and 19 yards. The latter was set up by the defense. Paschal (1-3) got the ball to open the second half but, on the fourth play, was intercepted by Javion Jackson, who returned it to the 19-yard line.
Searl scored on the next play to push the lead to 49-0. The Panthers (4-0) ran for six touchdowns in the game and 236 yards.
Devin Diles and Gibson added additional scores for North Crowley.
Jimerson’s third touchdown pass came with 22 seconds left in the quarter to account for the final points of the game. He passed for 284 yards and ran for another 68.
The Panthers’ defense allowed less than 100 yards of total offense to Paschal going into the fourth quarter. Paschal added some late yardage to hit the century mark and finished with 186.
Gates said the Panthers’ stats showed Paschal had -19 yards of rushing in the first half and 44 yards.
“If we can take away their run game, you know it will make it hard with the passing game,” Gates said.
North Crowley linebacker Jonathan Cunningham said his team has the best defensive line in Texas.
“Every time the linebacker or someone else tries to get a tackle we can’t, the D-line takes them,” Cunningham said. “The D-line is full of dogs.”
North Crowley host Euless Trinity next week, while Saginaw Boswell will visit Paschal.