‘Just execute’: Fort Worth Eastern Hills football shuts out Fort Worth Diamond Hill-Jarvis
.jpg "Eastern Hills’ Kenwaun Durst (5) with a key catch and fighting his way into the endzone for a touchdown during a high school football game at Scarborough-Handley Field against Diamond Hill-Jarvis in Fort Worth, Texas, Friday, September 29, 2023.")
The Fort Worth Eastern Hills Highlanders (2-3, 1-1 District 6 4A-D1) were one win away from making playoffs last season.
They came into Friday night’s game at Scarborough-Handley Field against Fort Worth Diamond Hill-Jarvis (0-5, 0-2) wanting to start their march to a hopeful playoff bid. They were successful, defeating the Eagle 54-0.
“We wanted to come out and make sure we clean some things up and polish some things,” Eastern Hills head coach Devvin Anderson said. “Work on some things we need to work on and get our first district win.”
Eastern Hills did more than just polish some things. They shut out their opponent, preventing an offensive score.
Kenwan Durst started the game off with a bang, leading the Highlander’s offense with consecutive first downs and taking them into the end zone with a big touchdown run with 5:50 left on the clock in the first quarter. Durst said he had one primary goal for the game.
“Just go out there, execute, do everything perfectly,” Durst said. “Just execute.”
Durst continued to execute. He also made the next scoring play. He caught the ball in the end zone, scoring another touchdown for the Highlanders. This brought the score to 13-0.
Eastern Hills’ Edward Blanton ran for a big touchdown into the end zone with 10:10 left on the clock in the first half. The Highlanders were then up 19-0.
The Highlander’s Durst showed his face on both sides of the ball with the whole defense stepping up and shutting down anything the Eagles tried to draw up. He returned a touchdown to the goal line and ran it in for another score. The score was 27-0 at halftime.
The Highlanders’ offense led by Durst was relentless. The first scoring drive of the third quarter was a 46-yard run by Draylon McGilveary. The third quarter saw three more touchdowns for the Highlanders. The scores were made by Makeio Mckenzie, Da’michael Freeman and Blanton.
The final score was 54-0. Eastern Hills head coach Anderson said the team hopes this district win sets them up for success during the rest of the season.
“That’s our focus right now to make sure we make the changes that we need to make so that we can get into the playoffs this year,” Anderson said.
Up next for Eastern Hills is a crosstown showdown against Fort Worth Western Hills on Friday with a 7 p.m. CT kickoff time. Western Hills won last year in a close match-up.
“They got away with one last year we should have won,” Anderson said. “This year we got to get that one back.”
Fort Worth Diamond Hill-Jarvis will attempt to secure its first win of the season against Castleberry on Friday. Kickoff will be at 7 p.m. CT.