Richland football secures bi-district playoff win over Frisco, advances to area round

The duel threat of Michael Turner and Deon Jones led unbeaten Richland past Frisco, 48-21, Friday night in a Class 5A first-round bi-district matchup at Birdville Fine Arts/Athletic Complex.

Both coaches, Richland head coach Ged Kates and Jeff Harbert of Frisco (6-5), saw their sons play quarterback Friday night.

Turner rushed for 185 yards on 18 carries and a touchdown. Teammate Jones, both as receiver and kickoff/punt returner, caught five passes for 77 yards and a touchdown. He also returned a punt for another score.

Still, another teammate, receiver Evan Smith, caught four passes for 89 yards and a touchdown.

For Frisco, Jackson Voris was in on all three of his teams’ touchdowns. He returned a kickoff for one and caught a pair of passes for the other two.

Last year, at this same stage in the playoffs, Richland was beat, 55-15, by Frisco Lone Star. Kates used that unpleasant memory as motivation.

“For 365 days,” he said. “Some groups wouldn’t. But I know this group would. They wanted to rectify. They wanted to change history and make it better. With all that said we still haven’t played our biggest game. And that’s what we say weekly. Our biggest game is coming up and that’s part of our mantra.”

“I knew in my heart we were going to win,” Turner said. “All gas, no brakes. That’s it. And we came out today and we knew it was business. We had to handle it.”

“These guys love each other,” Kates said. “I know that’s coach speak. But the good teams always do. They care about each other.”

Kates said offensive coordinator James Bostick challenged the team.

“What if you don’t get the ball, receivers,” Kates said, reflecting on the challenge. “Will we win the game? Are you willing to do that? What if you don’t get your touchdown? Are we going to win? Are you willing to? And they were blocking for each and fighting like crazy.”

Richland led 27-14 at halftime after the Royals scored on their first four possessions. Their first three touchdowns were through the air while the fourth was a punt return.

Pass-happy Richland scored on touchdown passes each to a different receiver. From quarterback Drew Kates the first was 30 yards to Jones, the second 54 yards to Xavier Johnson, and the third 29 yards to Aaron Brooks.

They did so in a total of nine plays from the line of scrimmage, only three of which were runs. Kates’ first six passes were all complete and it looked like a rout was in the making.

The last touchdown was set up by Jones on the previous play with a 46-yard punt return.

Jones did it one-up better the next time he had the ball, returning a punt 66 yards for his second touchdown to make it 27-0 in the first quarter.

In the meantime, the Richland defense was doing its job and not allowing a first down.

However, Frisco suddenly made things interesting. Immediately after Jones punt return score, the Raccoons’ Jackson Voris replied by returning the ensuing kickoff 83 yards to make it 27-7, Richland, still in the first quarter.

That seemed to spark Frisco and the team began to play better on offense and defense, stopping Richland on fourth down afterwards and getting its’ initial first down 35 seconds into the second quarter.

Then with 3:24 remaining until halftime, Frisco’s Camren Gibson rolled right and, with defenders converging on him, found Voris uncovered on the same side of the field a short distance down. He threw to him and the sophomore ran the rest of the distance to complete the 68-yard scoring play.

It came two plays after Frisco stopped Richland on a fake punt.

In the third quarter, Richland pulled away again to put the game away. After the opening kickoff, Turner rushed up the middle after a good block by the center for a 10-yard touchdown.

It made the score 34-14, Richland. Utilizing a conservative but uptempo pace, Turner ran on all but one of the eight plays in the 60-yard scoring drive.

In the fourth quarter, Richland made it 41-14 with a deep 59-yard scoring pass at the post from Kates to Smith. Richland drove 89 yards in five plays.

Frisco replied with a 40-yard pass again to Voris from Cobyn Harbert substituting for Gibson in the second half after it appeared Gibson was hurt late in the first half.

Kenyon Long finished the scoring with a 5-yard run for Richland.

Kates completed 13 of 18 passes for 256 yards and four touchdowns. He was intercepted once.