Arlington Bowie continues dominance, secures bi-district championship over Dallas Jesuit

Last year when Arlington Bowie and Jesuit met in the bi-district championship, the victory fell to Jesuit.

This year, the Volunteers dominated offensively through four quarters on Friday, Nov. 15 at Wilemon Field, topping the Dallas Jesuit Rangers 56-42 to advance. After a 0-3 start to the season, Bowie has won district and bi-district titles.

“I had to reevaluate myself when we were zero-and-three, and we had to make some personnel changes,” Bowie head coach Joseph Sam said. “Our coordinators had to make some changes. We’re just seeing the fruits of that labor with tonight’s win.”

Bowie will face Hebron in the area round, and a time and location is to be determined.

Bowie’s key to success against the Rangers was senior running back Darrion Bowers. Before the matchup, he was the DFW-area school’s second-leading rusher, with 202 rush attempts for 1657 rushing yards.

“Darrion Bowers is really good,” Sam said. “You know, we draw it up to where he’s got to make one guy miss, then he’s gone. He’s been doing a great job of doing that all year, but also a credit to his offensive line.”

Sam said that the personnel on the offensive line has varied due to injuries but has found success with the change, thus igniting Bowers’ rushing talent.

Tonight, Bowers led both teams in rushing, with 268 rushing yards on 34 attempts and five total rushing touchdowns. He averaged 8.41 yards per carry.

His contributions didn’t just come from scoring; Bowers had multiple big runs to put the Volunteers in scoring position. In the second quarter, a 30-yard rush from Bowers put Bowie inside Jesuit’s 20-yard line, leading to QB Larry Nichol’s 13-yard passing touchdown to WR Dilon Tallie.

Bowie’s receiving core also made big plays to continue the scoring momentum despite suffering a few false starts.

Nichols had two huge passing plays in the third quarter: After back-to-back false starts that brought the offense to a 2nd and 20 situation, he found WR Zion Shelley for an 89-yard touchdown to extend their lead 35-21. He then found Tallie again for a 79-yard touchdown pass to make the score 42-28.

Nichols ended the night completing 18 of 24 passes for 323 passing yards.

Tallie led both teams in receiving with 116 receiving yards on only four receptions and two receiving touchdowns. He averaged 29 receiving yards per carry. Shelley was second behind Tallie with two receptions for 96 yards and one score. He averaged 48 yards per catch.

Despite falling short, Jesuit kept in the contest with a hot offense that was effective through the air.

QB Charlie Peters did not throw an incomplete pass for the entire first quarter and most of the second. His first incompletion was intended for WR Jack Yeskie on his first target of the night toward the end of the second quarter.

The Rangers moved the ball effectively downfield with WR Blake Bodnar leading the room. After a huge 50-yard rush from Peters in the third quarter, he found Bodnar in the endzone for a 12-yard receiving touchdown to creep on Bowie’s lead.

Jesuit’s attempts to climb out from behind fell short, and a turnover on downs in the fourth quarter sealed the game for Bowie.

Moving forward, Sam said the team needs to cover better defensively as Jesuit still tallied 42 points.

“We got to just clean up the little details, I would say, cover a little bit better, just make sure our eyes are in the right spot on defense,” he said.