Duncanville throttles Flower Mound in first game back at AT&T since 2018 title loss
The Duncanville football team knelt in prayer and reflection in the same corner of the AT&T Stadium end zone where “The Catch” was made before warming up for its Class 6A Division I area-round game with Flower Mound.
So you knew that the sting of losing on the final play in the 2018 title game was still there.
The reminder helped the Panthers focus, building a big lead at the half then coasting to a 59-13 win over the Jaguars.
“Last year we lost on a Hail Mary in that very spot in the end zone,” said Duncanville quarterback Ja’Quinden Jackson on the Panthers’ first trip back to AT&T Stadium after the loss. “We don’t want to repeat what happened last year so we came out here with a winning mentality and got the job done.”
Duncanville (12-0), the top-ranked team in the final Dave Campbell’s Class 6A state poll, will face No. 10 Arlington Martin (11-1) in the regional round at noon on Friday back at AT&T Stadium.
Flower Mound’s season ends at 8-4.
Duncanville started slowly, going three-and-out on its first series, but picked it up behind the strength of back-to-back interceptions by Panthers’ linebacker Paul Pickens and defensive back Ennis Rakestraw.
The Panthers scored on eight of their next nine first half drives to build a 45-0 lead at the intermission.
Following the Picken’s interception at the Duncanville 18, running back Trysten Smith bolted 50 yards on the fourth play of the drive down to the Flower Mound 6 yard line.
Jackson, a University of Texas commit, took it in from there for a 7-0 Duncanville lead with 4:54 left in the first quarter.
Smith followed up the Rakestraw pick with an 8-yards TD run, opening the flood gates.
Duncanville rolled up 409 yards of offense in the first half and 626 for the game, 535 of it on the ground. All eight of the Panthers’ touchdowns came on runs.
None of the offensive skill-position starters returned after the half. Despite that, Smith finished with 182 yards on nine carries with TD runs of eight and two yards.
“The offensive line and us backs just ran every play as physical as we could,” said Smith. “My o-line are some dogs and are just so physical. That’s what we work on in practice, being physical and running hard.”
Jackson carried the ball six time for 81 yards and had scoring runs of eight and 33 yards.
The Duncanville defense excelled despite facing the fast-paced, air-raid offense of Flower Mound.
Jaguar quarterback Blake Short attempted 61 passes in the game completing 31, but for only 241 yards.
“We worked on it because we were afraid of them,” said Duncanville coach Reginald Samples of Short and the Flower Mound air attack. “We saw how well they’ve done against everybody else. They had some tendencies that we picked up on and jumped on them.”
James Roberts, Jr. intercepted two more passes for Duncanville. The first at the Flower Mound 45 late in the second quarter and the second in the end zone with 7:11 left to kill a Jaguar drive.
“They have a good offensive line, they really do, and I respect all of them,” said Duncanville defensive lineman Omari Abor, who wreaked havoc by putting pressure on the Flower Mound quarterback. “But we worked on it so much in practice.
“To get around the edge and keep the quarterback from having to stay in the pocket and look. We had to constantly, constantly make him hurry to throw the ball.”
The Duncanville defense allowed 44 rushing yards on 17 carries by Flower Mound.
Running back Jayvyn Square had a big night in a mop-up role for Duncanville. Square carried 12 times for 151 yards with touchdown runs of two and 43 yards after halftime.
“We try to put the loss in the title game in the past,” Abor said of the pregame homage where “The Catch” happened. “But we always bring it up so people know that this is what happened and we need to get this back.”
This story was originally published November 23, 2019 at 9:47 PM.