Mansfield Timberview defeats the heat and SGP to give its new head coach his first win

Mansfield Timberview and South Grand Prairie had their season opener pushed back 30 minutes because of the excessive heat that has plagued the area for a good portion of the summer, but the Wolves were just as hot.

The Timberview defense pitched a shutout and the offense was efficient as the Wolves gave first-year head coach Robby DeSanto his first win in a 35-0 whitewashing of South in the opener for both schools on Thursday at Newsom Stadium.

“This is number one and it feels amazing,” said DeSanto, who took over after James Brown stepped down to take a position at SMU. “I’m just proud of my coaches and my kids. We fought through a lot of adversity going back to spring football to keep it in house...keep it in the family.”

DeSanto, starting his 12th season at Timberview, was the offensive coordinator and assistant head coach for Brown. The duo coached together for 22 years coming up as assistants together and DeSanto served as Brown’s OC and assistant head coach for Brown’s entire career.

“There’s a little pressure with us coming in ranked as high as we are, but it’s just a testament to this program, this community, these kids and coaches that come in every day and do the job,” said DeSanto.

Timberview (1-0), No. 2 in the Star-Telegram’s Fort Worth-area Class 5A Rankings, scored on its first two possessions and never looked back.

Timberview quarterback Zuric Humes scored on a two-yard run with 3:23 left in the first quarter and Jaylon Woods added a six-yard scoring run to push the lead to 15-0 with 11:30 left in the first half.

South Grand Prairie (0-1) was deep inside Timberview territory five times, despite only picking up 165 total yards on the night, but couldn’t push it over the goal line.

Dilan Battle, a junior defensive lineman with close to 20 college offers, played a big part. Battle clogged up the middle making it difficult for South Grand Prairie to get anything going on the ground despite facing double teams much of the night.

“I’m not going to lie. We didn’t start out with the intensity that we needed, but we did pick it up that second half for sure,” said Battle. “I got on to my own self in the locker room at the half because I knew that I needed to pick it up and I felt like I came out and did that. I got a few pressures and the rest is history.”

SGP picked up 62 yards in the second half.

The game, which was televised on CW33, had two-minute water breaks at the first dead ball of the midpoint of each quarter to battle the excessive heat that was in the 103-degree range at kickoff. The game was pushed back to a 7:30 p.m. start time from 7 p.m.

Woods upped the lead to 22-0 on a 10-yard scoring run with 2:37 left in the second quarter. Humes guided the Wolves to scores on the first two drives of the second half.

“We just came out and executed,” said Humes, who scored on a three-yard run and tossed an 18-yard TD pass to Tyler Madison after the break. “The coaches came up with a great game plan for us. We knew what we were going to do.

“We struggled a lot in practice this week because of the heat, but we were still locked in mentally and we were able to come out here and perform to the best of our ability. Those water breaks did help a lot.”

Humes rushed for 38 yards on seven carries and wnet 11 of 18 for 127 yards through the air. Woods finished with 94 rushing yards on 15 carries and Madison led all receivers with four catches for 62 yards.

Timberview rolled up 391 yards of total offense.

“Everybody is fighting the heat and with the change I’m just proud of these guys, the players and the coaches alike, to get this thing right back where we’ve always been,” said DeSanto.

This story was originally published August 25, 2023 at 9:13 AM.