Hornets Cruise Past Dallas Gateway; Celeste Next Up

Rampant illness caused classes at Boles High School to be canceled for a week, but it did nothing to derail the Hornets football team in their District 14-A opener at Dallas Gateway.

Boles had it in the bag by halftime and finished with a 56-0 victory.

Kailob Wallace and Austin Cantrell were involved in three first-quarter touchdowns. The first came on a 26-yard touchdown pass from Wallace to Cantrell.

Wallace followed that up with a 20-yard touchdown run and Cantrell tacked on a 1-yard TD carry. Wallace would close out the first half with another touchdown, this one on an 8-yard run, while Lane Sutton added a pair of 5-yard TDs and Andy Allen scored from 16 yards out.

As impressive as the offense was, Boles Head Coach Todd Wallace said he was especially pleased with the defensive effort that produced two fumble recoveries and two interceptions.

"We created some turnovers, and that is something we need to do more of. We really haven’t had a lot to this point, some interceptions, but not many fumble recoveries," Wallace said.

"I also thought our defense did a good job not giving up the big play. That was a concern going in because they (Dallas Gateway) were very athletic, but I felt like if we did avoid giving up big gains, that we would be OK," he added.

Tracy Brockway led the Hornet "D" with seven tackles and Tyler Pettus registered two sacks. Michael Jordan and Cyle Monroe, part of a secondary that has shined to this point in the season, both grabbed an interception in the game. Pettus and Cantrell made the fumble recoveries. The Hornets allowed only three first downs to Dallas Gateway.

Making life difficult on the opponent’s offense is something the Hornets have accomplished regularly, Coach Wallace said.

"Looking back at what we’ve done so far, other than the Frisco (Liberty junior varsity) game, we’ve given up one play of more than 50 yards…If you don’t give up big plays and make people drive on you, and you do that consistently, you are going to do well. Even in the game against James Bowie, they had two long drives, but we also forced four three-and-outs. You get that every week and you are going to be in good shape."

Meanwhile, Boles finished with 23 first downs and 379 yards rushing with Sutton accounting for 107 yards on just eight carries. Jordan capped off the big night of offense with an 11-yard touchdown in the fourth quarter.

Allen was a perfect 7-for-7 on extra-point attempts.

About the only blemish on the evening for Boles was the 145 yards in penalties, something Todd Wallace noted his team had "had too many of in the last two weeks."

The Hornets will return to home turf tonight (Friday) against Celeste at 7:30 p.m.

"Celeste is a rivalry game for our guys. They know our big district games are against Celeste, Wolfe City and Cumby," Coach Wallace said. "Celeste is down a bit this year, but we know their kids are still going to play hard. They still have that tradition."

He added that some of the Boles players have not forgotten that the Hornets’ last regular season loss came at the hands of Celeste on a last-second Hail Mary play in the 2006 season.

"We’ve got a little extra motivation because of that," Coach Wallace noted.