Outside of two long touchdown receptions, Kilgore controlled the game against Texas High on Friday at Tiger Stadium at Grim Park.
The Bulldogs, who came into the Tigers' Senior Night winless, rushed for 314 yards and six touchdowns during a 42-14 win over THS, which had a modest two-game win streak snapped with the humbling loss.
The Tigers rushed 19 times for 26 yards against a stingy Kilgore defense, but the home team was able to find success via the passing game. Coltin Clack connected with Rian Cellars and Myles Washington for long TD catches, and Clack finished 17-of-26 passing for 247 yards and no interceptions.
Five of the Bulldogs' six rushers found the end zone, with Damien Parker scoring twice on just three carries. Kennieth Lacy had 14 carries for 164 yards and a touchdown, and Tray Epps had 23 totes for 124 yards and a TD.
"We talked all week long about that there's teams that want to play, and teams that have other things on their mind," Texas High coach Gerry Stanford said. "We played a Kilgore team that wanted to play, and it showed. We made a lot of mistakes, couldn't get them off the field, and oportunities, offensively, that presented themselves, we didn't capitalize a couple times.
"I think it's a situation where it's a lot bigger than football that we're trying to recover from."
Washington finished with four catches-matched by Kendall Reid and Chris Sutton-for 115 yards and a 70-yard strike, and the 71-yard catch-and-run was the only ball for Cellars.
Kilgore put together a pair of lengthy drives in the second half, scoring at the end of each to put the game away. The Bulldogs chewed up 8:24 on a 13-play, 78-yard drive with Gus Witt keeping for a 6-yard TD, and they burned another 6:06 off the clock with a 12-play, 78-yard drive with Jerrick Ervin diving in from the 1.
Texas High had drives to the Kilgore 28 and 22 but turned the ball over on downs each time. THS only had three possessions in the second half, one Washington's score, an 11-play drive to the 22 which resulted in no points, and four plays in the final 2:17 as the game winded down.
The Bulldogs broke open the game in the second quarter, scoring three unanswered touchdowns to take a 28-7 lead into intermission.
Kilgore also stalled the Tiger offense, which managed just 137 yards of offense-133 through the air-in the first half.
"The rushing part was that we got behind early, down by two or three scores, and we got away from our rushing game, just trying to get back into it," Stanford said. "It wasn't anything out of an execution standpoint; there wasn't a lack of execution. It was more we were trying to throw to get back ino the game."
Texas High punted from its 44 on its opening possession, and the Bulldogs marched 74 yards on nine plays. Parker had the first of his two first-half TDs, bulling in from the 2 with 5:15 left in the first quarter to cap the drive.
It didn't take long for the Tigers to answer, Cellars grabbing a slant pass from Clack and racing 71 yards to paydirt up the middle.
Kilgore drove 61 yards on six plays-all rushes-with Epps racing 26 yards around the right end to give the Bulldogs the lead on the first play of the second quarter.
The Tigers went three-and-out on their next two possessions, Parker scoring from the 1 to end the Bulldog drive between the THS punts.
Following the other punt, Lacy raced 78 yards on the first play from scrimmage, but Jones chased him down inside the 5. On the next play, Lacy scored from the 2.
Texas High put together a 15-play drive, but came up short and turned the ball over on downs on a fourth-down sack.
Kilgore rushed 21 times for 194 yards in the first half.
#
Kilgore 7 21 0 14 - 42
Texas High 7 0 7 0 - 14
First Quarter
KLG-Damien Parker 2 run (Elivan Torres kick), 5:15.
THS-Rian Cellars 71 pass from Coltin Clack (Diego Chavez kick), 2:56.
Second Quarter
KLG-Tray Epps 26 run (Torres kick), 11:52.
KLG-Parker 1 run (Torres kick), 7:37.
KLG-Kennieth Lacy 2 run (Torres kick), 4:54.
Third Quarter
THS-Myles Washington 70 pass from Clack (Chavez kick), 7:47.
Fourth Quarter
KLG-Gus Witt 6 run (Torres kick), 11:16.
KLG-Jerrick Ervin 1 run (Torres kick), 2:18.
=THS=Kilgore
First Downs=20=13
Yards Rushing=49-314=19-26
Yards Passing=83=247
Passes A-C-I=4-4-0=26-17-0
Fumbles-Lost=0-0=2-0
Penalties=4-20=7-38
Punts-Avg.=1-25.0=3-41.3
INDIVIDUAL STATISTICS
RUSHING-Kilgore, Lacy 14-164, Epps 23-124, Witt 2-8, Ervin 5-10, Parker 3-3, Nick Hooper 1-5. Texas High, Chris Sutton 4-25, Collius Zachery 6-13, Uriah Hopkins 3-11, Clack 5-(minus 7), team 1-(minus 16).
PASSING-Kilgore, Witt 4-4-0-83. Texas High, Clack 17-26-0-247.
RECEIVING-Kilgore, A.J. Smith 2-53, Hooper 1-15, Lacy 1-15. Texas High, Washington 4-115, Sutton 4-26, Kendall Reid 4-25, Kobe Webster 2-2, Mason Jones 1-8, Cellars 1-71, Zachery 1-0.