Bulldogs fall short against Newman Smith offense, 55-17

By Bobby Summers

Herald-Banner Correspondent

There was a full moon last Friday night. It was the eve of Halloween and the Royse City Bulldogs were hosting the red hot Carrollton Newman-Smith Trojans. The Trojans needed to nail down one more win to secure a playoff spot. Not since 1983 had they advanced to the Texas High School football playoffs.

A combination of these things could have been a contributing factor in the flurry of unexplained turnovers for the Bulldogs. However it is doubtful that they caused three interceptions and five lost fumbles. This is just not a typical night of Royse City Bulldog football.

I would think it was more the fact that the Newman-Smith Trojans were on a mission. An alert defense, mixed with some hard hitting along with a very strong desire to win resulted in being in the right place at the right time. In other words, the Trojans would not be denied on this night.

On the Trojans first play from scrimmage quarterback Aldo Quiroga threw a 57 yard touchdown pass to Terrell Wilson. Phillipe Ichter kicked the extra point for a 7-0 Newman-Smith lead. This was the first of six touchdown passes by Quiroga.

Five of those scoring tosses came in the first half of the game.

Unfortunately the Bulldogs turnovers attributed to some of the Trojan success. The first half was not kind to the Bulldogs. Two interceptions and four lost fumbles are just too much to overcome in any one game, but to have this many in the first half caused a phenomenal hole.

Quiroga’s night was very productive and very efficient. Of the ten passes he completed, six went for touchdowns. Besides the first strike to Wilson, he would connect with Wilson again on a 29 yard TD pass and a 6 yard strike to Braxton Bearden as well as a 6 yard touchdown pass to Al Lasker and a 5 yard scoring toss to Zach Flemming.

Bulldog quarterback Taylor Corbin had another good night passing as he connected 16 times for 202 yards to up his total for the year. Corbin had two of those to go for touchdowns as well. In the first half he found Kris Smith on a 26 yard touchdown pass and in the final seconds of the game, Corbin passed to Ryan Fedric on a 4 yard scoring pass. Both times Sterling Mullen kicked the extra points. Mullen also added a 27 yard field goal in the third quarter to account for all of the Royse City scoring.

It was Kris Smith however that keeps hauling in the seemingly uncatchable pass. Smith’s receiving ability will surely earn him post season honors as he continues to rack up the catches, the yardage and the touchdowns to go with it.

Defensively the Bulldogs were led by junior linebacker Ryon Phillips. Phillips had an exceptional night shutting down Trojan running back Randal Joyner. Joyner is one of the premier running backs in the district and the Bulldog defense held him to a mediocre 65 yard rushing night. Phillips also blocked a punt that resulted in the successful field goal by Mullen.

Quiroga would add his last touchdown pass to Al Lasker midway through the third period.

Leon Makombe caught a 10 yard touchdown pass from Tripp Abbott to round out the scoring for the Trojans.

“As many of our seniors and senior parents can relate, in a blink of an eye we are faced with our last contest of the year,” said RCHS coach Greg Strahm in retrospect. “A winless season at this point still has provided many rewards and lessons but a win in our final game would feel so much better.

“On senior night last Friday against Newman Smith we were, once again, bit by the turnover bug. Newman Smith, a play-off team, took advantage of seven turnovers and turned our quest to upset them, into a night of scrambling to find positive results. Our defense had to play on our end of the field almost the entire night and a good football team like Newman Smith will cash in most of the time.

“Mr. Hancock, our superintendent of schools, spoke to the team last week and sent a strong message about ‘not being finished yet.’ That message, and the 3,000 letters of encouragement from our elementary schools that our team received, should boost the team moral for our last game against R.L. Turner. Our team and coaches thank the parents and supporters who faithfully came to Friday’s contest. We appreciate your unquestionable dedication to our program. The players and I hope you will follow us to Carrollton this Saturday to play our final game of the year.”

Royse City will travel to Standridge Stadium in Carrollton Saturday to play their final game. The game will kickoff at 3 p.m.

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