Katy has spent the early part of this season focusing on building up its team.

The Tigers came into the year with lots of pieces that had to get adjusted to varsity football, and it took some time for the team to be settled.

But as District 19-6A play has started, the Tigers (3-1, 2-0) have raised their level of play. The Tigers dominated Tompkins in their first district game and followed that up with another strong performance on Saturday, beating Morton Ranch (1-3, 1-1) 41-14.

“We’ve just grown a lot as a group from the start of the year to now,” said senior safety Jed Olotu-Judah. “We’ve continued to get better and last week we came off a pretty big win but we weren’t satisfied. The key if we want to do big things is to keep getting better every day and keep working and that’s what we did this week.”

Katy took the lead early in the game and never looked back. The Tigers drove down the field on their opening drive and scored on a 1-yard quarterback sneak by Gunner Nelson. Morton Ranch had a good gameplan early and came back on offense to score, capping off a drive with a 19-yard touchdown from Mike Gerald. But it was all Katy from the second quarter on.

Khalil Hargrove-Collins came away with an interception on the first play of the second quarter and Katy capitalized with Nelson throwing a 19-yard touchdown pass to Israel Olotu-Judah for a touchdown. Tremayne Hill added to the lead midway through the second quarter with a 29-yard touchdown run before Olotu Judah caught another touchdown pass from Nelson from 51-yards out. Romel Jordan capped off the half with a half with a 28-yard touchdown as Katy went into the locker room leading 34-7.

“Israel is one of our best pass receivers and it’s always good when he’s the one gettingopen and making plays like that,” said Katy head coach Gary Joseph. “All of our receivers have been catching the ball well for us right now and that’s really good when we can spread it out like that and it makes things easier for our quarterback.”

Jordan and Hill added touchdown runs in the second half to add to the Tigers lead before Tadi Zambe scored the games final touchdown on a run of his own.

Jordan finished with a career high 163 yards and two touchdowns while Hill had a career high in yards as well, rushing seven times for 78 yards and two scores.

“Tremayne is going to be a very good football player and it’s good for us to get him more touches and for him to keep growing,” Joseph said. “depth at running back and for our whole football team is important. You have to have different guys step up and he’s one of those guys. We have to keep developing him and these other guys so they keep getting better.”

Nelson had another strong game for Katy, throwing for 189 yards and completing seven of eight passes, while Olotu-Judah caught three passes for 81 yards and two scores. The Tigers defense also made plays, limiting Morton Ranch to 134 yards on the ground and 94 yards through the air.

“Games like tonight are huge,” said Jed Olotu-Judah. “We get confidence for guys and we get reps for our second teamers. We had a lot of guys in our secondary who got playing time today and if we can keep doing that then by playoff time they’ll have grown and be even better players. Communiation and trust is key in the secondary so every snap you get extra is big.”

Katy faces Mayde Creek next week as the Tigers attempt to stay perfect in district play.

“This is a good start for us but we aren’t anywhere near our ceiling,” Israel Olotu-Judah said. “We haven’t arrived yet and we have to keep that mindset. You need to keep getting better every week to win a district championship and that’s the goal right now. When that’s done then you turn to the next thing, but we can’t get complacent.”

Katy 54, Morton Ranch 14

First quarter

K: Gunner Nelson 1 run (Hunter Ondrush kick) 8:00

MR: Mike Gerald 19 run (Kason Martinez kick) 3:50

Second quarter

K: Nelson 19 pass to Israel Olotu-Judah (Ondrush kick) 9:48

K: Tremayne Hill 29 run (Ondrush kick) 5:59

K: Nelson 51 pass to Olotu-Judah, 3:50

K: Romel Jordan 28 run (Ondrush kick) 0:20

Third quarter

K: Jordan 22 run, 10:40

K: Hill 34 run (Sebastian Perez kick) 5:22

Fourth quarter

K: Tadi Zambe 5 run (Perez kick) 9:40

MR: Mike Gerald 22 pass to Markel McNeal (Martinez kick)

Team stats

Individual Statistics

Rushing – Katy: Romel Jordan, 12-163-2; Tremayne Hill, 7-78-2; Tadi Zambe, 5-52-1; Chase Johnsey, 2-5; Gunner Nelson, 1-1; Morton Ranch: Ryan Hall, 14-61; Mike Gerald, 4-36-1; Tyler Gilmore, 6-23;

Passing – Katy: Gunner Nelson, 7-8-189-2-0; Jackson Franklin, 2-4-10-0-0; Connor Morales, 1-1-13-0-0; Morton Ranch: Mike Gerald, 8-18-94-1-1;

Receiving – Katy: Israel Olotu-Judah, 3-81-2; Oliver Ginn, 1-46; Cade McCall, 3-18; Colton Sanders, 1-16; Chase Johnsey, 1-15; Brody Worster, 1-13; Morton Ranch: Markel McNeal, 4-58-1; Tyler Williams, 3-37, Noah Lopez, 1-(-1)