High School Football

Paetow stays in playoff race with win over Taylor

By Tyler Tyre, Sports Editor
Posted 10/28/22

“We love the pressure,” said senior defensive lineman DJ Hicks. “We thrive in that pressure and it’s like they say, ‘you get enough pressure and it will create a diamond.’ That diamond is us and we’re going to keep getting better, keep facing anyone that doubts us and go into every practice and every game and give it everything we have.”

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High School Football

Paetow stays in playoff race with win over Taylor

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Paetow has been in playoff mode for two weeks.

The Panthers have known what it would take for them to have a chance to make the playoffs since last week, knowing they have to win out, and they’ve set their focus on that through practice and their preparation every day.

That focus has paid dividends for the Panthers, they have continued to improve on both ends of the ball and won their last two games in strong fashion, following up last week’s win over Seven Lakes with a huge 40-10 win over Taylor on Thursday, as Paetow kept itself right in the midst of the District 19-6A playoff chase with a week remaining in the regular season.

“We love the pressure,” said senior defensive lineman DJ Hicks. “We thrive in that pressure and it’s like they say, ‘you get enough pressure and it will create a diamond.’ That diamond is us and we’re going to keep getting better, keep facing anyone that doubts us and go into every practice and every game and give it everything we have.”

The Paetow defense stepped up to the task in the first half, helping a slow offensive start by halting anything the Taylor offense tried to do. The Panthers took the lead midway through the first quarter on a field goal and then got a touchdown early in the second quarter on a 6-yard pass from Koby Truehill to Justin Stevenson, as the Panthers went into halftime with a 9-0 lead as the defense held Taylor scoreless in the first half.

“Coach (Stephen) Howard really put together a great gameplan to deal with their run offense and lock that down,” said head coach David Hicks Sr. “We have a great set of guys on that defensive end that went out and executed it. Our goal is to put our best guys against their best guys because we believe we have a bunch that could compete with anyone.”

While the defense was the story of the first half, the Paetow offense was what turned heads in the second half.

Paetow attacked the Taylor defense immediately out of the locker room, and it paid dividends, as Stevenson turned a comeback route into a huge 77-yard touchdown in which he broke tackles before racing down the sideline for the score. Derrick Johnson then ran in a 23-yard score and the Jamarious Bates also ran in a touchdown before the end of the third quarter.

“We’ve really just started to come together and gain that chemistry as an offense,” Stevenson said. “We’ve really been focusing and stepping it up in practice and the new offensive coordinator, coach (Matt) Rhodes has put in situations to succeed and he’s been great. We’ve really been able to step it up on that end.”

Stevenson wasn’t done on the day, as he caught a third touchdown pass in the fourth quarter from 25 yards out before Paetow added another field goal.

Taylor scored late in the fourth quarter to get up to 10 points on a 4-yard pass from Joe Jefferson to Alexandro Zubia, but it was a comfortable win for the Panthers in the end.

“We’ve been in playoff mode and these kids have bought into what we’re saying, they know they need to dominate every day, dominate every rep and dominate every game,” David Hicks Sr. said. “They aren’t taking anything lightly and they’re staying humble and focused on the goal at hand. The job isn’t done yet.”

It’s been an impressive two weeks for the Panthers, but the biggest hurdle to the playoffs still remains as they face off against Tompkins in the last week of the season, and the Panthers know they have to be ready and at their best.

“We aren’t going to quit,” DJ Hicks said. “We’re going to go down swinging, we have that fight in us and our coaches have put us in a position to win now and put it on us to make sure we don’t quit. Now we have to go back, and make sure we are mentally locked in and ready for Tompkins.”

Paetow 40, Taylor 10

Paetow

3

6

21

10

 --

40

Taylor

0

0

3

7

--

10

First quarter

P: Gabriel Schaeffer 25 field goal, 4:47

Second quarter

P: Koby Truehill 6 pass to Justin Stevenson (Schaeffer kick) 8:26

Third quarter

P: Truehill 77 pass to Justin Stevenson (Schaeffer kick) 9:11

T: Jackson Waller 27 field goal, 6:23

P: Derrick Johnson 6 run (Schaeffer kick) 1:49

Fourth quarter

P: Truehill 25 pass to Stevenson (Schaeffer kick)

P: Schaeffer 30 field goal, 6:27

T: Joe Jefferson 4 pass to Alexandro Zubia (Waller kick) 4:49

Team stats

Paetow

Taylor

  First downs

14

16

  Yards rushing

32-147

32-132

  Yards passing

293

121

  Passes

17-28-3-0

12-30-1-2

  Punts

2-35

5-39

  Fumbles-lost

1-1

1-1

  Penalty-yards

5-35

5-41

Individual Statistics

Rushing – Paetow: Jamarious Bates, 14-63-1; Derrick Johnson, 4-41-1; Damyrion Phillips, 11-34; Koby Truehill, 1-6; Davuan Hanks, 2-(-3); Taylor: Joe Jefferson, 11-56; Dante Archie, 11-33; Chase Cobbin, 4-29; Cherron Lewis, 2-11; Alex Kilgore, 2-5; Alexandro Zubia, 1-0;

Passing – Paetow: Koby Truehill, 17-28-293-3-0; Taylor: Joe Jefferson, 12-30-121-1-2

Receiving – Paetow: Justin Stevenson, 4-123-3; Jason Blue, 5-53; Jabari Bush, 1-52; Van Keith Brown, 1-27; Derrick Johnson, 2-25; Kaleb Molina, 1-9; Jamarious Bates, 1-4; Damyrion Phillips, 1-0; Taylor: Dante Archie, 4-70; Jamon Hines, 3-35; Alei Sabek, 1-13; Alexandro Zubia, 2-10-1; Ian Flynt, 1-6; Chase Cobbin, 1-2;

Katy ISD, Paetow, Taylor, District 19-6A, sports, football