Tigers back in regional final after hard fought win over C.E. King

By Tyler Tyre, Sports Editor
Posted 11/26/21

“I still feel like we haven’t had our best game yet,” Anderson said. “But I feel like things are getting there and starting to fall into place, when we do get there it’s going to be a good game so I can’t wait for that moment.”

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Tigers back in regional final after hard fought win over C.E. King

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Katy knew that it would be tested by C.E. King in the Class 6A, Division II Regional Semifinals.

The Tigers had cruised to victories in their first two playoff games against Fort Bend Clements and Stratford, but King brought a different challenge.

The Panthers came into the game with only two losses on the season, to North Shore and Atascocita, the Tigers handed King its third with a 41-24 win at Legacy Stadium Friday, moving Katy into the regional final for the second straight season.

“I was very proud of our kids for hanging in there,” said Katy head coach Gary Joseph. “Some bad things happened in the game but they responded like they needed to. We talked about it before the game, about how there was going to be some things that happened that wasn’t in our control. We knew we would have to respond, and every time something happened they did respond. I couldn’t be prouder of their character and the way they did that.”

Katy came out with the first punch, as they methodically drove the ball down the field to get into the redzone. But the Tigers pulled off some trickery from there, as Seth Davis took a toss play and ended up throwing for an 8-yard touchdown to JR Ceyanes to open the scoring.

Katy added another touchdown through the air late in the first quarter as Caleb Koger found Nic Anderson on a dig route on a third and long and the senior wide receiver took it 47-yards for a score.

“They had some big kids up front, so we knew we would have to be able to throw the football so they couldn’t just tee off on us,” Joseph said. “We knew that coming in, and it was important for us to be able to move the football. Whether that was throwing or running we knew we needed to be able to move it and also limit their possessions and we did a good job of that in the first half.”

Katy dominated the first half and added another score on a 30-yard field goal by Axel Robertson with just over two minutes remaining in the second quarter.

C.E. King tried to operate out of the wildcat for the majority of the first half, but switched their strategy up late and drove the ball to the katy redzone where Christopher Bonilla got the Panthers their first points on a 31-yard field goal late in the half.

“The key to stopping their run game was just everyone doing their jobs and to make our fits,” said senior linebacker Carson Marshall. “Everyone has a job and as long as we knew did what we were supposed to we knew we would be good. They were a really good team with a good offense and being able to hold them to 24 points was good, but we know we can do better. We’re going to come out next week and continue to improve.”

King battled back in the second half.

On the Panthers first play from scrimmage in the third quarter, Nehemiah Broussard threw a flare route to D.K. Hammond who made a defender miss and took the pass 75-yards for a touchdown, making it a ten-point game.

Seth Davis ran in a 62-yard touchdown as Katy responded, but Hammond trimmed the lead again on a 25-yard run.

It continued to be back and forth. Katy got a touchdown in the fourth quarter off a 29-yard pass from Koger to Luke Carter and Hammond again trimmed the lead to 10 late with a 3-yard run, but Anderson sealed it when he took a reverse 40-yards for a touchdown with just three minutes remaining.

“I still feel like we haven’t had our best game yet,” Anderson said. “But I feel like things are getting there and starting to fall into place, when we do get there it’s going to be a good game so I can’t wait for that moment.”

Anderson finished the day with 98 yards receiving and 40 yards rushing to go with his two touchdowns, it’s meant a lot to him to get back to being fully healthy after missing much of the first half of the season to injury.

Katy will take on the winner of Cinco Ranch-Summer Creek next week, date time and location to be determined.

“I had trust in my teammates when I was out and I knew they were going to get the job done,” Anderson said. “Now that I’m back, I’m ready to put 100% of myself into this program. I’m just focused on the next week, whether that’s Summer Creek or Cinco Ranch, we’re going to hit every practice running.”

Katy 41, C.E. King 24

C.E. King

0

3

14

7  

 --

 24 

Katy

14

3

10 

14

 --

 41 

First quarter

Katy: Seth Davis 8 pass to JR Ceyanes (Axel Robertson kick) 7:42

Katy: Caleb Koger 47 pass to Nic Anderson (Robertson kick) 2:59

Second quarter

Katy: Robertson 30 field goal, 2:33

King: Christopher Bonilla 31 field goal, 0:16

Third quarter

King: Nehemiah Broussard 75 pass to D.K. Hammond (Bonilla kick) 11:45

Katy: Davis 62 run (Robertson kick) 10:50

King: Hammond 25 run (Bonilla kick) 9:15

Katy: Robertson 38 field goal, 3:33

Fourth quarter

Katy: Koger 29 pass to Luke Carter (Robertson kick) 8:37

King: Hammond 3 run (Bonilla kick) 3:49

Katy: Nic Anderson 40 run (Robertson kick) 0:50

Team stats

C.E. King

 Katy

  First downs

 17

 21

  Yards rushing

 25-125

 40-253

  Yards passing

 232

 179

  Passes

 18-25-1-0

 14-23-3-0

  Punts

  3-34

 1-34

  Fumbles-lost

  0-0

 0-0

  Penalty-yards

  3-35

 1-15

Individual Statistics

Rushing – Katy: Seth Davis, 28-163-1; Nic Anderson, 1-40-1; Dallas Glass, 6-38; Isaiah Smieth, 4-11; Caleb Koger, 1-1; King: D.K. Hammond, 14-77-2; Jerrell Wimbley, 9-43; Nehemiah Broussard, 2-5

Passing – Katy: Caleb Koger, 13-22-171-2-0; Seth Davis, 1-1-8-1-0; King: Nehemiah Broussard, 18-25-232-1-0

Receiving – Katy: Nic Anderson, 8-98-1; Luke Carter, 2-46-1; JR Ceyanes, 3-35-1; King: D.K. Hammond, 2-86-1; Elias Deejan, 6-84; Malachi Boles, 7-48; Britt McKinney, 2-11; Jerrell Wimbley, 1-3

Katy ISD, Katy, C.E. King, football, high school, sports, Texas