2018 Texas Tour Week 5

By Chris Doelle
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Updated: October 1, 2018

What is the Texas Tour?

For nearly 15 years our love for Texas high school football has sent us around the state to watch some of the truly great players that our state has to offer. We’ve seen Cy Young award winner Clayton Kershaw snap the ball to Pro Bowl QB Matt Stafford. We were sitting in the stands watching future Heisman Trophy winners RG3 (Robert Griffin III) and Johnny Football (Johnny Manziel) for their explosive prep careers. Our goal is to see as many future college and NFL players that a Friday night will allow!

#70 Dallas Samuell @ #19 DI Lancaster

The Back Story

It was an interesting set up of a game... two teams juxtaposed in almost every sense. The Dallas Samuell Spartans went 7-4 last year and were bi-district finalists. Realignment has put them in a top-heavy district that has the on the outside looking in, but the season has started off well. Lancaster is just the opposite at this point in the season. The Tigers went 4-6 last year and missed the playoffs. They are back in 2018 with a young team and higher expectations. Lancaster is picked to blow out the Spartans by 31 which is surprising since the offense has averaged 9 points per game.

Who we came to see

Dallas Samuell (5A DI #70)

QB Jon’Turius Shaw; Top 30 QB in Texas

Lancaster (5A DI #19)

RB Trey Bradford; #29 ranked junior athlete in nation
DB Lorando Johnson; #9 junior CB in nation
WR LaTrell Caples; #107 junior WR in nation
QB Luke Grden; Top 3 sophomore QB in state
WR Ketron Johnson; Top 5 sophomore WR in state
WR Majik Rector; not currently ranked, but holds Texas Tech offer
DB Jason Simmons; #169 S in nation
WR Chris Green; #240 WR in nation

Game Time

Lancaster took the opening kick and scored on a 12 yard run by Trey Bradford (4-52 yds, 3 TDs). On the first Samuell possession of the game, they went three and out and the snap to the punter was bad. Instead of trying to get the punt off, the punter threw an incomplete pass which gave the Tigers the ball at the Spartan 12 yards line. One play later, a 12 yard pass from Rodd Hudson to Chris Green and it was 15-0.

The game got really sloppy after that. It seemed like penalties were being called and nearly every play. Numerous delay of game penalties left you with the feeling that it had been a short week of practice. Neither offense could get into any rhythm and the passing game of both teams went nowhere. The teams saw five quarterbacks in the game and they combined to go 13-36-1 through the first three quarters of play.

The Tigers had the running game going all game long, but never seemed to sell out to it even though they were picking up big yards. The final score, 50-6, coupled with the rushing stats makes it look like a dominant performance, but it did not seem that way from watching it.

Game Notes

RB Trey Bradford scored three times on his 4 touches in the first three quarters and DQ Jones added another five carries for 91 yds and a TD through three.

The game had so many penalties, incomplete passes, and clock stoppages that the 4th quarter started at 10:00pm. With a 3 hour drive in front of us, we left early and knowing that there wasn’t much good football to see on that night. The football was lacking, but dinner wasn’t. We ate at Zach’s Philly Steaks and Shakes because it had a 5 star review on Yelp with over 40 reviews. The meat and bread is shipped in from Philadelphia and it was a great experience. Check it out sometime!

Next Week

#5 (5A DI) Hutto at #15 (5A DI) Georgetown

by Brett Levy