Katy Cruises Over Hays Consolidated to Head Back to State
-
Updated: January 10, 2021
photos: Steve Thomas
Tigers rout Rebels to continue quest for ninth state title.
In Texas high school football, certain teams are synonymous with greatness. One of those teams is the Katy Tigers. A perennial 6A powerhouse, the Tigers have won eight state championships in their history. Their most recent championship was a 6A DII title in 2015. Since winning that title, the closest the Tigers had come was reaching the 2017 6A DI semi-finals in which the Tigers lost to Austin Lake Travis.
On Saturday at McLane Stadium in Waco, the Tigers got a chance to make a return to the state championship game and took full advantage of the opportunity with a 63-7 rout of the Hays Consolidated Rebels. Entering Saturday’s game, the Rebels were in the midst of a Cinderella run. In nearly every round leading up to the semi-finals, the Rebels were viewed as the underdog. After their 38-10 win over Leander Vandegrift last week, Hays running back Michael Boudoin III said that the Rebels had been playing with a chip on their shoulders because of their underdog status. Unfortunately for the Rebels, the chip on their shoulder and underdog mentality were not enough to get past the elite Tiger squad.
Throughout the game, the Tigers dominated both sides of the ball. Offensively, the Tigers’ ground game gashed the Rebels’ defense for 357 yards and six touchdowns. Sophomore running back Seth Davis led the team with 169 yards and three touchdowns on the ground. Davis also threw for a touchdown in the first quarter to receiver Nic Andersen on a 12-yard pass. Senior running back Jalen Davis rushed for 111 yards and two touchdowns. Quarterback Caleb Koger also added a touchdown through the air to running back Isaiah Smith. Quarterback Bryce Nirider scored on a one-yard touchdown keeper and connected with receiver Aiden McKinney on a ten-yard touchdown pass.
Defensively, the Tigers held the Rebels to 175 yards of total offense. The Tigers especially wreaked havoc in the backfield and held Hays to -11 total rushing yards. The Tiger defense also recovered three Hays fumbles and held the Rebels to one out of seven on third down. The Rebels did not even have a play in positive territory until just before halftime. Hays quarterback Durand Hill scored the Rebels’ lone touchdown in the third quarter with a 36-yard touchdown pass to receiver Will Agnew.
With the win, Katy improves to 12-1 overall. After the game, Seth Davis expressed great enthusiasm at being able to make such a large contribution to getting Katy back to the state title game. He also gave credit to his offensive line for their performance which allowed him to excel. For his part, head coach Gary Joseph expressed great pride in his team’s performance. He indicated that the win was especially meaningful to the seniors because many of them felt a sense of failure for not having reached a state championship game in their previous seasons.
Next week, the Tigers will take on the Cedar Hill Longhorns in the UIL 6A DII Championship Game at AT&T Stadium in Arlington. These two teams have a long history of meeting for a state title:
2012 5A Division II - Katy 35, Cedar Hill 24 2013 5A Division II - Cedar Hill 34, Katy 24 2014 6A Division II - Cedar Hill 23, Katy 20
The game will be on Saturday at 1:00pm CST. Hays, meanwhile, finishes the season at 10-4.
by Steve Thomas
Players pictured:
Katy
- 1 Jayden Rodriguez
- 8 Aiden McKinney
- 10 Caleb Koger
- 25 Shepherd Bowling
- 56 Vasileios Katsigiannis
- 66 Omar Aigbedion
- 76 CJ Marsh
- 78 Dylan Erickson
- 91 Cal Varner
Hays Consolidated
- 4 Michael Boudoin III
- 5 Durand Hill
- 29 Josh Rodriguez
- 57 Charles Croft II
- 58 Kaden Moreland
- 77 Tyler Prassel
- 97 Sean McSorley
Related Posts
You must be logged in to post a comment.