Kilgore, Ennis meet in area round

Photo by Dr. Jeff Davis RECORD-SETTING PERFORMANCE — Kilgore High School running back Frank Reddic (4), a senior, set two school records with his 348-yard, 54-carry showing last week in the Bulldogs' 31-28 playoff win at Marshall. Reddic had three touchdowns in the game, as well. Kilgore (9-2) faces Ennis (10-1) in the UIL Class 4A Division 2 area round playoff game Friday night at Mesquite Memorial Stadium, a 7:30 p.m. kickoff. The road to the second, or area, round of the UIL Class 4A Division 2 playoffs takes Kilgore and Ennis to a collision course in Mesquite on Friday night.

Kilgore (9-2) will face the Lions (10-1) at Mesquite Memorial Stadium on Friday night at 7:30. The Bulldogs defeated Marshall, a former district rival, in a 31-28 bidistrict round game last week; Ennis soundly defeated Red Oak, playoff team with just four wins, by the score of 55-14.

If you can't travel to the game but would like to listen, here it live on the radio on 1240-AM, or online at tsrnsports.com, with Doug Smith, Ronnie Chappell and Don Hedrick calling the action on both.

Photo by Dr. Jeff Davis HOW MANY LEGS DOES DOMINIQUE HAVE? — Kilgore defensive end Dominique Jones (40) makes the stop on a Marshall offensive player, as a KHS teammate (unseen, except his right leg) helps out. KHS is led, of course, by the incomparable Mike Vallery, who has coached the Ragin' Red to a record of 71-16 since the beginning of the 2002 season, including a state championship in 2004.

Ennis is coached by Sam Harrell, the father of current Texas Tech quarterback Graham Harrell.

Kilgore and Ennis have met only once in football, according to the News Herald's archives, and that was an area playoff game in 1997. Ennis won that meeting, 20-17.

The Lions have been getting the job done on offense. On the season, Ennis is averaging an incredibly high 44 points and 431 yards

of offense per game. In fact, one of the Lions' receivers, Kyle Guinyard, actually leads the Metroplexarea 4A football programs in receiving. Through 11 games, Guinyard has 82 catches for 1,449 yards and 18 touchdowns. Another receiver, Deonte McDade, caught 153 yards and three touchdowns last week. McDade has 62 catches for 780 yards and nine scores in 2008.

Photo by Dr. Jeff Davis A STIFF-ARM SANDWICH — Kilgore's Andrew Ector (1), the Bulldogs' leader in catches and their kick return-punt return specialist, stiff-arms a Marshall player. Ector and the Ragin' Red face Ennis on Friday in Mesquite, one of three playoff games involving teams from the Kilgore News Herald's coverage area. The Ennis quarterback is D.J. Betik, who has completed 183 of 267 passes this season, thrown for 2,812 yards and 30 touchdowns.

The Lions do run a spread offense, and have over 2,900 passing yards through those 11 games played. But to dismiss them as strictly a "passing team" would be dangerous. Ennis has 2,032 yards on the ground.

That ground attack is led by Tim Hearne, who rushed for four touchdowns and 148 yards last week in the Lions' 55-14 demolishing of Red Oak. For the season Hearne has 1,079 yards and 23 touchdowns.

Defensively, Ennis allows 300 yards per game, 143 per game on the ground. Their lone loss of the season came four weeks ago to Waco Midway, a 56-31 defeat.In that game, Midway had a back rush for 224 yards, and Ennis committed six turnovers: three interceptions and three fumbles.

The Lions have given up more than 20 points this year in all but four games. The Bulldogs will count on good defense with no obvious weak link to slow down the Lions' spread attack. Kilgore allowed just 286 yards to Marshall in the win last week, and has only given up 2,717 yards all season, just 247 per game. The Ragin' Red defensive unit has been flagged just 22 times for 250 yards, and has forced 37 three-and-outs (where opponents could not convert on third down) this year.

Kilgore has talent at all defensive positions, and can legitimately run a 4-3 defensive front (four down linemen, three linebackers) or a 3- 4 (the opposite). Defensive end has University of Texas commitment Dominique Jones and Tyler Dennis, who double as tight ends on offense (with Blayne Cole), as well as Shaun Edwards. Vince Cano is one defensive tackle, and Shadow Stokes has also played quite a bit there lately.

Jones has 62 tackles in his senior season, 24 of them unassisted. He has eight tackles for loss, two sacks, one interception (for a touchdown), six batted passes, one caused fumble, two fumble recoveries and is credited with 14 hurries. Dennis has 52 tackles, 23 unassisted, four for loss, a sack, an And Edwards has 39 tackles, two for loss, a sack, a fumble recovery and seven hurries.

Cano had six tackles last week at Marshall, and for the season, the DT/offensive lineman has 42, six of them for a loss. He's got a sack, two batted passes, two caused fumbles, and two hurries. Cole has two sacks on the season, and Stokes has one.

The linebackers on this Kilgore team are as good as any in recent memory. Newcomers like Mishaud Austin, Taylor Carter and Deadrick Lacy have formed quite a corps with mainstays like Trevor Moon and Javarri Kelly. Austin, Carter and Lacy are in their first varsity seasons, and have looked like two-year veterans. Austin leads the entire defense with 86 tackles this season, 12 last week at Marshall. Thirty-two of those tackles have been solo, four for loss. He has five sacks, a pass break-up, a blocked kick, a caused fumble and seven hurries.

Carter made his impression in the second game of the season when he put a hit on a Hallsville player that jarred the ball loose, and allowed Edwards to scoop it up and return it for a touchdown. Carter has been making plays since. He has 72 tackles on the year (second on the team), 24 solo, three for loss, a sack, five hurries and a caused fumble.

Lacy has came on lately, and had a big play last week at Marshall, an interception. On the year he has 54 tackles, 27 of them solo, two hurries, a pass break-up and the pick.

Moon has always been one of the hardest hitters in East Texas, and the senior does a little bit of everything for the Bulldogs — he's a reserve running back on offense as well. He has 65 tackles this season, 32 unassisted, seven for loss (that leads the team), a sack, two pass break-ups, seven hurries, two caused fumbles and one fumble recovery.

Kelly followed in the footsteps of dad Louis and older brother Antonio Kelly, a standout linebacker at KHS in 2003-05. The younger Kelly has 52 tackles this year, 22 solo, five for loss, a sack and a caused fumble.

The secondary is a good one, and all of them have big-play capability. Xavian Sanders had two interceptions against Nacogdoches in the regular-season finale, and has four on the season. The cornerback that doubles as one of Kilgore's leading receivers has 54 tackles to his credit, 36 of them solo, a pass break-up and a pair of fumble recoveries.

C.J. Gary has three interceptions this year to go along with 43 tackles, 23 solo, two for loss and seven pass break-ups. Andrew Ector, one of the fastest players on the team, has 32 tackles, leads the team in pass break-ups (10), one interception, a blocked kick and a caused fumble. And Kendall Moore has 46 stops, five pass break-ups, and an interception on the season.

Ector, Sanders and Moon are all dangerous in the kick and punt return game. Ector averaged 31 yards on two punt returns last week and 25 yards on kickoff returns. He's averaging 18 yards per punt return on the year and 19 per kick return.

The kicking and punting duties are handled very well by a junior, Ryan Bustin, in his third season of varsity football. Bustin has hit 10 of 12 field goal attempts this year, and on a kick that got blocked last week against Marshall, he made a touchdown-saving tackle that turned out to be one of the game's biggest plays. He's successfully kicked 34 of 37 extra point attempts this year.

He's had 28 punts this season and averages 40 yards per punt, and that's huge in the battle for field position.

Running back Frank Reddic gets more attention than anyone on the Kilgore offense, and that's for good reason. Kilgore has gained 3,529 yards of offense this year, and Reddic has 1,901 yards himself. He has 1,880 yards on the ground this year and 20 touchdowns on 312 carries (6 yards per carry). He also has seven catches for 41 yards.

What Reddic has done lately has been incredible. He rushed for almost 700 yards in two games (against Whitehouse on Oct. 24 and against Marshall last week), twice set new school records for yards in a single game and carries in a single game, and at press time, he was leading texasfootball.com's player of the week for the entire state last week.

The senior, though, is humble, and after last week's game, he told Don Hedrick of Ragin' Red Broadcasting that he wouldn't have gotten a single yard without the offensive line in front of him. It's a good — and big — group of tough, physical players, combinations of center Colby Rosen, Cano, Jeff Watson, Tyler Waddle, John Swanson, Kody Keninger and Stokes. That group has helped KHS amass 2,617 rushing yards this year and has given fantastic protection to quarterbacks Steven McBryde and Ken Smith.

Doing a nice job in the backfield as well this year are Courtney Maddox (291 yards and three touchdowns on 62 carries) and Moon (216 yards and two scores on 37 carries). Maddox had a key kickoff return to midfield last week against the Mavericks that shortened the distance Kilgore had to go for the go-ahead touchdown.

McBryde, the senior starter, was 0-for-4 last week against Marshall, but the Ragin' Red didn't have to throw the ball: the Mavericks simply could not stop the run whatsoever. But McBryde had his best game of the year near the end of the regular season at Jacksonville, and is capable of making any throw a high school quarterback would be asked to make. He's completed 52 of 124 passes for 907 yards, eight touchdowns and four interceptions this season. And last week against Marshall, he also ran for a touchdown right up the middle of the Marshall defense. That was his first touchdown carry of the year.

Smith, who backs up McBryde, is a big, lanky kid with a good arm who draws attention whenever he comes onto the field. Smith often lines up at receiver, and one of the biggest plays of the game at Marshall last week was a fourth-downand 6 inside the Marshall 20-yardline. Smith came in at quarterback, and when Marshall's defense bit hard on the fake to Reddic, Smith easily picked up the 6 yards needed for the conversion. Kilgore would go on to score on that drive.

On the season, Smith has attempted just two passes (he's 1 of 2 for 8 yards), but has rushed for 198 yards and two touchdowns on 34 carries. He also has a catch for a 3- yard touchdown.

The Bulldogs' leading receiver is Ector, with 17 receptions for 400 yards and three scores. Sanders is a threat — against Nac, he and McBryde hooked up for an 82- yard scoring pass, complete with a great spin move at the goal line, for six points. He has 12 catches this season for 265 yards and four scores.

Other receivers include Will Mixon, Devaron Harvey, tight ends Dennis, Dominique Jones and Cole, as well as Reddic, and fullbacks Matt Goff and Braylon McCarty.