Lake Highlands trounced Jesuit Dallas 52-21 Friday night en route to a third straight win over the Rangers.
Christian Rhodes. Photo courtesy of Mike Duhon Photography.
The Wildcats (5-1, 3-0) have won five in a row since a 34-37 season-opener loss to Forney and are undefeated after three district games. They now sit at the top of district standings alongside Berkner (4-1, 3-0), who they will take on in the shared Wildcat-Ram Stadium this Friday as the away team.Â
Lake Highlands was led by strong performances from some of the usual suspects. Chuck Smith threw for 265 yards and a season-high five touchdowns, while SMU commit Christian Rhodes ran for 106 yards and a touchdown on just over 11 yards per carry. Franklon Evans, a junior athlete who has had a breakout season for the Wildcat offense, logged one rushing and two receiving touchdowns on the day as he finished with 80 all-purpose yards.
Jesuit managed to stay in the game until halfway through the second quarter, when touchdowns from Evans and Rhodes buried the Rangers behind a 35-14 deficit with more than six minutes remaining till halftime. Evans ran the ball into the endzone with 1:52 remaining in the quarter to put Lake Highlands up 42-14 at half. Lake Highlands shut out Jesuit in the second half and put the brakes on the offense, which scored a single touchdown in the third and fourth quarters.
The Wildcat defense had a terrific day stopping the Rangers’ rushing attack. After 27 attempts on the ground, Jesuit managed to run for a meager 20 yards as a team (0.74 YPC). Lake Highlands, on the other hand, amassed 196 yards on 26 attempts.
Lake Highlands will next take on Berkner at the Boneyard as the away team on Oct. 17. The game will likely have far-reaching consequences in the UIL District 7-6A championship race.
