Llano 14 - Liberty Hill 63
Llano 27 - Blanco 13
Llano 10 - Early 13
Llano 19 - Commanche 0
Llano 41 - Vista Ridge 20
Llano 34 - Comfort 20
Llano 48 - Ingram 27
Llano 24 - Brady 26
Llano 35 - Bandera 26
Llano 17 - Wimberly 42

Play to Win Archives

2003

2004

LISD Football Records

Play To Win

By Mikel R. Virdell…recording the history of the Fighting Llano Yellowjackets since 1973.

It is hard to remember a better team victory than the 34-20 win Thursday night in Comfort. And few games come to memory with such a shocking outcome.
The first half may have been the least inspired game I have seen in years, by a group of players going through the motions. Llano had 6 yards of offense in the first quarter, one first down (due to a Comfort penalty), and the defense had allowed 171 yards and 14 points. It was going to be a long Thursday night football game.
The suspension of 6 varsity football players earlier in the week was a real downer. Disappointment would be the most descriptive word. After the first few plays you could nearly see the Jackets saying, “Who cares?” At halftime my own thoughts were, “let’s get this thing over with, regroup during off week, and start district.”
Thank goodness I wasn’t on the sidelines.
Somewhere between the first and second quarter, and the beginning of the first play of the second half, someone said the right things to a group of 16 and 17 year old kids. Someone told a bunch of kids to get their heads up. Someone made halftime adjustments that made the “flat as a pancake” offense come alive, as it has not seen this season. Someone got these kids attention, and the kids…. the players, responded.
The Players responded by being respected. The kids responded by having a Coach that would not quit on them. The players responded because they believed in themselves. What a great team victory, by a team that was given little chance to win on this clear Thursday night after the first 24 minutes of play.
A play-by-play column would be fun for me, because each play was better than the last. From the first play of the second half, when tailback Shane Pope hit the hole hard for 3 yards. I thought that was all he had left. Then up from the JV, running back Josh Yocum sweeps left for 14 yards. A first down by quarterback Jordan Leverett…and so on and so on. 66 yards later, 9 running plays and Llano had tied the score up.
The Jackets running game continued on. The next drive of 97 yards (one 5-yard penalty), covered 9 plays, the spark of 29 yards by Lance Dickey.
The next drive of 78 yards and 11 plays put the score at 27-20.
The running of Shane Pope will go down in my mind as one of the really great individual efforts ever. He would not go down. He hit people when he was running with the football. Shane was running under the pads of the secondary players as they came up to tackle him. And he was holding on to the ball with both hands at all times. That presence of mind to not be a showboat told me all I needed to know about Pope. Shane with Lance and his speed, and a different type of speed from Yocum defied the Comfort defense. These three underclassmen, junior quarterback Leverett, and junior quarterback David Lindley coming in to shake up things even more…the Jackets have six highly talented players all with different talents. Oh, did I forget to mention Jordan Clayton? Sorry…his 20 yards rushing too gives this group something very special.
But, the credit for this win, first goes to an offensive line that was terrible the first half, and great the second half. Junior center Jonathan Hill and guards Neil Stripling, Kyle Miiller, Brent Wooten, and tackle Tyler Hoerster began their long road back to re-learning “run blocking”. Blocking for the run requires an offensive lineman to fire straight out from their four-point stance, and stay lower than the shoulder pads of the defensive lineman they are blocking on. That is all it takes. And the second half against Comfort, this offensive line started doing just that. And the result was hard running by Pope, Leverett, Lance, Josh, David, and Jordan. And their success came from hard and tough offensive lineman, who will not get much credit for the Jackets 275 rushing yards in three quarters.
The second credit must go to a defense using many players that do not have names. Their parents and coaches know them, but many others like me need to learn. Still, I know Corey Ritchie, Chris Severance, Kyle Miiller, and Garrett Thompson stepped up big time. Garrett plays so very hard on every play. He with
Ritchie, Sam Whitaker and Luke Meador do not have an off button. Lance Dickey continues to save game breaking runs from becoming TDs, and Davis Willmann! What a special effort from the big three year starter. Two interceptions, a TD run back to seal the victory, and what a leader. With younger players on the field Thursday night, Davis reminded everyone what it really means to be a Yellowjacket. Playing hard on every play is what Davis is all about.
Whatever the Jackets are doing in practice to rid themselves of bad habits…keep it up. The Coaching is “taking”. You done good in the win over Comfort as pride pushes the Jackets to open week and a 4-1 record.
The suspensions this past week were the best thing to happen to Llano football in a long, long time. Head football Coach David Yeager made a hard decision to suspend the six players. The six players are major reasons the Jackets are a pretty good football team. But, as we saw Thursday night, not the only reasons. Coach Yeager’s decision, while being hard…. was not a decision to ponder for him. It was not only the right thing to do, but it was the only thing to do. The backing from the community has been nearly, 100%. Parents of suspended players were at the game. That says a lot. Hopefully, with the beginning of District play, everyone associated with the Llano Yellowjackets, will now be playing on the same team. We also now know we have a head football coach and athletic director that has integrity. (Pointed out to me by an old Yellowjacket) And for all the football games won, not one is worth not having that. Yeager and his staff remind me of the saying that we had on the mast of the original Buzz newspaper, quoted from former Wyoming U.S. Senator Alan Simpson:

If you have integrity, nothing else matters;
If you don’t have integrity, nothing else matters