We made our way down to Choctaw Stadium in Arlington, Texas for our second match up of Week 6. The 4-1 South Grand Prairie Warriors take on the 3-2 Arlington Martin Warriors in a 6A District 8 matchup. It was yet another rainy afternoon but once again the rain steered away from the stadium during game time.
South Grand Prairie would start off with the ball to begin the game. On the first play of the game AJ Newberry would fake a run, and throw a 28-yard pass to senior wideout Joseph Stewart. Grand Prairie would stall in their own red zone, and end up missing their field goal attempt. Arlington Martin would take over inside their own 20-yard line.
Senior quarterback Cydd Ford would do it all on the first drive of the night for Martin. Early in the drive he would connect with No. 40 for an easy 20-yard completion. A few screen passes would move the chains for Martin, and set them up inside the red zone. Cydd Ford would take the read-option himself 15-yards and then bulldoze his way into the end zone.
The Martin Warriors would keep their foot on the gas pedal by kicking and recovering an onside kick. Ford would get the drive going with a quick strike to Zaire Barrow. Five-star cornerback Javien Toviano would then get a handful of carries to help the Martin Warriors take an early 14-0 lead. South Grand Prairie would finally get a chance on offense with under two minutes in the first quarter. They wouldn’t be on the field for long though as Michael Stallworth would have his pass tipped at the line of scrimmage and then intercepted by sophomore linebacker Jake Landrum.
Javien Toviano wasn’t done showing off his athleticism for the night though. Even though he is a five-star cornerback, Toviano is very effective at running back as well for Arlington Martin. On 4th & 20 Javien would take the handoff 44-yards to the house to score as time expired in the 1st quarter.
Both teams would fail to do anything with their first drives of the 2nd quarter. South Grand Prairie would actually force a turnover on downs with just under six minutes left in the half. Stallworth would take it himself for a 32-yard touchdown for the first score for the Grand Prairie Warriors a few plays later.
Cydd Ford had recently talked to his head coach about putting him in on the return team as a blocker and it definitely was a great decision tonight. Ford would shut down any momentum that South Grand Prairie built with that score by taking back a kick off 67-yards for a touchdown. Martin would fail to convert the two point conversion but they would bring the lead back to a comfortable 21 points.
Stallworth would try to get the Grand Prairie Warriors offense going to retaliate but nothing would come of it. They would be forced to punt the ball, and Alrington Martin would capitalize off of it. Only a few plays later Cydd Ford would hit Myles Hill for a 30-yard touchdown with 1:30 left in the half. Martin would kick their extra point, and take a 35-7 lead into halftime over South Grand Prairie.
The second half of the game would be all Arlington Martin as they would score 21 more points in the 3rd quarter. AJ Newberry was able to break off a 73-yard touchdown to bring the score to 49-14 with 4:30 in the quarter. Ford would come back on the next drive and make two big completions to Zaire Barrow and newly named Homecoming King Trey Cochran. Barrow would take a quick pass 29-yards into the redzone. Cochran would then haul in a 21-yard touchdown pass to make it 56-14 heading into the 4th quarter.
Martin would do a good job containing the South Grand Prairie offense, and run the clock out in the fourth quarter. Cydd Ford would finish the game with 171 passing yards, 30 rushing yards, and three total touchdowns on the night. Zaire Barrow had six touches for 65 total yards. Sophomore athlete Tristan Bittle would have 43 rushing yards and a touchdown, and Javien Toviano would have three touches for 74 total yards and a touchdown. On the defensive side of the ball Nana Boadi-Owusu would have nine total tackles, four tackles for a loss and a sack.
Our player of the game would have to be Cydd Ford, quarterback for Arlington Martin. Not only was he able to play a great game of football he also set the tone on the first touchdown of the night by lowering his shoulder and banging into the end zone. He might not be the biggest guy on the field but his willingness to go out and try his hardest to win is a great trait to have on your offense. Be sure to check out our first game from Week 6 featuring Marcus High School and Plano High School.
