After a long offseason, we were more than happy for the Texas High School football season to kick off. Our first stop was at Wilkerson-Sanders Memorial Stadium in Rockwall, Texas as the Rockwall-Heath Hawks took on the Timber Creek Falcons. Rockwall-Heath is coming into the season with not just one of the best offenses in the state, but arguably one of the best in the nation. Timber Creek High School’s football team is headlined by four-star running back Emeka Megwa who unfortunately would not be participating in tonight’s match up.
Rockwall-Heath would start off the 1st half with the ball, and score within a matter of minutes. Indiana commit Josh Hoover would connect with tight end Lance Mason on a 48-yard touchdown strike. Timber Creek wouldn’t even have the ball for more than one play as they fumbled on their opening play of the game. After the Hawks recovered the fumble, they would hand the ball off to Minnesota commit Zach Evans for a 12-yard touchdown. Just a few minutes into the game, Heath already forced a comfortable 14-0 lead over the Falcons.
Jacob Porter and Timber Creek would finally get things going on the next drive. After a deep pass setting the Falcons inside Rockwall-Heath’s 10-yard line, Porter would connect with Maddox Allbritton on a nine-yard touchdown. Unfortunately that happiness wouldn’t last long for the Falcons as two plays later; Rockwall-Heath scored once again. This time Josh Hoover would complete a 48-yard bomb to Baylor commit Jordan Nabors to put the Hawks up 21-7 at the end of the 1st quarter.
The Falcons formed a solid drive down the field and would get down to the Hawks one-yard line. They subbed in ‘23 wide receiver Lonnie Johnson as wildcat QB and punched the ball into the endzone. Suddenly we had a shoot-out on our hands as the score read 21-14 with 11 minutes left in the 2nd quarter. Once again though Josh Hoover & the Hawks offense were ready to respond. This time he connected with Auburn commit Jay Fair on a 58-yard touchdown strike to give Rockwall-Heath back their 14 point cushion.
At this point it seemed that Rockwall-Heath was literally scoring too fast for their defense to keep up with. The very next drive Timber Creek would pull some tricks out of Rockwall-Heath’s hat and form a two play scoring drive. Jacob Porter would complete a 33-yard pass to Lonnie Johnson which would give Johnson his second TD of the day. Right on queue though the Falcons defense would give up a gigantic play once again on defense. This time Zach Evans would break off a monstrous 50-yard touchdown, giving him his second touchdown of the night as well. After the extra point, the score was now 35-21 with roughly six minutes left in the 1st half.
Once again the Falcons were able to form together a very quick drive and score. It took them just two minutes to bring the game back to a one touchdown game as Lonnie Johnson capped off the drive with his third TD of the half. Jay Fair would add onto his huge night with another deep pass from Hoover. The very next play the Hawks would dial up a reverse and have Jordan Nabors rush in for a nine-yard score. He would now get his second touchdown of the night too. 10 touchdowns later we would finally get to halftime with a 42-28 Rockwall-Heath lead.
As we started the 3rd quarter the Timber Creek Falcons would put up possibly the longest drive of the game. Timber Creek stalled at their own 44-yard line, and turned the ball over after a failed 4th down attempt. With that drive taking up nearly eight minutes, most of the 3rd quarter was already gone. Of course that wouldn’t matter too much for Rockwall-Heath as they flipped the field very quickly once again. Jordan Nabors hauled in another big catch, and Lance Mason would cap off the drive with a 12-yard touchdown pass. Lance Mason, Zach Evans, Jordan Nabor, & Lonnie Johnson now all have multiple TDs accounted for themselves in this game.
Right before the end of the 3rd quarter the Falcons were able to march down the field and keep the game close. Jacob Porter completed his 4th touchdown pass of the game to Jahrid Hughes. This would bring the score to 49-35 as we head into the 4th quarter.
During the opening drive of the fourth quarter Jay Fair brought the Hawks scoring position once again with a 27-yard reception. Sophomore running back Malachi Tuesno would punch in the three-yard touchdown to extend Heath’s lead to 21-points. With roughly 10 minutes left in the game the Falcons would get the ball back and march the ball into scoring position as well. They’d get to the one-yard line before subbing Lonnie Johnson back in at wildcat quarterback where he’d collect his 4th touchdown of the game.
Now with a score of 56-42, we finally saw some defense show up to the game. Timber Creek would force Rockwall-Heath’s only punt of the game, and get the ball back with four minutes left. Alec Sauimaniphanh would help get the Falcons back into the redzone with some powerful running. With two minutes left, Johnson would come down with his fifth touchdown of the game. Jacob Porter would also surpass 400-yard passing on that 18-yard touchdown completion. Unfortunately for Timber Creek there just wasn’t enough time left in the game to pull off the comeback. Zach Evans would go over the 110-yard rushing mark, and close out the game for Rockwall-Heath.
Over 1,000 yards of total offense was put up between the two teams in what was one of the best opening match-ups of the season. Josh Hoover would finish with 406 passing yards & 5 touchdowns, along with Jacob Porter’s 400 passing yards & 5 touchdowns. Alec Sauimaniphanh finished with 21 carries for 125 rushing yards and Zach Evans would finish with 111 rushing yards & two touchdowns on just 11 carries. Maddox Allbritton would finish the game with 14 receptions, 163 receiving yards and a touchdown. Jahrid Hughes also finished with a strong performance of five catches for 75-yards and a touchdown. We also had Jordan Nabors finishing with seven receptions for 120 yards and two total touchdowns. Lance Mason coming down with two touchdowns himself, and Jay Fair with six catches for 184-yards and a touchdown too.
Even with all those crazy numbers though, our Player of the Game had to go to Lonnie Johnson. Though his team lost, Johnson finished with 12 touches for 134 total yards & five total touchdowns. He was clutch when he needed to be, and pretty much put the team on his back from the opening kickoff. Be sure to check out our second game of our Week 1 matchups as Lewisville High School takes on Arlington Bowie High School.
