Lake Belton prepares to face Highland Park in first round

Jon Farrow

Daniel Taylor

Telegram Sports Writer

Lake Belton knew last week was a must-win game in order to reach its fourth playoff berth in as many seasons. The Broncos used the energy created by Christian Onchweri’s 90-yard kickoff return for a touchdown just before halftime to wipe away any hope Killeen Chaparral had of an upset, and Lake cruised from there to a 53-20 victory.

“I think that we hadn’t executed the way we needed to, and I think Christian was just a spark,” Lake head coach Brian Cope said. “You could tell kind of in the locker room at halftime as well.”

Keeping that momentum in hand will be crucial this week, as the Broncos (5-5) hit the road for a bi-district playoff against Dallas Highland Park (9-1) at 7 p.m. Friday at Highlander Stadium. The winner will face either Carrollton Creekview or Frisco Reedy in the area round next week.

Lake’s defense will face a tough test against a Highland Park offense that averages 48 points per game. Led by head coach Randy Allen, the winningest active high school football coach in Texas, the Scots roll out 446.9 yards per game.

“They’re not trying to be overly flashy. They’re going to get in formations and execute their plays at a very high level,” Lake defensive coordinator Randy Hooton said. “Offensively and scheme-wise that’s just who they are. They do a great job of getting to the spots they need to get to.”

Being disruptive against Highland Park’s offense is the key focus, which starts with the Broncos’ defensive line.

“We’ve got to be able to create uncertainty up front for them. If we can make the quarterback think a little bit about what’s happening in front of him, that’s less focus he has on what’s going on,” Hooton said. “We’ve also got to be able to provide different looks because if we stay in the same look, if he hadn’t figured it out pre-snap he’s going to figure it out several plays in and go from there so we have to have variety in what we do to continue to create that uncertainty.”

Slowing down Highland Park’s Buck Randall could be challenging. The junior quarterback tallies an average of 317.6 yards passing per night and has 38 touchdown passes on the season. In last week’s District 7-5A-I championship against Midlothian, he tallied 255 yards on 10-of-16 passing while adding four TD passes to lead the Scots to the 42-28 win.

Highland Park’s ground attack is highlighted by running back Matthew White. The senior back runs at an average of 55 yards per night and has added 10 touchdowns in his nine games played this season. His most notable performance came against Tyler, where he ran 15 times for 140 yards and five TDs.

“[Randall] runs the show, he’s very good, he sees what he needs to see, puts the ball in places he wants, he’s very sharp that way,” Hooton said. “Their running back is a hard nosed football player also. He blocks hard, runs hard, catches well in the backfield. Very talented in that.”

Lake’s offense

The Broncos go into the matchup with the offensive firepower to hang with Highland Park as long as the execution is there. In the five wins this season Lake’s offense averaged 388.8 yards and 44.8 points per game. In the five losses, however, Lake’s offense only put up 28.4 points per game despite posting an average of 391.8 yards in the losses.

Establishing a run game should be a little bit easier this week, as leading rusher Zyien Dupree should be back after missing last week with the flu. The sophomore running back averages 67.3 yards per night and has nine touchdowns in as many games played this season.

“I’ve said it a few times but you’ve got to be able to win on first down so you’re sitting at second-and-5 vs. second-and-10,” Cope said. “You’ve got to be able to run the ball real well, which we’ve done in certain games, and then it turns into man-to-man quite often. You’ve got to take man-to-man personal, and our receivers coaches have done a good job last week on preaching that.”

Lake’s passing attack has done well with the absence of usual starter Maverik Maddux. The duo of Jessiah James and Reese Rosenbaum have seemed to find their footing and manage the rotation well based on the situations of the games.

“They’ve played quite a few games now and so I think there’s not a lot of things you can throw at them and so you’ve got to leave it all out there,” Cope said. “They’re going to be really well coached and so (we’ve) got to take some shots early and see if we can find a way to get a lead and then try to sustain that lead.”

The two are a combined 92-of-154 for 1,449 yards and 14 touchdowns this year. James leads the two with 1,199 yards and 10 TDs on 68-of-117 passing.

Hostile environment

One of the toughest challenges facing the Broncos is another road trip. Of the five games played on the road, Lake has only won one of those matchups, and that was against 2-8 Killeen Chaparral. Friday night’s matchup against Highland Park has potential to be one of the more hostile environments the Broncos have faced all season.

“I think we’ve just got to go in and go,” Hooton said. “It’s a neat environment just the way the stadium sits with the stands right on top of the field. Once they get out there and get a feel for how close things are and all the pregame stuff, once you get beyond that it just becomes a football game.”

“It’s playoff football,” Cope added. “So you’ve got to be able to answer and execute when your number is called.”

Weekly Honors

This week’s team MVP was Gavin Owens, who set a record for career tackles in the school’s short history. Other awards include AJ Alexander (offensive MVP), Nick Basak (defensive MVP) and Christian Onchweri (212 award).

dtaylor@tdtnews.com