Mineral Wells Area News

By DAVID MAY / Special to Mineral Wells Area News

Westlake Academy’s junior varsity team didn’t look like your typical JV team. They had size, speed and athleticism.

The Community Christian School Warriors were up to the challenge with speed and athleticism of their own, rolling to a 40-12 win over the Blacksmiths in a Thursday night six-man football matchup at Optimist Field.

Both schools are members of the Texas Association of Independent Athletic Organization – this is CCS’s first year competing in TAIAO. Westlake Academy is a municipally operated, open-enrollment charter school of nearly 900 students in Westlake, located near Keller in far north Tarrant County. A private Christian school, CCS has fewer than 100 enrolled students.

Legendary CCS head coach Gary Rushing liked what he saw from his squad, which is playing a little short-handed, with just eight healthy players available. He hopes two players will return soon to give CCS 10 bodies suited up.

“We played good,” he said. “We gave up some long passes, which has been our problem. We have to really work on that. I thought we tackled much better than we have. Our offense is good. We do three different things, so you can’t just prepare for one thing.”

On Thursday, the Warriors excelled on both sides of the ball. CCS junior running back Hayden Yelverton opened the game by scoring the first of his two first-quarter touchdowns on a 3-yard run into the end zone, then converting the point-after kick for an early 8-0 lead. Yelverton would end up with four touchdowns on the evening.

The CCS defense forced Westlake into a three-and-out offensive series, taking the ball at their own 42. The Warriors needed four plays before Yelverton scored again, this time from 2 yards out. A big play on the drive was a 34-yard pass from freshman quarterback Parker Dehls to sophomore receiver Kayson Gaston to set up the touchdown.

Trailing 14-0, Westlake moved the ball to the Warriors’ 5-yard line, but Dehls came up from his safety position to stuff the Blacksmiths on fourth-and-goal, giving CCS the ball at their own 13 midway through the second quarter.

The Warriors marched downfield on an eight-play drive that began with a 33-yard pass from Dehls to Gaston. Dehls then completed passes to Yelverton and senior receiver Jace Little. Three runs set CCS up at the Blacksmiths’ 6, where Little connected with sophomore River Bryan on a short toss, with Bryan bulling his way across the goal line for the score. A late takedown on Bryant drew a personal foul call against Westlake with less than a minute remaining in the first half.

CCS went to the break leading 22-0.

The Blacksmiths opened the third quarter with a 10-play, 46-yard touchdown drive. A pass attempt nearly batted down by CCS lineman Mikey Ray was deflected into the air and then caught by a Westlake receiver who scored from about 4 yards out. Little sliced through the line of scrimmage to block the Blacksmiths’ point-after attempt to make it a 22-6 contest midway through the third stanza.

The Warriors answered that score with a quick touchdown of their own. On first down from their 38, Dehls hit Ray on a pass and he rumbled 43 yards downfield before being dragged down at the 9. Two plays later from the 5, Yelverton was again in the end zone for his third TD of the night and a 28-6 Warriors lead.

CCS held Westlake to a three-and-out possession to end the third quarter. Three plays into the fourth, the Warriors were flipping the scoreboard again after a Little 20-yard touchdown run and a 34-6 lead. A 21-yard Dehls pass to Bryan preceded Little’s scoring scamper.

The Blacksmiths responded with a seven-play, 63-yard scoring drive to make it 34-12 with just under 3 minutes left in the game.

CCS needed just two plays for their next score, a 31-yard Yelverton run with 2:03 remaining for the final 40-12 margin. The Warriors are now 5-2 on the year. One of the losses is a forfeit that CSS officials said resulted from a scheduling miscommunication and the game not played.

Yelverton’s four running TDs came on just seven carries totaling 98 yards. CCS ran for 163 yards against Westlake.

The young Dehls was 7-of-9 passing for 151 yards and no interceptions.

Bryan led the team defensively with 12 total tackles, 10 of those of the solo variety. Yelverton added 10 tackles of his own, nine of those by himself.

With three games left in the regular season, the Warriors now enter the meat of their schedule. They will host Waco’s Valor Preparatory Academy on Oct. 11, with kickoff set for 7 p.m. Ahead of their Friday game, Valor stood at 4-1 on the season. Faustina and Hill County follow.

Rushing said CCS moved from the Texas Christian Athletic Federation to TAIAO because the Warriors are playing with more home schoolers to field a team this season. 

“I had to keep the same schedule,” he said. “Right now we are playing with eight. That’s impossible. If everybody gets well we will have 10. Our schedule has been good for us. But our next three weeks, we have three tough games. All three are varieties, and all three are good teams, so we will see what (we) are made of these next three weeks.”

Playing in TAIAO Division III, a team cannot have more than 12 players on its roster, Rushing noted. Eight teams will make the playoffs, and Rushing said CCS hopes to be in that post-season group.

“There might be teams better than us, but right now, we are a hard-try team,” he said. “The next three weeks will tell us where we are at. We don’t have to beat all three of them to do good in the playoffs, we just need to play good and get ranked higher.”