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| MESQUITE - Longview had to play without running backs Taylor Tatum and Alijah Johnson due to injuries during Friday night's District 7-5A Division I road game against North Mesquite at Mesquite Memorial Stadium, but other players stepped up to help the Lobos pull away in a 42-19 win.
That's why the Lobos improved to 7-0 on the season, and 4-0 in league play. Meanwhile, the Stallions dropped to 2-5 and 1-3 respectively. "It's what the trainers told me to do," Longview athletic director and head football coach John King said of the Friday absences of Tatum and Johnson. "We found a way to overcome it," he added. "It's a team game. If one man's down, the next man steps up. That's what we had tonight." That Longview trend began with a player at their position. Kelvin Washington started his breakout performance with a 29-yard carry on the first offensive play of the game. He added a two-yard run on the second play, and followed with a four-yard touchdown run on the third to give the Lobos an early 7-0 lead at the 10:40 mark of the opening quarter. Washington ultimately finished the game with 106 rushing yards and three rushing touchdowns, and added two receptions for 70 yards and a score in the third period. He then earned a six-yard touchdown that grew Longview's advantage to 14-0 at the 6:51 mark of the first quarter. North Mesquite finally responded with Luke Seder's 84-yard touchdown pass to Cordale Russell at the 11:34 mark of the second period, but Washington added another four-yard touchdown run, and Ta'Darion Boone returned a fumble 35 yards that extended the Lobo lead to 28-6 at the 2:49 mark of the frame. The Stallions regrouped before the halftime break, and cut their deficit to 28-12. They launched their next scoring drive when Seder's 68-yard pass landed in the hands of Russell. That set up their 17-yard touchdown connection with 1:09 left in the first half. Longview quarterback Jordan Allen was slow out of the gate on Friday, but heated up in the second half to help his team finish off the win. He started the night with five straight incompletions, but finally broke through for back-to-back completions in the third quarter. The first arrived during a six-yard pass to Washington at the 7:18 mark of the period, and the second found his teammate on a 64-yard touchdown strike that grew Longview's lead to 35-12 with 6:02 remaining in the frame. Then, on the next possession, Allen added a 50-yard pass to Jalen Hale. His streak of consecutive completions came to an end when he was unable to find a receiver on a pass headed for the end zone, but he immediately bounced back with a 30-yard touchdown pass to Hale that grew Longview's lead to 42-12 at the 2:57 mark of the quarter. Allen ultimately finished the game with a 4-for-11 passing performance for 150 yards and a pair of touchdowns. Longview drained most of the fourth quarter clock by running the ball, but North Mesquite defender Fae'jon Gillyard popped the ball out on one of the carries, and returned it 25 yards for a touchdown that wrapped up the game's scoring with 3:09 remaining. |