By Jay Neal
sports@jacksonvilleprogress.com
TYLER — Jacksonville needed three wins in pool play Saturday to advance to the semifinals of the Tyler-Lee State (7-on-7) Qualifying Tournament at Lindsey Park.
The Indians came up a victory short as Houston Episcopal toyed with the Tribe defense all day, using a series of short, underneath pass receptions to set up touchdowns via the long ball to beat Jacksonville 49-42 in the second game of pool play.
Episcopal also defeated Mabank 21-20 and tied Tyler-Lee “B” 41-all to capture with the Pool “A” championship.
In the Indians’ opening game, they had little trouble downing Lee “B” 42-12.
The Tribe closed out pool play by knocking off Mabank 34-18 in a contest that was halted by the officials with about two minutes remaining due to a few players from both teams being ejected for unsportsmanlike conduct.
Whitehouse, a District 14-4A member along with the Tribe, got by Tyler Lee “A” 34-28 in the title game, but both schools earned a berth in the 12th annual Fox Sports 7-on-7 Division I State Tournament on July 10-11 in College Station.
The Wildcats toppled John Tyler 33-21 in the semifinals, and Tyler-Lee “A” got the best of Episcopal 40-32 in the other semifinal affair.
Indians 42,
Red Raiders ‘B’ 12
The morning started off with a bang for the Indians as Jacksonville scored 22 unanswered points in the first half to take a commanding 22-6 lead over the Lee “B” at the break.
The Tribe got on the board when Ryan Black connected with LaVonte Franklin on a 5-yard touchdown strike.
Following a Black-to-Justin Davis 2-point conversion, the Indians took an 8-6 lead that they would never relinquish.
Following a defensive stop, the Tribe went right back to work as Black found Trey Shanks alone in the end zone for the Indians’ second touchdown. The play was set up by a 35-yard completion to Davis on first down.
Black then dialed up Chris Hall on the 2-point conversion try, putting the Blue and Gold in front 16-6.
The final Indian score of the half came late in the segment when Black fired a strike to Brandon Orr from around 18 yards out.
The second half began just as the initial half ended with Black connecting with Orr on an out route, this time from 37 yards away.
Shanks caught the 2-point conversion just inside the goal line to put Jacksonville in front 36-6.
Jacksonville’s final score came with about nine minute to play in the period when Black zeroed in on Franklin for a 14-yard touchdown reception.
Knights 49, Indians 42
Episcopal, a member of the Southwest Preparatory Conference (Division I) with an enrollment of 638 students, may have been an unknown entity to many prior to tournament play, but after Saturday’s action, the Knights from the Houston community of Bellaire had gained the attention, and the respect, of many — including the Jacksonville Indians.
Episcopal’s mode of operation was somewhat simple — a series of high-percentage short-range passes that proved to be difficult to defend.
Just as the defense made adjustments to stop the shirt gainers, the Knights would unleash the long passes, which they hauled in with great accuracy as well.
“They (Episcopal) used a lot of short-zone stuff that was hard to play against without a defensive line,” Jacksonville defensive coordinator Michael Baysinger explained after the game.
Episcopal didn’t start out that well as Cory Hamlett picked off the Knights’ quarterback on Episcopal’s second play of the game, returning the ball about eight yards for a defensive score.
The Knights came back on their ensuing possession to move in front 7-6 on a successful 15-yard scoring toss and a single-point conversion.
The Black-to-Orr combo put the Indians in front 12-7 as Orr caught a short-range throw from Black while being unguarded in the end zone — the conversion attempt failed.
After the Knights ballooned their margin to 22-12, the Indians were able to cut the deficit when Black found Shanks from around 8 yards out for six points, which put the Indians to within four points of the Knights, 22-18.
Episcopal continued to work its magic on offense, getting the ball back with less than a minute to play in the opening period.
After an incompletion on the first play, the Episcopal quarterback lofted a pass over the Jacksonville defense to an uncovered receiver as the Knights added a pivotal touchdown with 15 seconds left in the half. The conversion effort failed as the Indians trailed 28-18 at intermission.
Jacksonville got the ball first in the second half and need just five plays to put the ball in the end zone.
Black’s 12-yard touchdown toss to Hall cut the Episcopal lead to 28-24 (conversion try was no good).
Each team then went on to score touchdowns on their next two possessions in the high-scoring tilt.
Jacksonville’s scores came on an 8-yard Black-to-Hall pass and a 17-yard Black-to-Orr strike.
With around five minutes left in the game, Episcopal put the spike in the Indians’ coffin when a Knight receiver came down with an 8-yard touchdown catch in heavy traffic in the end zone.
Following a single-point conversion, Episcopal found itself in the driver’s seat, leading 49-36 with four minutes left to play.
A Black-to-Franklin scoring connection from nearly 30 yards out resulted in the Indians’ final six points of the game.
Brody Finch had an interception in the second half for the Tribe.
Indians 34 Panthers 18
Playing their third-consecutive contest of the morning and playing strictly for pride and experience, Jacksonville and Mabank finished up Pool “A” play with a chippy scrum that seemingly had both teams focused more on jawing back-and-forth with each other at times than actually trying to have their actions do the talking.
The Indians drew first blood when Hamlett reeled in a 9-yard pass from Black on the Tribe’s second possession of the half.
The segment closed with the Tribe in front 14-0 as Black connected with Davis in the final seconds of the frame for a touchdown catch-and-run that covered the length of the field — the Black-to-Davis tandem also netted a 2-point conversion for the Blue and Gold.
As the teams prepared to break for the half the officials issued the first warning to both teams — a call to keep their emotions in check and their mouths closed.
The Indians quickly added six more points when Black made a short toss to Davis, who turned into a go-to man during the SQT play, for six more points.
Mabank finally broke into the scoring column on the ensuing possession, but its touchdown was washed out by a Black-to-Shanks short-range scoring strike on the Indians’ next possession as Jacksonville moved ahead 28-6 following a successful two-point conversion to Orr.
Jacksonville’s final points also came by the way of a bomb from Black to Orr that came with just over 4 minutes to go in the game.
Black stated after the game that the overall experience was very beneficial for him and that he anticipated the Indians to be ready for business come the opening of fall drills on Aug. 3.
“The 7-on-7 games have helped me and have helped our passing game,” he said. “We have been able to work on coach (Robert) Ford’s passing plays that should help to take some of the pressure off of (featured running back) Kendrick (Hatton) this year.
“I think we will be ready to rock and roll when two-a-days start.”
