After averaging 30 passes a game, the Spartans (4-3, 3-2) threw only one pass in their first 16 plays and finished with 54 carries for 343 yards rushing.
“We were [set up to defend the pass], and then they figured out what we were doing, and they changed some routes and made some big plays,” Bryan coach Ross Rogers said.
Senior tailback Xavier Howard ran for 172 yards and four touchdowns on 21 carries. Howard gave Cy-Lakes a 6-0 lead with a 5-yard TD run to cap a 55-yard, six-play drive — all on the ground.
Bryan (1-5, 0-4) cut the lead in half with a 22-yard Nico Bulhof field goal that capped a 14-play, 59-yard drive.
The second Cy-Lakes touchdown came on Sofian Massoud’s second pass, a 50-yarder down the left sideline to a wide open Khaliq Abdul-Mateen, who ranks second in 14-6A with eight TD receptions.
Massoud, a move-in from New York who is committed to Houston, completed only eight passes, 10 below his average, but he needed only 11 attempts and averaged 28 yards a completion.
“[Massoud] is awful special,” Rogers said. “We had five secondary guys out tonight from the first of the year, so it was a tough night for us to face that kind of a passing attack.”
Massoud gave Cy-Lakes a 20-3 lead with a 2-yard touchdown run.
The Vikings responded, driving to the Cy-Lakes’ 27-yard line then appearing to reach the 1 on a 26-yard pass from Bulhof to Camden Gray, but the play was called back because of an illegal formation. Bryan eventually turned the ball over on downs, and less than 2 minutes later Massoud found Josh McMillan for a 19-yard TD pass.
“It would have kept them off the field a little bit more, and we would have been a little more representative,” Rogers said of the Gray catch and a later touchdown run called back because of penalties. “They are a good football team with a lot of speed on defense on. We just needed to keep the ball a lot more than we did.”
Bryan recovered an onside kick to open the second half, but officials ruled the Vikings touched the ball just before it went the necessary 10 yards. With the short field, the Spartans increased their lead to 34-3 on the first of Howard’s three second-half touchdown runs. Two of the TD runs capped drives that took at least eight plays — drives Massoud often kept alive with his scrambling ability.
“Not only is he a great thrower downfield, he’s hard to tackle and he’s elusive,” Rogers said. “We saw it on the film all week long. Several of the plays he’d scramble and then he had the whole field open.”
Massoud finished with 78 yards on 17 carries and avoided sacks all night.
Bryan closed the gap after Howard’s first third-quarter TD run. On a fourth-and-2, the Vikings put in their goal-line set and ran Christian Richardson outside. The senior outraced the Spartan secondary down the Bryan sideline for a 67-yard touchdown run. Richardson finished with 101 yards rushing.
The Vikings also got a sack from senior Caleb Merrell in the first half to force the Spartan’s only punt, and senior Cameron White and sophomore Nic Caraway stopped Howard for negative yardage on separate plays... Click here to read full article
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