Tyler Legacy set for first road game against Texas High

Published 1:28 pm Thursday, September 15, 2022

Tyler Legacy will have its first road trip of the season when it takes on Texas High at 7 p.m. Friday at Tiger Stadium at Grim Park in Texarkana.

The Red Raiders (1-2) are coming off of a 69-0 loss to No. 1 Longview, which scrimmaged Texas High in the preseason.

“Obviously, that’s a tough game, regardless of whether you win or lose,” Legacy head football coach Joe Willis said. “The week before, we won, and we couldn’t get that out of our system. We didn’t have a great week of practice. We were kind of hungover after the big win. This week, obviously after a big loss, hopefully we got our feelings hurt and got embarrassed a little bit. I think our kids are going to respond. You’re going to have games like that where things don’t go your way. We’ve got to put that behind us. We’ve got to bounce back. There’s going to be hard days, and you can’t just quit and give up. You’ve got to pull yourself up by your bootstraps and go back to work, and that’s what our kids did this week.”

Texas High (2-1) bounced back from a season-opening 38-33 loss to Frisco Lone Star with wins of 48-23 over Colleyville Heritage — where Willis coached before Legacy — and 46-35 over Benton (Louisiana).

The Tigers have thrown for 1,025 yards with senior Cody Reese going 40 of 65 for 808 yards with six touchdowns and no interceptions. Texas High has balance at receiver with TJ Gray (16 catches, 265 yards, two touchdowns), Xavier Dangerfield (14 catches, 341 yards, three touchdowns and Brandon Hall (12 catches, 259 yards, two touchdowns).

“They’re very skilled, and they’ve got a really good receiver corps,” Willis said. “Those guys have put up a lot of points and a lot of yards, so we’ve got our work cut out for us in the secondary. We’ve got to do a good job of pass rush, making sure the quarterback is uncomfortable.”

The Tigers also have 425 yards rushing, led by freshman Tradarian Ball, who has 24 carries for 143 yards and three touchdowns.

Legacy is led on the ground by quarterback Luke Wolf (28 carries, 168 yards, two touchdowns). Running backs Ladarius Yarber (27 carries, 113 yards, two touchdowns) and Sterlin Burleson (17 carries, 68 yards; five catches, 57 yards) will return to the lineup for the Red Raiders this week.

Offensive lineman Jordan Crawford made his season debut last week after missing the first two weeks with a knee injury.

“It felt amazing to be back with my guys working,” Crawford said. “We came up a little short, but we’ve been out here working hard this whole week, and we are looking to respond this week.”

Defensively, Legacy will be without defensive end Travis Jackson (19 tackles, four tackles for loss, two sacks) for the first half after he was ejected in last week’s game against Longview.

Junior linebacker Brooks Gallagher is leading the Red Raiders with 41 tackles. He also has three tackles for loss and two sacks.

“I really learned from my seniors last year,” Gallagher said. “They taught me the ways and taught me how to do things right, and I feel like that’s really helped me going into this year, because I know the expectations and what I’ve got to do to get the things done.”

Following Friday, the Red Raiders will begin District 10-6A play against Mesquite at 7 p.m. Sept. 23 at Hanby Stadium in Mesquite.