Tyler Legacy returns from bye week, hosts Rockwall-Heath on Thursday

Published 1:56 pm Wednesday, October 5, 2022

Tyler Legacy will return to the field for the first time in 13 days when it hosts Rockwall-Heath at 7 p.m. Thursday at Christus Trinity Mother Frances Rose Stadium.

The Red Raiders (1-4, 0-1) had their bye week following a 37-14 loss to Mesquite on Sept. 23 at E.H. Hanby Stadium.

“It was a really good week for us,” Legacy head coach Joe Willis said. “We haven’t been healthy, and that’s something I told the players. We have not had a game this season, and we’ve played some really good people, where we’ve had all of our starters on the field. We’ve got a chance to have all of our starters on the field for the first time this year, and that’s a big deal to have those guys with experience and our playmakers actually playing in the game.

“It’s been a tough road. We’ve had some younger guys that have had to grow up probably a little too early. We’ve got some guys that probably needed a JV or even a freshman season that didn’t have a chance to do that. But they got better. We’ve improved in some places every week. Our quality report we did last week was very telling. When we’ve got our guys on the field, we’re performing well. When we’ve got guys that are not experienced enough yet, we don’t perform as well. We got a chance to go back through the fundamentals, build on the good things we’re doing well and go back and correct some of the things we have not done well.”

What has gone well, Willis said, has been the play of the defense. Two areas of focus for the Red Raiders during the bye week have been red-zone execution and catching the football.

“We have not executed well in the red zone,” Willis said. “A lot of that has to do with communication up front. We’ve also dropped a lot of balls this year. We’ve thrown the ball twice as much as we threw last year. We’re throwing it a lot. Luke (Wolf) is doing a really good job right now. He threw some great balls this morning in practice. He’s putting the ball in the right spot in several situations, but we’re not always catching it and completing that catch.”

The Red Raiders will now play a Rockwall-Heath team that is 4-2 overall and 1-1 in District 10-6A play. The Hawks opened the season with a 47-14 loss to Denton Guyer. They followed that with wins over Euless Trinity (68-38), Mansfield Lake Ridge (45-35) and Waco Midway (52-24). In district competition, Rockwall-Heath lost to Rockwall 56-21 and then defeated Mesquite 35-7.

“They have another Hoover at quarterback,” Willis said. “He’s doing a good job in his first year. Early in the year, he didn’t look super good, but he’s really improved over the last couple of weeks. Their head coach is an offensive line coach, so you know they’re going to be good. They do a good job up run. They have run the ball really well this year, especially with some of their receivers being out. But they are finding answers in some of those younger receivers. They’ve had games like some of our games. They had one of those against Rockwall where they didn’t play well at all. And then last week, they played Mesquite and played the game we probably should’ve played against Mesquite.

“We think it’s going to be a good game. They’re definitely quality on offense, so we will have to have our best defensive effort. Offensively, we’ve just got to make sure all of the different looks don’t confuse us. That’s going to be the hard part, because there’s a lot of different looks defensively they show you.”

Caleb Hoover is the Hawks’ quarterback this year, following in the footsteps of his older brother Josh Hoover, who is now at TCU. Caleb Hoover, an Oklahoma State baseball commit, is 87 of 143 for 1,142 yards with 11 touchdowns and six interceptions.

Brittan Snider and Malachi Tuesno are the top two rushers for the Hawks. Peyton Wingfield is the top receiving target for the Hawks.

Wolf is 42 of 103 this season for 512 yards with three touchdowns and four interceptions, and he leads the Red Raiders in rushing with 45 carries for 300 yards and two touchdowns.

“We have to work on our execution,” Wolf said. “We have to try to eliminate as many mental busts as possible. We need to play as one team, one heartbeat.”

Thursday’s game will be teacher appreciation night.

The Red Raiders will be back at Hanby Stadium next week to take on Mesquite Horn on Oct. 14.