Denton RC High School

Yep, finally ...

Senior Nick Dame is being carted off the field after a rough collision on the sideline. They are being very cautious. He's moved his feet, but not much else ...

Ryan and Pearce traded touchdowns and the Raiders now lead 61-37.

Catlin popped off runs of 25 and 29 on the last drive, and he finished it with a 4-yard touchdown run.

With many backups in on Ryan's defense, Pearce drove the field and scored on a 9-yard pass from Caleb Lewis to Josh Gold, his second of the night. The extra point was blocked, and Ryan leads 54-29.

A Jake Strickland fumble recovery gave Ryan's offense a short field. Scotty Young and D.J. Beshears connected to convert on fourth-and-long, and Jay Catlin scored from a yard out.

The extra point was blocked and returned for two points. Ryan leads 54-23 with three minutes left in the third quarter.

The Raider defense has been great in the second half so far.

The senior receiver just caught a 24-yard catch-and-run touchdown pass from Franklin to give the Falcons a 35-21 lead in what suddenly is a high-scoring affair. He went for 170-something last week and has 120-something right now. After some investigative work, I found he played last year but of course was overshadowed by Alvin Blackmon.

Scotty Young just threw his fifth touchdown of the game -- a 9-yarder to Bud Sasser, his fourth of the game. The score was set up by a beautiful bomb down the sideline to D.J. Beshears for 47 yards. This one is getting ugly.

Ryan leads 48-21.

Ryan's defense forced a three-and-out and D.J. Beshears took a punt 32 yards for a touchdown to make it 41-21 Ryan. Beshears hit one of his teammates hard on the return, but bounced outside for the score.

After an onside kick was recovered by Lake Dallas at the 50, Jared Beggs took the first play 50 yards up the middle to give the Falcons a 28-14 lead with 7:02 left in the third. Before that run, Beggs had four carries for zero yards.

Nic Boyd just took the third play of the drive 68 yards to answer Lake Dallas laying the hammer down and taking a two-score lead. Now, Lake Dallas leads 21-14 with 7:17 remaining in the third quarter and it's a ball game again, just like that.

James Franklin just capped a 10-play scoring drive to open the second half with a 14-yard quarterback draw for his first rushing touchdown of the night, after throwing for two.

The Falcons now lead 21-7 with 8:35 remaining in the third quarter. The next possession for the Lake Dallas defense is huge to see if they can stop Red Oak and possibly put this game away.

Ryan leads 35-21 over Richardson Pearce at halftime despite some sloppy play on defense that includes 50 penalty yards and four first downs handed to the Mustangs on penalties.

Each of Pearce's scoring drives were sparked by big pass plays, but Ryan's been able to take the lead on turnovers. Ryan ended Pearce's first two drives on interceptions and the Raiders got the punt block at the end. Ryan has 21 points off turnovers.

Here are some halftime stats:

Ryan
Scotty Young 12-for-21 for 231 yards and four touchdowns
Bud Sasser 4 receptions, 101 yards and three touchdowns
Jay Catlin 94 total yards
D.J. Beshears 3 receptions, 55 yards and a touchdown

Pearce
Caleb Lewis 14-for-19 for 190 yards, two interceptions and a touchdown
Madison Kvapil 85 total yards and a touchdown
Josh Gold 3 receptions for 52 yards and a touchdown

A host of Raiders just blocked a Pearce punt that Jeremy Hall took into the end zone to give Ryan a 35-21 lead with just 20 seconds left in the half. Peyton Whitlock and Will Clark looked to be in on the punt block.

Ryan went for it on 4th-and-10 from the Pearce 29 and it paid off. Scotty Young threw a fade down the left sideline to Bud Sasser, who wrestled it away from the Mustang defender.

Ryan leads 28-21 with a minute left in the half. Young has thrown four touchdowns, three of them to Sasser.

More blown coverages and more penalties for the Ryan Raiders. The drive was sparked by a 48-yard bomb thrown on a free play because of a Raiders offsides call.

This could be a shocker. We're tied at 21 with four minutes left in the half.

Lake Dallas' defense came through after giving up a first-play 24-yard gain on a shovel pass to Nic Boyd when Ashton Allen intercepted Grady Latimer's pass. James Franklin took a knee to end the half. The Falcons are up 14-7. Franklin has completed 13 of 15 of his first-half pass attempts for 159 yards, two scores and no picks.

It might be a two-person race between Franklin and Ryan quarterback Scotty Young for our postseason player of the year.

The Falcons just took a 14-7 lead with 50 seconds remaining in the half after Franklin found Tyler McGee on a sweetly thrown fade route for a 5-yard touchdown pass, Franklin's second of the game. Let's see if they can hold Nic Boyd and the Hawks for 51 seconds.

Just like that -- Scotty Young strikes.

On a great play-action fake, Young went deep to Bud Sasser for a 45-yard touchdown bomb. Sasser looked like he made a little contact with the Pearce DB, but no call was made.

Ryan leads 21-14 with seven minutes left in the half.

Richardson Peare used a 32-yard screen pass from Caleb Lewis to Josh Gold to jump start another scoring drive that ended in a 7-yard run by Madison Kvapil. It's tied at 14 midway through the second

Ryan has to cut down on the penalties. They are killing the Raiders right now. They look unfocused, overconfident and sloppy right now.

Big plays kill the Falcons again as Hawks' running back Nic Boyd just took a 73-yard run up the middle for a touchdown. He now has 8 carries for 133 yards. Tied at 7 with 7 minutes left in the half.

Ryan used its passing game to fly past Mesquite Poteet. Tonight, the play selection has been about even --13 running plays to 12 passing plays.

The Raider offense has cooled down a bit. Pearce is threatening to tie it. Ryan's given up another first down on a penalty.

At halftime, turn your radio to KNTU 88.1 FM. I will be the halftime guest and you can get some more detailed info on the game.

That offense sure does look good though. After a couple of hiccups, James Franklin found Jake Baine for an 11-yard touchdown and LD is up 7-0 midway through the second quarter. Joey Knight is having another HUGE game at receiver and James Franklin is 9-for-11 for 125 yards.

In other news, look out, Guyer is up 6-3 on Stephenville after the first quarter. The Wildcats scored a touchdown and missed a two-point conversion.

Richardson Pearce scored on a 32-yard screen pass from Caleb Lewis to Josh Gold. Gold went down the sideline almost untouched for the score.

Ryan still leads 14-7.

Penalties are piling up for Ryan. It handed Pearce two first downs, one on that scoring drive.

Another Tauaefa sack (his third) forced a punt but Red Oak's punter downed the ball at the Lake Dallas 1-yard line. It's now 2nd-and-10 at the Lake Dallas 1 as we start the second quarter of a scoreless game.

If not for two big back-to-back sacks by Josh Tauaefa killing a Red Oak drive, the Falcons would be down 7-0 right now. They should be up 7-0 but had a James Franklin 11-yard TD run called back because of holding -- a problem that plagued them last week. A couple of plays later, Franklin fumbled the ball away. We're still scoreless

After a Yahshua Williams interception ended Richardson Pearce's first drive, Ryan used its running game to go the length of the field, eventually scoring on fourth down on a Scotty Young pass to D.J. Beshears.

Ryan went for two and got it on a Cooper Jackson run. Ryan leads, 8-0.

Sedrick Purnell just picked off another ball for Ryan. The Raiders have it at their own 3-yard line.

I'm here in Red Oak for the Red Oak-Lake Dallas tilt. A year and a week ago, I was here watching Guyer get handled by Red Oak, a team that we had all thought Guyer might get its first win against and went on to be a playoff team. A team that lost by a somewhat respectable score to powerhouse Highland Park last week at the Tom Landry Classic.

Now, I'm back, and this press box holds some fond memories for me. First of all, it's always full of fans, boosters and the like, and they are loud. Really loud. It's mind-numbing awesome. Second, this is the place with sliding doors that are so clean I ran face-first into it last year as I tried to rush down to the field after the game. I'm a year smarter this time around. That will not happen again.

Continue reading the jump for my pre-game thoughts.

I just got set up here in the press box at C.H. Collins Athletic Complex and I, for one, am pretty excited about Ryan's home debut.

First of all, this game is starting at 7:30 p.m., not 7 p.m. as originally scheduled. Second of all, check out my story on man-beast D.J. Beshears that appeared in today's paper. D.J. is a hard-working kid who deserves any attention he gets.

And that hair is just ... thow'd.