BY NOLAN RUTH
X – @RealNolanRuth
BURLESON— The Arlington Seguin Cougars are off to an incredible start to the 2024 football season with three straight wins after trouncing the Burleson Elks 39-7 on Thursday night behind a stellar defensive performance and electric passing game to open district play.
“Getting off to a fast start is everything,” head coach Joe Gordon said after the game. “Once you get into district play, everything resets. So we get a chance to go home today and say we’re at the top of the league and we’re 1-0. That’s the mindset and we want to stay there.”
Isaac Bly opened up the scoring in the first quarter with a four yard touchdown run before Jakobe Perkins added a pick-six on the ensuing drive to give the Cougars a quick 13-0.
Perkins was the biggest defensive impact for Seguin, adding six total tackles and a pair of sacks to his interception return for a touchdown.
Jacob Bly continued the good defensive start by getting an interception himself, but the first quarter ended with Seguin missing a field goal to keep it a two-score game.
It was in the second quarter when the Cougars’ passing game really opened up, and quarterback Chevy Andrews fired to Carterrious Brown from 23 yards to extend the lead. Seguin had troubles in the game with their extra points, and the score remained 19-0 after another miss.
Andrews finished the game 13-16 for 288 yards and four touchdowns, Brown was on the receiving end of three of those passes for 70 yards and a pair of scores.
“They really wanted to double team me the whole game,” Brown said about the Burleson defense. “So we had the other receivers wide open. Then they would go to guard them more and leave me wide open.”
After forcing a three-and-out, it took just three plays for Andrews to find G’Mani Smith over the middle. Smith weaved his way between defenders and found his way to paydirt from 61 yards out.
The Elks finally got on the board just before the first half ended. Behind quarterback Andrew Sparks and tailback Nate Jackson, Burleson’s offense drove 73 yards down field on 11 plays. It was Jackson that did the honors and scored from a yard out. The half ended with Seguin leading 25-7.
The second half saw things slow down for both teams. The Cougars scored once in the third quarter when Andrews threw straight downfield to Malachi Meche for the 55-yard score. However, both teams started committing more penalties which hindered their progress.
By the end of the game, Seguin totaled 16 penalties for 120 yards, while Burleson had committed seven infractions for 50 yards.
On the opening drive of the fourth quarter, Andrews found Brown in the back corner of the end zone for one last touchdown to bring the final score to 39-7.
Seguin is now 3-0 for the first time since 2015 and will look to continue their excellent start when they host Grapevine (0-2) next Thursday. Burleson (1-2) will get an extra day of rest as they will play on Friday night next week with a tough competition ahead against Mansfield Summit (0-2) who had the bye week this week.
