BY BRIAN GOSSET
X – @Gosset41
The past two years have been tough for the Haltom football team. The Buffalos went 2-8 last season and 0-10 in 2022. Despite only winning two games in 2023, coach Jason Tucker said that his team was in many of the games – coming close to winning more. Four of their eight losses came within a single possession.
Now a year later, Haltom is having a bit of a resurgent year as the team is 4-3 overall and 3-1 in District 8-6A.
It’s their most wins in four seasons.
Plus Tucker and the Buffs are coming off an impressive 56-49 win over Arlington Martin in Week 8 at Choctaw Stadium. Even though the two schools haven’t played since 2009 – it was Haltom’s first win over Martin since 2005.
Martin was been the best team in Arlington ISD for the past decade.
“Coming into the game, Martin has been a powerhouse in the area for a long time,” Tucker said. “They played a tough non district schedule so we talked to our kids all week about how our season has progressed and I felt like we’ve done a good job at getting better each week. We saw some things on tape from our own team that we could play with teams in the area and the kids were ready for the challenge.”
Haltom was extremely run heavy – gaining over 550 yards on the ground with eight touchdowns.
The running back tandem of Vudrico Roberson and Keenan Jackson was unstoppable. Roberson picked up a whopping 394 yards and five touchdowns, and Jackson added 156 yards and three touchdowns.
“The offense got out there and played well early. The defense struggled early and were on their heels, but once we got the first turnover, I think that helped both sides of the ball feel like we could play with Martin,” Tucker said. “They had a couple chances there to take the emotional standpoint of ‘hey it’s Martin, we gave them a good game, looks like they’re going to win’ but the kids didn’t do that. They kept playing hard.”
Defensively, defensive back Brian Connors shined with nine tackles and two interceptions.
Additionally with the run game, the offensive line was exceptional.
“Our O-line played extremely intelligent,” Tucker said. “It was probably our best game as a total unit – with our o-line and tight ends blocking. It was a really fun night for those guys.”
Despite a losing record last season, Haltom was in majority of the games.
Tucker attributes a late season comeback vs Eaton that helped the team go into the off-season.
“The kids did a great job last year kind of reestablishing a bit of a competitive foundation,” Tucker said. “Late in the season we had a really good comeback win against Eaton that was a real spring board for our kids going into off-season. This year we had a huge comeback win over Boswell and those gave us some confidence. It wasn’t the oh we’re down we’re probably going to lose attitude, it was hey we’re down but we’re still in the game, and our kids have done that all year.
“We’ve talked to the kids about being here at Haltom. We’ve been down for a couple years, but we’ve been good in the past and we’ll be good again, and this year it’s good to see us stacking some wins.”
Haltom has another big game this Friday in Week 9 with Arlington Bowie.
The two teams meet up 7 pm at Birdville FAAC.
Both teams are 4-3 overall while Bowie is first in district at 4-0. The Vols also beat Martin in Week 7.
“Their season is kind of like ours. They struggled in non-district and then you got to see things start to gel and they got that big win vs Martin – they looked great on film last week and they have a lot of good athletes,” Tucker said. “Bowie is kind of the top dog right now and we know we have a big challenge coming up. Hopefully we can keep things rolling.”
