Ebeke, WTW Silence Panthers in Opener

By Michael Finnegan / Contributor

Behind 182 yards on the ground and two touchdowns by Ben Ebeke, W.T. White cruised to a 30-6 victory over neighborhood rival Hillcrest on Thursday at Franklin Stadium.

The Longhorns (1-0) picked off a pass on Hillcrest’s opening possession of the game and went up 7-0 on Ebeke’s first rushing score from 3 yards out.

After forcing Hillcrest to punt, the Longhorns put together a seven-play, 83-yard drive and went up 14-0 following Ebeke’s second touchdown on a one-yard dive up the middle.

“My offensive line gets all the credit,” said Ebeke. “They opened holes for me all night long and made my job easy.”

The Panthers (0-1) threated late in the second quarter, driving the length of the field on 16 plays but could not capitalize when a field attempt when wide right.

“I thought our kids played tough,” said debuting Hillcrest coach Adrian Madise. “We’re very young on both sides of the ball and we held our own against a good W.T. White team”.

WTW increased the lead to 17-0 midway through the third quarter after a 25-yard field goal by Alejandro Barahona.

“We were ready for this game, opening night, against what I would call a rival,” said WTW coach Kenchee Ross. “We’ve got some things to work on, but overall, but I’m pleased with how we executed our game plan.”

Hillcrest cut the lead to 17-6 with 4:21 remaining in the third quarter after Isaac Dorn scampered in for a 10-yard touchdown run.

“There are a lot of positive takeaways from this first game,” said Madise. “Again, we’re very inexperienced, but now that these young players who are playing varsity for the first time have a game under the belt, we’ll be good moving forward.”

Dorn paced the Panthers with 60 rushing yards and a touchdown, while quarterback Asher Randall completed 12 passes on 17 attempts for 140 yards.

The Longhorns went up 24-6 after a sustained drive that was capped by an 11-yard touchdown throw from Andrew Paredez to Alexis Vargas on the first play of the final quarter.

Paredez threw for 197 yards on 14 completions with two touchdowns.  His second touchdown pass went to Ambrose Carter from 6 yards out with 2:54 remaining in the game.

Jacoby Ogbonna hauled in eight passes for 100 yards for the Panthers to lead all receivers.