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| LONGVIEW - Any team would be satisfied with one good quarterback. Longview put its one-two punch of Jay Hurst and Lee Nix on display Friday night at Lobo Stadium.
The two seniors shared the spotlight, combining for 378 yards on 19-of-24 passing and five touchdowns as the Lobos posted their first shutout of the season with a 43-0 romp over Bryan. Longview, which had moved up to No. 3 in this week's Associated Press Class 5A state poll, improved to 4-0. The Lobos close out the non-district portion of their schedule next Friday with a trip to Ruston, Louisiana, to take on Ruston High's Bearcats. Bryan fell to 1-3 and lost for the fifth time in the last six years to Longview. However, unlike three of the Lobos' four wins, this game didn't wait until the fourth quarter to be decided. "I think our entire offense did a great job," said Longview coach Robert Bero. "Our receivers and quarterbacks worked together real well. They were giving us the pass and we took it. "I thought both of them (Hurst and Nix) executed real well. They're three-year lettermen and we expect them to play at a very high level. And I think both of them played at a very high level tonight." Hurst, who started the game, completed completed 12 of 15 for 228 yards and threw three touchdown passes. He had two in the first half, connecting with Shawn Byrdsong for 29 yards and then hitting Lee Jackson for 41 on a fake punt as Longview rolled up 22 first-half points. Byrdsong and Jackson, who both started in the defensive secondary for the Lobos, were not the only players to cross the line and find their way into the end zone. Linebacker Leon Bell scored the game's first points on a 1-yard drive. Byrdsong had set up his own touchdown with an interception - one of three by the Lobos - after Bryan had marched for the second straight series into Longview territory. Jackson and Shaun Bradley netted Longview's two other interceptions, while Brian Davis recovered a fumble on the Vikings' opening series of the game. Early in the second half, Nix found Dexter Daniels down the left sideline for a 61-yard touchdown connection. In the fourth quarter, he threw a slant pass to Jamie Brown for a 20-yard scoring play. Nix finished 7-of-9 for 150 yards, while Daniels was the Lobos' leading receivers with five catches for 160 yards. Hurst sandwiched in his third touchdown with 9:36 remaining in the third quarter, lofting a perfect over-the-shoulder pass to Jamille Butcher into the left corner of the end zone. "We felt like we had the chance to throw the ball on them," Bero said. "They want to balance up with you defensively. We were going to try and run some unbalanced formations at them and with some of the adjustments that had we made coming in, we had a chance to throw the football on them. I just thought our guys executed real well." In additions to Daniels' receptions, Byrdsong caught three passes for 88 yards, tight end Ben Price hauled in three for 29 yards, Kevin Bishop had two catches for 32 yards and Fred Talley snared a pair for 24 yards. Kicker Erin Roerecke converted four extra points, while Ian Todd connected for his first point-after. Nix also ran in a two-point conversion on the Lobos' first scoring drive. The Lobos didn't need their high-powered running game against the Vikings. They finished with just 73 yards, with Talley ginning 53 on 12 carries. But the junior tailback didn't see much action in the second half as Longview used all three running backs. Bryan reached Longview's end of the field five times, but couldn't convert. The Vikings drives were killed by a fumble, two interceptions and they turned it over twice on downs. |