ALTAIR — The Rice High School football team hosted fellow area team Brazos High School Oct. 11 at Rice Veterans’ Memorial Stadium in Altair and won by a final score of 42-21. A closer first half led to Rice putting their offense in full gear, outscoring Brazos with their passing as well as their run game.
“We got the ball back and we were able to control the football,” said Rice head football coach Brad Dumont. "We only had 21 snaps the first half. They moved the ball down the field and we didn't get a whole lot of offensive plays. We got to have our share of offensive plays to get in a rhythm.
The defense, they stepped it up in the second half. When they’re shutting them down and we get the ball, then we get the train rolling.”
Rice senior RJ Meyers found the end zone a bunch of times to give his team the boost they needed and also had a game-sealing pick six in the final minute.
“I play a certain role on the team and when my name’s called, I answer,” Myers said. “I try to answer and do the best I can. Overall, we take sacrifices and we got to play each of our roles and that makes us win. I just stepped up, played my role, and got it done at the end.”
Brazos played a respectable game and has a lot of positives to take from it.
"Our kids are very resilient," said Brazos head coach Audie Ray Jackson. "They are defi- nitely learning how to deal with adversity. They came here ready win. Their expectations were win. Unfortunately, we turned the ball over, which always hurts you. Missed tackles that hurt us.
But all in all, our kids played their backsides off. They real ly, really did. I'm very proud of them. It’s unfortunate we didn’t come out on the winning end, but that game could've gone either way. Under the two minutes, we gave up a score with a pick six, but the score was within a touch -
down’s reach the whole game.”
Rice recovered a Brazos fum-ble within the first minute of the ball game, then finished the drive with a five-yard touchdown run with 7:55 to go in the first quarter from senior running back Dyren Johnson to take a 6-0 lead after a missed extra point and the only score of the quarter.
Brazos responded with a nice drive of their own and capped it off with a throw across his body from junior quarterback Jarvse Dickerson as he rolled right and threw it for 12 yards to sophomore Jevan Dickerson and gave his team a 7-6 advantage at the 9:41 mark in the second quarter.
Dickerson threw another touchdown pass a few minutes later, this time for five yards to senior Rafael Almaraz to put it at 14-6.
Rice would tie the game with
1:24 to play as Meyers took a quarterback keeper play up the middle near the goal line, then went for two with the same play and converted to tie the game at 14 going into halftime.
The Raiders were able to move the ball up field with their passing game to start the third quarter, which led to a 13-yard touchdown run from sophomore quarterback Kor'Dae Johnson and a 21-14 advantage. After an interception at the 5:09 mark, Rice capitalized with a screen pass for 20 yards and a touch- down by Draeden Amos for the last score of the third quarter a couple minutes later.
The Cougars moved into the red zone, mostly with their run game and Dickerson finished the drive with a 20-yard touchdown run with 7:36 to go in the fourth quarter as he was able to find space up the middle to make it 28-21. Rice added to their lead after five more minutes with goal line touchdown from Meyers, then Meyers' pick-six iced the game in the final 30 seconds for a 42-21 victory.
