COLLEGE STATION – Taylor High School varsity football was in action and braving the intense humidity on June 22-23 at the Dave Campbell’s Texas Football State 7-on-7 Tournament held at Veterans Park and Athletic Complex in College Station. The Ducks took on Panther Creek High School, Midland Christian School and Jasper High School in pool play on Thursday before squaring up against Needville High School on Friday for the championship bracket.
TAYLOR 27, PANTHER CREEK 34
Against a brand new Panther Creek team that will likely be up to 6A in the next UIL realignment, the Ducks fought thickand- thin with the Panthers in a game that came down to the wire.
This game was an offensive slugfest but unfortunately for the Ducks, they were constantly playing catch up. After the Panthers scored a touchdown two plays into the game to go up 7-0, the Ducks had a swift response. Taylor senior quarterback Joshua Mikulencak had passes downfield to senior wide receivers Treos Richardson and Jordan Pickerill to get the offense clicking and capped off with a short touchdown to Richardson to even things up 7-7.
Unfortunately, a theme of the second game for the Ducks was inconsistency on defense against a talented Panthers offense. The Ducks had the Panthers in a fourth-and-goal situation but allowed a score to make it 14-7.
Joshua Mikulencak got the offense up to speed again as he connected down the right sideline with Pickerill for a decent gain. On this drive, Taylor senior wide receiver Luke Thompson made his presence known with three catches, including a touchdown over the middle. However, Taylor was unable to get the conversion attempt and trailed 14-13.
On the very first play of the Panthers’ next drive on offense, they caught the Ducks’ defense lacking with a long touchdown pass. Taylor managed to stop the conversion so they trailed just 20-13.
Right before halftime, the Ducks needed to make some moves on offense and quickly to beat the clock. They did just that as Joshua Mikulencak connected with Kayden Land once for a nice gain and twice downfield with Thompson, who capped off the drive with a nice catch for a touchdown. With the conversion attempt to Pickerill successful, the Ducks tied this game up 20-20 headed into the half.
After the Panthers scored on their opening drive of the second half, the Ducks needed to again answer the call.
Brotherly love was on full display for Taylor as quarterback Joshua Mikulencak connected with his brother, senior wide receiver Jacob Mikulencak, twice on the drive. This included an incredible touchdown catch and then successful one-point conversion to again knot this contest up at 27-27 apiece.
Unfortunately for Taylor, the defense continued to struggle against this high-powered Panther Creek offense drove down the field and scored again to make it 34-27. The Ducks had one more chance on offense to tie this game and potentially force overtime but a costly interception put that plan to rest. The Panthers were able to run out the clock the rest of the way as the Ducks fell in their pool opener 34-27.
TAYLOR 27, MIDLAND CHRISTIAN 26
This game versus Midland Christian showed that Taylor football has a ton of heart as the Ducks had to overcome three separate double-digit deficits to win.
After falling behind 13-0 early, the Ducks’ offense got going as Joshua Mikulencak connected downfield with Land and Pickerill for first downs. Taylor capped off a nice drive with a short touchdown pass from Joshua Mikulencak to Pickerill in the back corner of the endzone, getting the Ducks on the board down 13-6.
Midland Christian would score again to go up 20-6 and the Ducks needed to answer on offense. Joshua Mikulencak was able to get the ball downfield more to Richardson and then a short touchdown pass to Jacob Mikulencak to get Taylor within 20-13 at halftime.
After a Ducks interception thrown on offense in the second half, the Mustangs responded with a scoring drive to go up 26-13. However, what would later be looked back on as the turning point of the game was when Taylor junior cornerback Ethan Flagg intercepted the conversion attempt and ran it down the sideline.
This was a clear momentum changer for the Ducks. The offense picked themselves up and got a nice scoring drive from Joshua Mikulencak as he threw a touchdown pass to senior wide receiver Jackson Meller and successful conversion to Jacob Mikulencak to get Taylor within 26-20.
Up until this point of the day, the Taylor defense had struggled and absolutely needed to come up with stops on this drive. Flagg rose to the occasion, breaking up passes on two consecutive plays to force a turnover on downs and give the Ducks the ball back on offense with a chance to win this game.
With time running out, Joshua Mikulencak led an impressive drive downfield that included a clutch pass to junior running back Andrias Fisher. Facing a fourthand- goal situation and time expiring, Joshua Mikulencak connected with Thompson to tie the game and successfully found Land open on the conversion attempt to win 27-26.
TAYLOR 41, JASPER 26
In order to get to the championship side of the bracket for Friday, Taylor needed to win over a very good Jasper Bulldogs squad to end the day. The Ducks certainly flocked together and rose to the occasion in this game.
Joshua Mikulencak started off a stellar offensive effort on the first drive as he had firstdown completions to Pickerill and Thompson before finding Land for a short touchdown and 6-0 lead.
Jasper is a team that lives on throwing the ball deep downfield with all the speed they have on their team but Taylor was able to keep up, forcing a turnover on downs.
With the ball back on offense, Joshua Mikulencak made an incredible throw over the middle between two Bulldogs defenders to Land, who made a diving catch for a touchdown as Taylor was off to a 13-0 advantage.
However, the Ducks’ defense let Jasper right back in the game after allowing a long pass play and short touchdown to make it 13-7.
With the Ducks driving down the field on offense again but facing a fourthand- goal situation, Joshua Mikulencak came up clutch with a touchdown pass to Pickerill and a connection to Jacob Mikulencak for the conversion as Taylor led 20-7.
Unfortunately, the Taylor defense was caught napping again as Jasper went deep on its very first play for a touchdown to make the score 20-14 at halftime in favor of the Ducks. Defensive miscues continued early into the second half as Jasper got the ball and scored yet another long touchdown to tie this game up at 20-20.
In order to prevent this contest from getting away, Taylor needed to answer on offense again. Joshua Mikulencak marched the Ducks downfield with completions to Pickerill and Thompson. With a goal-to-go situation, the Ducks caught a break as a pass was broken up and deflected into the air but fell right into the hands of Thompson to put the Ducks back up 27-20.
Jasper would again drive downfield on offense and get a score but the Taylor defense stepped up as senior cornerback Marcus Jackson broke up the conversion attempt to keep the Ducks ahead 27-26.
Now with the ball back on offense, Thompson made a nice catch and juked out a Bulldogs defender to get a solid gain downfield. Joshua Mikulencak then got the ball to Pickerill again, who made a diving catch for the touchdown and put Taylor up 34-26.
The Ducks were in dire need of a stop on defense and they got just that thanks to senior linebacker Alejandro Randle, who snagged an interception off a deflection to give Taylor the ball back on offense looking for more.
Brotherly love was again on full display as Joshua Mikulencak threw deep to Jacob Mikulencak for a long gain. The two would connect for a short touchdown to put this game out of reach 41-26. The Ducks put one last exclamation point on this game as Meller made an interception over the top from his safety position as time expired.
TAYLOR 20, NEEDVILLE 27
This was a game Taylor should have won, but mental mistakes, penalties and highly questionable officiating were too much to overcome for the Ducks during first-round championship bracket play Friday morning.
The Ducks started off looking great on offense as Joshua Mikulencak connected with Thompson and Jacob Mikulencak for firstdown gains. He capped off the drive with a short touchdown pass over the middle to Richardson to give Taylor a quick 6-0 advantage.
However, the lead was very short-lived as the Ducks were out of position on defense and allowed a one-play touchdown and successful conversion as the Blue Jays took a 7-6 lead.
The Taylor offense went back to work as Joshua Mikulencak engineered another scoring drive, this time with Thomspon making a leaping catch for the score and a successful conversion attempt to give Taylor the 13-7 lead.
After the Ducks forced a turnover on downs to give their offense the ball back, they seemed to be in control. Unfortunately, the momentum completely changed as Needville jumped a route near the sideline and returned the interception for a touchdown. However, it appeared that the Needville player was touched and the play should’ve been blown dead and not counted as a touchdown but the official said the player was not touched.
With the Blue Jays getting a huge break thanks to a questionable call, the score was now 13-13 as halftime was approaching. With time running out in the first half, the Ducks wanted to score quickly on offense. They appeared to do so as Richardson made an outstanding leaping catch that appeared to be a touchdown. However, the officials ruled him down just shy of the goal line as time expired in the first half with Taylor again seemingly having points taken off the board.
The second half had a handful of penalties on the Ducks for false starts on offense and holding calls on defense. Drives on offense for Needville were kept alive and resulted in points.
Needville was able to fully capitalize on the Ducks’ mistakes in the second half and ultimately went on a 20-0 run to take a 27-13 lead. Taylor was able to score a touchdown with limited time remaining on a pass from Joshua Mikulencak to Pickerill to get within 27-20, but the Ducks’ defense was unable to get off the field and the Blue Jays ran out the clock.
