SEALY — Looking to bounce back from a 5-6 season last year, the Taylor Ducks traveled to get their 2024 season underway against the Sealy Tigers last Friday.
The varsity portion of the scrimmage began with Sealy on offense and the Tigers exploited a stacked front from Taylor to connect with an 80-yard touchdown pass.
After that initial strike, Taylor’s defense rose up and locked down Sealy’s offensive as the Tigers had trouble containing Taylor’s outside linebackers from making plays in the backfield.
Taylor took over for their set of offensive plays, and the Ducks attempted to go deep on a couple of plays with mixed results.
Taylor attempted to exploit the height advantage with wide receiver Zavier Stokes over the smaller Sealy cornerbacks.
Late in the offensive series, the Ducks were finally able to connect, and Stokes hauled in a nice pass down the field to set up the first touchdown of the scrimmage.
Sealy Head Football Coach Clint Finley was very complimentary of the Taylor program following the opening scrimmage.
“(Taylor) has a big quarterback in the backfield and those types of quarterbacks will only get your defense ready for the season ahead of them,” Finley said. “Scrimmages are a little bit harder to judge because the quarterbacks d are off-limits and you can’t put pressure on them like you like to, but he provided a strong challenge for our defense.”
The coach added, W l i t “We are only going out there to try to get better, and the Taylor and Columbus (High School) quarterbacks are going to make us a better defensive team.”
Tl i tt Taylor is set to open the 2024 season Aug. 30 when the Ducks host Gatesville.
Last year, Gatesville defeated Taylor 34-27 in the 2023 season opener.
