12-13-24 Denton Ryan
One of the best high school football playoff rivalries in Texas cranks up Friday evening as the 13-1 Highland Park Scots collide with the 13-1 Denton Ryan Raiders in the state semifinals at the Ford Center at The Star in Frisco. The Scots are happy to play there because they’ve won playoff games there the past two Fridays. The Raiders are happy to play there because there is no chance of rain in an indoor facility.
The waterlogged Raiders are coming off last weekend’s wet and wild 31-21 victory over Aledo, the defending state champion and winner of the state title 11 of the past 15 years.
The Scots are coming off a 41-28 win over a very good Frisco Lone Star team at The Star in the regional finals.
Ryan and HP have run into each other a few times in the playoffs over the past decade. The Scots beat the Raiders in the semifinals in 2016, 2017 and 2018, and went on to win state all three years. A couple of years later, it was Ryan who advanced and won state. Ryan is 7-3 in state semifinals and all three losses came from the Scots.
Now that Aledo has been kicked to the curb, both HP and Ryan are focused on bringing home a state championship next week.
This Ryan team is comparable to its other elite teams over the past 10 years. The offense and defense are both dripping with college talent. Their pass rush is superlative. Their skill players are outstanding.
Their offensive tackles are the best twosome in the state. Five-star Ty Haywood, an Alabama commit, is 6’6”, 295 and four-star Marcus Garcia, a Texas A&M commit, is 6’5”, 285.
And that’s just their offensive tackles.
Junior quarterback Quin Henigan is the son of head coach Dave Henigan, who was on Randy Allen’s staff at Highland Park before taking the Ryan head coaching job. Last week in the rain the younger Henigan completed 10 of 13 passes for 218 yards and two touchdowns, including an 80-yard TD pass to Tre’Vaughn Reynolds in the third quarter and a 65-yard TD strike to Nemo Mussett in the fourth quarter.
In a game that swept back and forth like duelling tidal waves, Ryan won the game with two fourth quarter TDs.
Meanwhile, Scots quarterback Buck Randall transformed from sophomore quarterback to star QB early in last Friday’s win over Lone Star. After tossing a couple of early picks, he settled down and led the Scots offense to 41 points while the HP defense held the potent Lone Star offense to three touchdowns. The Rangers scored on a dazzling punt return at the end of the game, which I’m glad didn’t happen earlier in the contest because it could have been a big momentum changer.
Randall completed 14 of 22 passes for 237 yards and three touchdowns. A secret weapon that was a key to the win was Randall’s running ability. He gained 124 yards on eight carries and scored. Running back James Lancaster ran 18 times for 110 yards and caught a 23 yard pass. Receivers Cannon Bozman (103 yards), Benton Owens (81 yards) and Brandon Lilly (30 yards) were key to the win also. And kicker Reese Tiffany was again perfect.
On defense, Jack Morse and Jack Steed each snared first half interceptions to kill two Lone Star drives.
At the end of the game when the Scots QB Buck Randall kneeled down the final plays as the clock ran out, a Scots senior linebacker who hasn’t played all year due to an injury was sent out onto the field to stand guard next to the HP quarterback. It was one of the most touching moments of the season because the linebacker was Knox Randall, the older brother of the HP quarterback.
As time expired the two Randall boys stood shoulder to shoulder as teammates, as brothers and as victors.