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JENNIFER FIERRO • PICAYUNE STAFF

BURNET — The Burnet High School football team is preparing for its first true road test of the season.

The Bulldogs (3-1) travel to Taylor (0-4), located at 355 FM 973, for a 7:30 p.m. start Sept. 26.

It rained throughout the second half of the game the last time the two played at Memorial Field in 2012. Taylor kicker Miguel Morales, who was a sophomore, nailed a 37-yard field goal with four seconds left for a 9-7 victory after the Ducks scored a 16-yard touchdown on the possession before that.

“Going on the road is a challenge,” Bulldogs head coach Kurt Jones said. “It’s a different dynamic. Taylor plays well at home. And it’s a good Taylor team. Their record is not a good measurement of what kind of team they are.”

The Ducks are led by junior quarterback Terrell Reynolds and senior running back Morales. They average 19 points a game. Jones said Taylor runs and passes the ball out of spread looks.

“They always have good speed,” he said. “Their quarterback has a good arm. They’d still like to establish a good running game.”

During Taylor’s 42-22 loss last week to La Grange, running back Bralon Hutchinson ran for 265 yards. All of the Ducks’ points came in the second half.

Going into the season, it seemed the strength of the Ducks team was its defense. However, opponents are averaging 37 points a contest against them.

“We always feel like they’re always a scrappy unit,” Jones said. “I’m impressed with the linebackers and the secondary. You don’t see any lazy steps.”

The Burnet defense, after giving up an average of 43 points in the first two contests against Marble Falls and Abilene Wylie, have allowed an average of 11 points the past two weeks against Fredericksburg and Waco University on Sept. 19, which the Bulldogs won 51-21.

“I think our defense has made a lot of strides in the last couple of weeks,” Jones said.

The Bulldogs dominated Waco University in all phases of last week’s contest, though the Trojans took the lead in the beginning of the game.

“We weathered a little bit of a storm,” Jones said. “We let them get off to a hot start. They threw a ball over our heads. We fumbled a kickoff back to them. You certainly don’t want to start a game that way.”

Burnet earned 517 yards of total offense to University’s 376. What made the Bulldogs’ offensive production impressive was the 246 yards through the air and the 271 yards on the ground. Meanwhile, the Bulldogs defense was opportunistic. It recovered two of four fumbles and had three interceptions. Senior Cory Cavender ran his pick back for 81 yards, while senior Wyatt Shepperd caught the other two for 30 yards.

“The kids are focused and bounced back until we got a good foothold and pulled away,” Jones said. “We didn’t feel rock solid. We did enough to come away with the victory.”

jfierro@thepicayune.com