Burnet football squad gets over ‘bumps and bruises’ during bye week
Burnet High School's Blayne Parisher tries to escape a Taylor defender Sept. 27. The Bulldogs held off a late charge by the Ducks to win 34-24. The Bulldogs head into their bye week at 4-1 as the team prepares for its district opener Oct. 11 at Brownwood. Staff photo by Daniel Clifton
JENNIFER FIERRO • PICAYUNE STAFF
BURNET — The Burnet High School football team is enjoying a two-game winning streak on their bye week.
The Bulldogs (4-1) defeated Taylor 34-24 on Sept. 27 for their second winning streak of the season.
“You always want to go into your open week on a couple of wins,” head coach Kurt Jones said. “Our mentality will be good in terms of we need an open week to try to get past bumps and bruises. There’s extra time to get better at some things we need to get better at, and we’ll start to get ready for Brownwood. Brownwood is a good team.”
Burnet will travel to Brownwood on Oct. 11 for the District 8-3A opener.
Jones said the Bulldogs are being drilled on things fans may take for granted such as route timing, techniques and footwork.
“Blocking out of the skill positions like the receivers and the backs,” he said. “We want to pursue and tackle better on defense. We need to make strides there as well.”
Against Taylor, the Bulldogs rolled to a 20-2 lead by the half. Jones credited the defense for the lead.
“I thought the defense dominated and played well the first half,” he said. “In the second half, we scored when we needed to, but I never felt like we put it all together.”
Jones thought they left points on the field.
“We weren’t as good as we could have been,” he said. “We missed on a couple of scoring opportunities. It left us close for the rest of the night.”
He credited the Ducks for recording plays that got them back into the contest and getting receiver My’lik Kerley and running back Isaac Franco involved. Kerley caught a pass for 59 yards that set up a 33-yard touchdown run by Franco.
“They always have some talented skill kids,” Jones said. “They always have good speed.”
Burnet senior quarterback Derek Kiser completed 24 of 28 passes for 284 yards and four touchdowns, while senior running back Trenton Hafley had 13 rushes for 101 yards and senior receiver Blayne Parisher caught nine passes for 109 yards and three touchdowns.
jfierro@thepicayune.com
