Llano football takes on Salado in its final tune-up before district
JENNIFER FIERRO • PICAYUNE STAFF
LLANO — The Llano High School football team has one more non-district game left before beginning District 13-4A Division II play.
The Yellow Jackets (1-4) will travel to Salado (0-5) for a 7:30 p.m. kickoff Oct. 3 at Eagle Stadium, 620 Thomas Arnold Road.
Llano head coach Craig Slaughter said he felt fortunate to be able to schedule the Eagles.
“Nearly everybody is in district play,” he said. “We got really lucky. Other opponents were three-and-a-half hours away. We’re very fortunate.”
Salado has lost to Gatesville (42-32), Little River Academy (14-7), Rockdale (35-0), West (42-6) and Troy (49-7).
The Eagles are averaging 93 rushing yards and 48 passing yards per contest. Slaughter said Salado utilizes the spread offense.
The Yellow Jackets are playing in their sixth consecutive game, eighth straight if fans count the scrimmages in August.
“We’re banged up a little,” Slaughter said.
Therefore, coaches are talking about scaling back the physicality in practices, he said, with the aim of taking advantage of their final non-district game knowing the division opener at Wimberley is Oct. 10.
“You want to have as healthy of a team as you can,” Slaughter said. “You kind of know the (tendencies) of your team. You want to make sure you back off a touch and make sure you’re fresh for Friday.”
Llano is coming off a 45-7 loss to San Angelo Lake View on Sept. 26.
Lake View’s ability to run the football set the tone for the contest, Slaughter said. Of the Chiefs’ 369 yards of total offense, 344 yards were on the ground.
“They had tremendous success running the ball right at us,” Slaughter said. “They moved us up front. They were determined to the run football.”
The Yellow Jackets are on a three-game losing streak.
“Some of those games are tough on kids and coaches,” Slaughter said. “You get up and go back to work and fix what you need to fix. The kids are playing as hard as they can and coaches are coaching as hard as they can, and you hope they’re rewarded.”
jfierro@thepicayune.com
San Angelo Lake View 45, Llano 7 on Sept. 26
TEAM STATS
(LAKE VIEW) Total net yards: 369 — Rushes-yards: 344 — Passing: 25 — Interceptions: 0 — Fumbles: 1
(LLANO) Total net yards: 280 — Rushes-yards: 34-127 — Passing: 153 — Interceptions: 1 — Comp-att-int: 12-24-1 — Fumbles: 5
INDIVIDUAL STATS
RUSHING – (Llano) Trevor Penny 8-39, Holden Simpson 6-34, John Heflin 5-30, Aaron Mos 12-13, Airon Layton 2-8, Rhett Levinston 1-3
PASSING – (Llano) 12-24-1 touchdown-1 interception
RECEIVING – (Llano) Tommy Yelvington 4-100, Airon Layton 4-58-1 touchdown, Aaron Moss 3-9, Lance Reven 1-(-4)