McCallum races past Reagan to go 10-0

Gregory James
November 13, 2017

[masterslider id=”33″]

 

The last game of McCallum’s regular season was one for the record books.

Cole Davis made his three carries count. He ran for 106 yards and scored twice from 31 and 73 yards out. Photo by Ian Clennan.

By winning their 10th and final regular season game, the 2017 Knights joined the 1966 Knights as the only other team in school history to finish the regular season an undefeated 10-0.

With 87 yards and two scores on only nine carries Friday night, senior running back Alexander Julian inched ever closer to the 2,000 yard rushing mark, reaching 1,970 yards on the season (according to MaxPreps).

Whoever ran the ball for the Knights had success against Reagan on Friday night.

Thanks to a pair of 70-yard-plus touchdown runs, both Knight quarterbacks had 100-plus yard rushing games. Starter Max Perez ran for 113 yards on only five carries, and backup Cole Davis ran for 109 on three carries. Perez scored two first-quarter rushing touchdowns, the second from 77 yards out. Davis scored the team’s last two touchdowns, the second from 73 yards out.

The Knights also scored through the air when Perez hit Deron Gage with a 36-yard touchdown for the Knight’s only completion of the game to make the score 27-0 at the end of the first quarter. Gage also ran one in from 53 yard out in the first quarter.

Max Perez couldn’t have had a much better night. He accounted for three scores, his team finished a perfect regular season, and he was named homecoming king alongside queen Sophie Cheesar. Photo by Joseph Cardenas.

Then defense then scored a touchdown for the third time in four games, when senior Jack Masters scooped a Reagan fumble and ran for a 67-yard touchdown.

“It’s kinda like in Forrest Gump when he says I picked it up and I just kept running and running.” Masters said. “It was like that. I just kept running.”

The team knows that the playoff road ahead will be tougher than their last four regular season games, which the team won by an aggregate score of 244-6. 

“On to the next one,” Perez said immediately after the game. “We’ve just got to prepare, gotta get ready for the next team, make sure we know what we’re doing, and be sound on both sides of the ball (defense and offense) . Hopefully we go in and get another W.”

Perez got two W’s on Friday night. In addition to running for two touchdowns and throwing for one, he was also named homecoming king and was crowned at halftime alongside queen Sophie Cheesar.

Gage and Perez made the Knights’ only pass completion on the night count as Gage raced 36 yards to pay dirt in the third quarter. Photo by Gregory James.

The Knights play Medina Valley (6-4), the No. 4 seed from 26-5A. But the regular-season standings and records don’t matter when playing in the playoffs.

Anything can happen, of course, but Coach Charles Taylor told The Shield this morning that he believes the team has a good chemistry right now.

Because the Knights lost the coin flip, the Knights will play in Castroville at Medina Valley’s Panther Stadium, 8449 FM 471 South. Kickoff is set for 7:30 p.m. Presale tickets are $7 for adults, $3 for students. Tickets at the gate at $8 for all ages.

Photos by Joseph Cardenas, Ian Clennan, Gregory James and Madison Olsen.