Mac Morse, Pearce
File photo by Lonnie Erickson
Richardson Pearce staged the biggest aerial circus in the history of Texas high school football on Friday night.
Unfortunately, the Mustangs still lost to more balanced Carrollton Newman Smith in a wild 70-56 shootout.
Junior quarterback Mac Morse (6-foot-1, 200 pounds), who was in the lineup only because of an injury to starter Caleb Lewis, completed 42 of 68 passes for a state-record 634 yards and four touchdowns. Senior wide receiver Blake Jumonville (5-10, 160) hauled down 19 of those passes for a state-record 386 yards and two touchdowns.
Jumonville wiped out the 25-year-old record of 357 yards by Randy Boone of Chillicothe, while Morse erased the three-year-old record of 595 by Alvaro Garcia of Laredo United.
Morse’s 634-yard total is the highest in the nation this year and No. 6 in high school history (the record is 764). His 42 completions are No. 9 all-time, while his 68 attempts are tied for No. 10. Jumonville’s 386-yard total also is the best in the nation this year and tied for No. 5 in high school history (the record is 414).
The Mustangs’ rapid-fire, no-huddle spread offense also ran a national-record 94 offensive plays. The previous record of 91 was set by La Sierra (Riverside, Calif.) in 2007.
“That’s a tribute to our kids and our coaches for working at the pace we do in practice every day,” Pearce coach Randy Robertson said. “A lot of times we’ll snap the ball with 24 seconds still on the (25-second) clock.”
The Mustangs, who finished with 688 yards, are a statistician’s nightmare. They yielded 741 yards, giving the two teams a gigantic total of 1,429.
Robertson calls the left-handed Morse “a strong, hard-nosed kid. He throws a really nice ball. He probably held on to the ball too long a couple of times and took some hard shots.”
He points out that Jumonville “has great hands and runs good routes. He is very, very quick.”
Robertson conceded that records are “great for the kids. We never as a coaching staff focused on records or stats. The only true stat is win or lose. So, it was bittersweet.”
Newman Smith coach Paul Ressa said that during his career he never had been involved in such a shootout.
“I’m a defensive guy, too,” he lamented. “It just kind of drove me crazy. I never had 50 points scored against me and we won. We stuffed their run game early and they just screened us to death.
“They’d throw a two-yard pass that went for 60 yards,” he said. “They did a lot of that. They did a great job on tempo. It was almost always a two-score game, but nobody really took their foot off the gas. They got our kids gassed.”
The Trojans certainly had their share of heroes with three players compiling impressive statistics.
Senior quarterback Aldo Quiroga (6-1, 195) completed 13 of 18 passes for 263 yards and five touchdowns. Senior wide receiver Al Lasker (6-2, 185) made six catches for 200 yards and four touchdowns. Senior running back Randall Joyner (5-10, 207) ran 21 times for a school-record 305 yards and two touchdowns.
Newman Smith will enter this weekend’s Class 4A state playoffs for the first time in 26 years with the best record in school history (8-2).
Meanwhile, the Pearce Mustangs (6-4) also will start the playoffs, but they’ll have a new quarterback – Caleb Lewis will return. The No. 6 all-time, single-game passer will be waiting patiently in the wings.
