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RANKINGS
Katy senior quarterback Caleb Koger excelled in the Tigers' 54-0 win over Paetow on Thursday, throwing for 199 yards and two touchdowns and rushing for another touchdown in lifting Katy to 7-0 overall.
Katy leaves no doubt in rout of Paetow
KATY— Early in the season, Katy was not playing good football. However, the Tigers, ’tis their M.O., still found ways to win, escaping state-ranked Atascocita and then-state ranked Tompkins by a combined eight points.
Now Katy is back to being Katy again.
The Tigers won their third straight game by at least 49 points on Thursday, dismantling Paetow, 54-0, at Legacy Stadium. In a battle of two recent state champions—Katy the 2020 Class 6A-DII champ and Paetow last year’s Class 5A-DI champ—the Tigers quieted any noise about who’s the biggest and baddest in Katy ISD.
“They’re getting better, and that’s the big thing,” coach Gary Joseph said of his team improving to 7-0 overall, 5-0 in District 19-6A. “Early on, we knew it was going to be a work in progress. We’re getting better, and that’s a good thing if we want to win a district championship and advance in the playoffs.”
It was the first shutout of the season for the Katy defense, which held Paetow to 74 total yards and forced two turnovers.
“It was really stopping the QB and stopping the show routes,” said senior linebacker Chisholm Hill, who was persistently in the Panthers’ offensive backfield all night long. “We’d been having a hard time stopping that but we proved ourselves tonight. We were getting more pressure on the QB.”
Penalties and turnovers plagued Katy during the early part of the season. The Tigers were making silly, sloppy mistakes and executing poorly. It was all uncharacteristic.
All of that now appears to be bygones.
Thursday’s game was the Tigers’ third straight without a turnover. They’ve also only committed five total penalties over the last two games against Jordan and Paetow, two teams with legitimate postseason aspirations.
“We’re doing everything we typically do,” said senior quarterback Caleb Koger, who completed eight of 14 passes for 199 yards and two touchdowns and rushed for a touchdown. “It’s great. I feel like our games are getting cleaner.”
HOW IT HAPPENED
Katy led 14-0 after the first quarter behind scoring runs of 2 and 50 yards, respectively, from star senior tailback Seth Davis, who missed last week’s win over Jordan due to injury.
Davis finished with 118 yards on 16 carries.
Katy’s No. 1 receiver, senior JR Ceyanes, has been sidelined since the second game of the season with a shoulder injury. But the Tigers are getting prolific production from others on the perimeter.
Against Paetow, Koger connected on passes to six different receivers. Junior Oliver Ginn had three catches for 74 yards. Senior Micah Koenig had two catches for 84 yards. Senior Adam Jackson and junior Luke Carter each caught two passes.
Paetow forced Katy to beat it with the pass. The Tigers obliged.
“It was great to see the other kids who made some big catches,” Joseph said. “Micah made a big catch. Adam Jackson. (Ginn) made some big catches. That’s what we needed. You have to have different people step up, and they did.”
Katy scored on its first seven drives before it had to punt with 1:41 left in the third quarter. The Tigers’ offense totaled 464 yards and averaged 9.8 yards per play.
“We were firing on all cylinders,” Koger said. “Linemen played well, running backs played well. Seth played a good game. (Fullback Chase) Johnsey is always good and my receivers balled out. I can’t forget about Luke. I love everybody on this offense. It’s fun.”
Paetow threw in a new wrinkle by starting a new quarterback in sophomore Brock Nichols but it ultimately didn’t matter. The Panthers ended up alternating Nichols with senior Koby Truehill often after their second offensive series.
Nichols completed 11 of 22 passes for 59 yards and threw an interception. He was sacked four times. Truehill completed four of eight passes for 24 yards and threw an interception. He was sacked twice.
The Panthers’ running game was worse. Paetow had minus-nine yards on 20 carries.
“(Junior defensive back) Jed Olotu-Judah has really helped our secondary and defensive coverage,” Joseph said. “He’s worked himself into a starter and he’s a real positive. Our secondary is playing better and keeping people in front of them and tackling when catches are made. The pass rush is getting better, and I know our secondary kids appreciate that. It makes them better.”
WHAT IT MEANS
Katy is soaring heading into next week’s bye.
Paetow has lost two straight games, is indecisive at quarterback, has yet to establish a potent running game and its vaunted defense—anchored by the No. 1 defensive linemen in the country in senior David Hicks Jr., four-star front-seven recruits Loghan Thomas and Daymion Sanford, and a slew of other young high-profile recruits—has surrendered 29, 17, 41 and 54 points, respectively, over the last four district games.
QUOTABLE
Koger offered a reason for Katy’s concerning start—by its standards—to the season.
“Typically, we’d start district two games ago,” Koger said. “So we’ve been trying to get into season form. We’re there now.”
This year, 19-6A teams played two non-district games instead of four and started the district schedule earlier because the league expanded from seven to nine teams with the addition of Jordan and Paetow.
UP NEXT
Katy goes into its bye and will take the field again Oct. 21 versus Cinco Ranch (4-2, 3-1 19-6A). If the Cougars take care of Paetow next week, the Katy-Cinco Ranch game will have serious district title implications.
Paetow (3-3, 2-2 19-6A) plays Cinco Ranch on Oct. 14.
Katy senior receiver and Oklahoma commit Nic Anderson was a headlining performer in the Tigers' 41-24 regional semifinal win over C.E. King on Friday at Legacy Stadium. Anderson had 99 receiving yards and 40 rushing yards with two touchdowns in the win.
Four Takeaways: Katy 41, C.E. King 24
KATY—Four takeaways from Katy's 41-24 Class 6A regional semifinal win over C.E. King on Friday afternoon at Legacy Stadium.
The Tigers improved to 13-0. King's season ends at 10-3.
1. THROWING 'EM OFF
Katy did not have a rushing touchdown in the first half and resorted to some trickery early in the first quarter for its first score, an eight-yard halfback pass from junior running back Seth Davis to junior receiver JR Ceyanes.
"You saw the size of their kids up front," coach Gary Joseph said of King's physical defensive line. "You have to be able to throw the football. You can't let them line up and tee off on us. We knew that. It was important for us to be able to move the football, however it was. We had to limit their possessions a bit."
Of Katy's five touchdowns, two were on the ground. One of those was a Nic Anderson reverse score with 50 seconds left.
The Tigers totaled 250 rushing yards on 39 carries and 180 passing yards on 12-of-22 passing.
"I still feel we haven't hit our best game yet, but we're getting there," Anderson said of the offense. "When we do, it's going to be a big game, so I can't wait for that moment."
2. ANDERSON SOARS
Speaking of Anderson, the Katy senior receiver and Oklahoma commit is hitting his stride in full force after missing a handful of games earlier this season with ankle and hamstring injuries.
The 6-foot-4, 195-pounder had eight catches for 99 yards and a touchdown and the 40-yard reverse run for a touchdown.
Anderson has 238 receiving yards and three total touchdowns in three playoff games.
"I feel really good," Anderson said. "I'm almost at 100 percent. It's just good to be out here with my brothers. Now that I'm back, I'm ready to put 100 percent of myself into this program."
Anderson was particularly pleased with his scoring run.
"The play just opened up perfectly," he gushed. "Linemen were blocking; (junior offensive lineman) Jacob Egg, he was just hustling around the edge, running his butt off for that last block. I didn't get touched, so that should tell you how good the blocking was."
3. WIMBLEY HURT
A major pre-game storyline was how Katy would contain King senior running back Jerrell Wimbley, who was coming off a 323-yard, five-touchdown game against Shadow Creek in the area round last week and entered with 1,972 rushing yards and 25 touchdowns.
But the 5-10, 185-pound Wimbley suffered a leg injury late in the second quarter and never returned. Up until that point, he had 43 yards on nine carries. Twenty-four of those yards came on his first two carries.
"We knew they'd be passing a little bit more, so we had to cover the pass game," senior linebacker Carson Marshall said of the effect of Wimbley's absence. "We knew it'd be more spread out. We were ready to go. We still stayed true to who we are."
King found substantial success without Wimbley in the second half, closing to within 24-17 with 9:15 left in the third quarter and 34-24 wit 3:49 left in the game as junior quarterback Nehemiah Brousard found a groove.
Senior running back DK Hammond had a pair of touchdowns as the Panthers strung together impressive drives.
Of King's 345 total yards, 247 came in the second half.
But Katy countered every time. King never could get the big defensive stop it needed. Davis had a dynamic 62-yard scoring run off the left edge. Senior Axel Robertson drilled a 38-yard field goal.
"We talked before the game that there would be some things out of our control that would happen," Joseph said. "We were going to have to respond, and every time something happened, they did. I couldn't be more proud of them and their character. It wasn't perfect, but we won the game. Our character was tested, the pressure rose, and they responded."
Joseph said his team has to do a better job rushing the passer and covering downfield.
"We'll get an opportunity to do a better job, because we'll get an opportunity to play next week," Joseph said.
4. CARTER SHINES
Sophomore tight end Luke Carter, son of Katy ISD assistant athletic director Lance Carter, had an impactful game for the Tigers, including his first career varsity touchdown.
Carter caught two passes for 46 yards. The first catch, a 17-yard leaping snare on third down early in the first quarter, put Katy in the red zone on the Tigers' opening series and led to Davis' halfback pass. The second catch was a 29-yard grab on 4th-and-3 with 8:37 left that put the Tigers ahead 34-17, essentially sealing the win.
"He's not a sophomore anymore," Joseph said. "He's played 13 games now. We tell these kids they're grown up. They don't ask how old you are when you line up on the field; you're a varsity football player. He made a play. We trust him just like we trust all of our kids."