Despite loss, Greenville players working hard
October 14, 2008

By DAVID CLAYBOURN
Herald-Banner Staff

GREENVILLE -- Though it was a school holiday and they were coming off a homecoming loss on Friday, the Greenville Lions still impressed their head coach Jim Phillips with their turnout for practice on Monday.

“We got beat and we only have two kids missing today with no school,” said Phillips. “That’s a big plus.”

Phillips said when he coached at Waller, the Bulldogs usually had “six or seven” players miss practice on a non-school day. Waller reached the playoffs in 11 of Phillips’ 18 seasons as head coach. Several of his former Waller players are currently making impacts with their college teams.

Cody Johnson, a 5-11, 255-pound redshirt freshman running back from Waller, scored on three touchdown runs for the University of Texas during the Longhorns’ 45-35 victory over No. 1 ranked Oklahoma on Saturday.

Jason Phillips, a 6-1, 234-pound senior linebacker from Waller, rang up five tackles on Saturday for the No. 1 ranked defense in the country, the Texas Christian University Horned Frogs in a 13-7 victory over Colorado State. Phillips is Jim Phillips’ son.

Eddie Brown, a a 6-0, 265-pounder from Waller, is playing as a freshman at defensive tackle for the Texas A&M Aggies.

Greenville played Royse City to a 10-10 standstill in the first half on Friday night but gave way in the second half to fall 35-10.

Phillips said it hurt the Lions to lose fullback Ezekial Prado to an injury in the first half. Prado doesn’t carry the ball much for the Lions but helps with the blocking.

“When we lost Prado we were in trouble,” said the Lions coach.

Greenville outgained Royse City 140-131 in yardage in the first half but the Bulldogs turned the tables on the Lions in the second half with a 240-64 advantage to go with 25 unanswered points.

Royse City quarterback Richard Morrison, who was an all-state player in Class 3A last season, was 20-of-32 passing for 310 yards and two touchdowns against the Lions.

Greenville, which is 1-5 for the season, will be facing another 1-5 team at 7:30 p.m. Friday at Standridge Stadium in Carrollton. Newman Smith’s only victory this season was 35-12 over crosstown rival R.L. Turner in district play.

Newman Smith has also lost 31-14 to Denton Guyer, 42-28 to Keller Central, 24-9 to Irving, 52-14 to Highland Park and 27-3 on Friday to Rockwall-Heath.

Despite the Trojans’ record, Phillips calls them a “good football team.”

“They’ve got two defensive ends that can play,” he said. “That No. 79, an offensive tackle, is a blocking fool.”

The Trojans prefer to run the option on offense. Quarterback Aldo Quiroga ran for 126 yards and two touchdowns on 11 carries against R.L. Turner and was 1-of-5 passing for 12 yards. Running back Randl Joyner pounded out 169 yards on 22 carries, with one touchdown run.

Quiroga ran 24 times for 53 yards against Rockwall-Heath but was 12-of-29 passing for 141 yards.

Rockwall-Heath limited Joyner to 73 yards on 23 carries in that game.

Rockwall-Heath broke for four big plays against Newman Smith, scoring on a 90-yard kickoff return by Darius Jones, a 65-yard pass from quarterback Drew Hollingshead to Everett Gilbert, a 48-yard run by Kendial Lawrence and a 70-yard run by Gilbert.

Newman Smith was 1-9 last season, with the only victory over R.L. Turner, which finished at 0-10. However, both Carrollton teams were in Class 5A last season. They’ve since dropped down to 4A.