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Football: West wins showdown with Flower Mound

By Chris Roark, croark@acnpapers.com

Published: Saturday, October 29, 2011 1:31 AM CDT

With a playoff spot in District 8-5A essentially on the line, things got wild in more ways than one during Plano West's 55-42 win over Flower Mound on Friday.

The Jaguars (3-6, 2-4) provided their typical offensive fireworks show, totaling 589 yards despite not having starting quarterback Marshall Williams available. Sophomore quarterback Connor Wanhanen stepped in to keep the offense rolling.

But West (5-4, 3-3) had an offensive answer of its own in junior quarterback Travis Korry.

Korry rushed 22 times for 354 yards and scored six touchdowns to help keep the Wolves' playoff hopes alive and shut down the Jaguars' hopes.

With the win, West remains in a fourth-place tie with Plano East, with tiebreaker in tow.

The wildness, which included a streaker in the first half, continued throughout the contest up until the final three minutes of the game. During a 76-yard touchdown pass from Wanhanen to Chas Taylor, which cut the Wolves' lead down to 55-42, offensive lineman Rhys Jeffrey was injured on a late hit. Play was stopped for nearly 15 minutes while medical staff tended to him. He was eventually transported by ambulance to a local hospital. Plano West junior linebacker Mike Mitchell was ejected on the play.

Flower Mound coach Cody Vanderford said it appeared to be a lower back injury, but the decision to take Jeffrey to the hospital was precautionary and he appeared to be fine.

The incident led to a flurry of personal foul calls against West, giving Flower Mound a chance to kick off from the Wolves' 30-yard line. The Jags attempted an onside kick, but the referees said the ball didn't travel 10 yards before a Jaguar touched it.

"After last week, we came back and played with a lot of emotion," Vanderford said. "If the call had gone our way on that onside kick, I think we would have had a chance."

But the way Korry played, Flower Mound had its hands full all night.

Korry, who demolished his season-high in rushing, scored four times in the first half to help Plano West take a 38-21 lead at the break. He scored on runs of 53, 23, 72 and 24 yards in the first half. Many of his runs were off draw plays.

"[Korry] played outstanding," said Mike Hughes, West coach. "In fact our entire offense played great. We had some turnovers, and we have to eliminate those, but our offense played really well tonight."

Vanderford noted it was a combination of things that hurt Flower Mound.

"We had trouble getting our assigned guy on [Korry] in the first half," he said. "And in the second half, we got to him but couldn't make a play on him."

Senior running back Carlos Wiggins also hurt the Jaguars with 161 yards on 25 carries.

But despite West's strong running game, Flower Mound stayed in the game thanks to Wanhanen. He completed 30-of-63 passes for 488 yards and three interceptions. Taylor caught 11 of his passes for 223 yards and scored three touchdowns.

"Connor played well for his first start," Vanderford said. "He made a couple of sophomore mistakes, but he also did a lot of great things."

Korry's 24-yard touchdown run with 1:35 left in the half expanded West's lead to 38-21, its biggest advantage of the night. Flower Mound got as close as 38-28 on Beau LaFave's 23-yard touchdown catch early in the third quarter, but couldn't overtake the Wolves in a 55-42 defeat.

Flower Mound closes the season at 7:30 p.m. Friday when it travels to Eagle Stadium to face Allen.

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