Things started going Kell’s way Sunday when the Longhorns won the coin toss to host their quarterfinal playoff game against fellow No. 1 seed Warner Robins. And that, as it turned out, was just the beginning.
Kell (13-0) started quickly and didn’t let up Friday night, as the No. 2 team in Class AAAAA advanced to its first state semifinal with a 52-28 trampling of the sixth-ranked Demons (11-2). The Longhorns will face Creekside next week.
Kell jumped out of the gate on the first possession of the game, with a 16-play, 75-yard drive that stalled at the Warner Robins 5-yard line. Cammeron Massung booted a 22-yard field goal to put the Longhorns ahead 3-0 midway through the first quarter.
Kell wasted little time adding to the lead as senior linebacker Keith Hampton grabbed a pass that bounced in and out of the hands of a Warner Robins receiver and returned it 12 yards to the Demons’ 36-yard line. Four plays later, senior receiver Julian Burris took a jet sweep in from 6 yards out to increase the lead to 10-0.
Warner Robins, which entered the game averaging more than 360 yards of offense, got going on its next possession. But on a night where nothing went right for the Demons, the drive sputtered at the Kell 21-yard line and junior kicker Matt Monday left a 38-yard field-goal attempt short of the uprights.
On third-and-10 on Kell’s ensuing possession, quarterback Cameron Rosendahl avoided the rush, stepped up in the pocket and looked as if he were about to take off for a first down. Instead, he zipped a quick pass to receiver/safety Taylor Hinkle, who stayed in the middle of the field and outran the Warner Robins secondary for an 80-yard touchdown and a 17-0 Kell advantage midway through the second quarter.
Things got worse for the Demons before they could get to halftime. On the kickoff, junior Reggie Gordon was on his way to a return up the far sideline before the ball was poked out of his arms and right to Evan Carnes, who was brought down at the Warner Robins 34-yard line.
The Demons defense got a tackle-for-loss and a sack on Kell’s first two plays from scrimmage, but on third-and-20, Rosendahl hit Errol Breaux for 24 yards and a first down. Five plays later, Jay Moxey, who finished with more than 100 yards rushing, scored the first of his three touchdowns from 3 yards out to bump the Longhorns’ cushion to 24-0.
Any chance of a second-half comeback by Warner Robins was smothered on the Demons’ first possession of the third quarter when Danny Hite Jr. was stuffed on third-and-2 at his 30-yard line. Then a bad snap to Monday on the ensuing punt caused him to rush his kick, which netted just 10 yards to the Warner Robins 40-yard line.
After Burris took a bubble-screen pass 35 yards to the Demons 5-yard line on Kell’s first play from scrimmage of the third quarter, Moxey took it the rest of the way one play later for an insurmountable 31-0 lead.
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