Football: Oak Ridge falls, The Woodlands wins league openers

SHENANDOAH, Texas - The Oak Ridge High School football team made positive steps defensively in the District 14-5A opener Friday at Woodforest Bank Stadium. Unfortunately, the War Eagles' offense sputtered all night long in a 20-7 loss to the Bryan Vikings.

The Woodlands High School football team, meanwhile, had its offense in high gear at Conroe's Buddy Moorhead Stadium. The Highlanders raced to a 56-28 district-opening victory over the Conroe Tigers.

Highlanders quarterback Blaine Gillespie threw for 124 yards, completing 4 of 5 passes, and scored on a pair of 1-yard touchdown runs before leaving the game with an injury.

Jayme Taylor came on to continue the onslaught, throwing for 188 yards (6-12-0) and three touchdowns. Prior to taking over at quarterback, Taylor was on the receiving end of two Gillespie passes good for 130 yards.

He then threw a 12-yard touchdown pass to Bayley Novak and scoring strikes of 54 and 43 yards to Sean McCanna before closing the scoring with a 1-yard touchdown run of his own. McCanna also added a 2-yard touchdown run as well.

Patrick Carr led the ground attack with 157 yards on 17 carries.

The Highlanders also got a 2-yard touchdown run from Chris Warren and were in control from the outset. The Woodlands led 21-6 at the quarter and enjoyed a 35-14 halftime lead.

The Woodlands (3-2, 1-0) hosts A&M Consolidated (3-2, 0-1 ), which dropped a 71-68 four-overtime marathon to Lufkin at home Friday in its 14-5A opener. The key district encounter kicks off at 7 p.m. Thursday.

Oak Ridge (0-5, 0-1) takes on College Park (3-1) at 7:30 p.m. Friday in Woodforest Bank Stadium. The Cavaliers were idle this week. It will be their district opener.