Longview Dominates Tyler Lee From Start to Finish + Clinches Ninth District Title in 10 Years

LONGVIEW -- The Longview Lobos' district-championship drought lasted all of one year. Their performance Thursday night made sure of that.

Longview dominated District 12-5A rival Tyler Lee from the outset in a 63-7 win on Senior Night at Lobo Stadium, a victory that delivered the outright league title to Longview for the ninth time in 10 seasons.

"It was nice to get the gold ball back," said Lobos coach John King, who improved to 10-0 all-time against Tyler Lee. "Last year, that was disappointing how things turned out. We had chances, but we didn't play well in certain games to get our ninth district title (in a row). It was nice getting that gold ball back to Longview, that was one of our goals for the season and we have one more still to go."

Longview (8-1, 5-0), which closes out the regular season next Friday night at Rockwall, will enter the Class 5A Division II playoffs as the No. 1 seed from 12-5A and will play either Rowlett or Garland Lakeview Centennial at 4 p.m. Saturday, Nov. 16 at Dallas' Kincaide Stadium in the bi-district round.

Tyler Lee (4-5, 1-4), which snapped a 14-game district losing streak with a win over Mesquite last week, was eliminated from playoff contention with the loss.

With star running back JaMycal Hasty still limited after suffering an ankle injury two weeks ago against Mesquite Horn, the Longview passing game took center stage in the first half. Junior quarterback Dezmond Chumley finished 8-of-11 for 200 yards and three touchdowns passing and rushed three times for 36 yards and a touchdown -- all in the Lobos' 42-point first half.

Chris Pellum had touchdown catches of 22 and 26 yards and finished with three receptions for 82 yards, while Stephon Anthony hauled in three passes for 118 yards and a touchdown. Longview even got production from Melvin Gouldsby, who got behind the Lee secondary for a 46-yard reception on a third-and-34 play that extended one of the Lobos' six first-half scoring drives.

"(Chumley) threw the ball well and hit some big plays," King said. "I think the biggest one was the third-and-long when we hit (Gouldsby). Of course I know the touchdown plays were big on the scoreboard, but that continued a drive and enabled us to get another one punched in there as opposed to punting it and maybe giving them some momentum."

Hasty was in on a handful of plays early on but never carried the ball. L'darrius "Petey" Peterson picked up the slack with 95 yards and three touchdowns on just nine attempts as Longview piled up 252 yards on the ground and 522 overall.

"I didn't think things would be as easy as what they were, but we hit some big pass plays," King said. "We felt like we had to throw the ball; their defensive front was too good, but we had a lot more success running the ball than I thought we would."

The Longview defense terrorized Lee all night, especially the duo of senior defensive tackle Zaycoven Henderson and senior safety Travin Howard. Longview forced four turnovers and held Lee to 167 total yards on the night -- 124 of which came in the second half against a slew of backups. The Red Raiders came into Thursday averaging 34 points and more than 425 yards per game.

Henderson, who has offers from multiple FBS schools and was presented his game jersey for January's U.S. Marines Semper Fidelis All-American Bowl during the pregame Senior Night ceremony, lived in the backfield. He finished with two tackles for loss, a sack and one forced fumble.

"He was ready to roll tonight," King said of Henderson. "And there were some college scouts on the sidelines too and that doesn't hurt. Those recruitable kids want to stir it up and put on a show."

Howard intercepted Lee quarterback Zach Hall on the Red Raiders' first play from scrimmage when he leapt high in the air along the home sideline to bring down his fifth interception of the season.

"He's made a bunch of (big plays)," King said of Howard. "I think he's one of the more under-recruited kids in East Texas, I really do. People, when they see him live and in person, they're kinda amazed at his ability to do a lot of things. He's a good tackler, he's a good guy playing bubble screens as well as being a cover guy. He's very coachable and is always is in the right spot at the right time."

Lee was without sophomore starting running back Tavon Wesley because of injury. Junior Kyjuan Johnson led the Red Raiders on the ground with 91 yards on 15 carries, while Juwan Banks had 12 carries for 52 yards and Lee's only score of the night.

Longview led 21-0 less than five minutes into the first quarter.

The Lobos received the game's opening kickoff and marched 74 yards in four plays, scoring on a 3-yard run by Peterson. After Howard's interception on the first play of the ensuing Lee drive, Chumley connected with Pellum for a 22-yard score and 14-0 lead just 1:12 into game. Following a Lee three-and-out, Chumley connected with Texas-bound receiver Dorian Leonard for 13 yards, took off for an 18-yard gain and found Pellum again for a three-touchdown lead with 7:05 remaining in the opening quarter.

Longview forced another three-and-out and went up 28-0 late in the first quarter on a 19-yard touchdown run by Chumley, who took time to scour the field for an open receiver before dicing up the Red Raiders' overmatched defense with his legs.

"They came out ready to play and in the first quarter set the tone for a great ballgame," King said. "The defense played well, got us some turnovers and the offense made big plays and we got command of the game pretty early."

Despite wrapping up the district title Thursday night, King stressed the importance of next week's game.

"It's preparation for the playoffs," he said. "We don't want to go in and play sloppy. You've got to go in and play Rockwall, a team that if they can beat Mesquite (Friday) they've got an outside chance of getting in (the playoffs) I believe. It'll be a tough task going up there with everything already decided as far as district title and playoff seed. We're going to have to go up there and make sure we're ready to play Lobo football."

---

Longview 63, Tyler Lee 7

Lobo Stadium, Longview

Tyler Lee            0    0    0    7    --    7
Longview          28  14  14    7    --  63
First Quarter
LON--L'darrius Peterson 3 run (Andres Perez kick), 11:23.
LON--Chris Pellum 22 pass from Dezmond Chumley (Perez kick), 10:48.
LON--Pellum 26 pass from Chumley (Perez kick), 7:05.
LON--Chumley 19 run (Perez kick), 2:31.
Second Quarter
LON--Peterson 8 run (Perez kick), 9:30.
LON--Stephon Anthony 36 pass from Chumley (Perez kick), 6:38.
Third Quarter
LON--Peterson 21 run (Perez kick), 7:44.
LON--Jeremy Powell 4 run (Perez kick), 3:28.
Fourth Quarter
LEE--Juwan Banks 1 run (Chris Blas kick), 11:17.
LON--Marquies Hunter 2 run (Cody Jenkins kick), 7:08.

                                   LEE               LON
First Downs                       9                  21
Total Yards                     167               522
Rushes-Yards            43-162           40-252
Passing Yards                    5                270
Comp.-Att.-Int.             1-6-2           9-14-0
Punts-Avg.                  7-31.1           1-40.0
Fumbles-Lost                   3-2                2-1
Penalties-Yards              4-34              8-70

INDIVIDUAL STATISTICS
RUSHING--Tyler Lee, Kyjuan Johnson 15-91, Juwan Banks 12-52, Team 2-14, Bryce Wilkerson 2-5, Zach Hall 12-0. Longview, L'darrius Peterson 9-95, Tylan Miller 10-69, Dezmond Chumley 3-36, Deionte Wall 7-26, Marquies Hunter 4-16, Jeremy Powell 5-13, Cameron Castleberry 1-(-1), Lance Cooper 1-(-2).
PASSING--Tyler Lee, Hall 1-6-2--5. Longview, Chumley 8-11-0--200, Castleberry 1-1-0--70, Cooper 0-2-0--0.
RECEIVING--Tyler Lee, Marquiston Williams 1-5. Longview, Stephon Anthony 3-118, Chris Pellum 3-82, Dorian Leonard 2-24, Melvin Gouldsby 1-46.