While most everyone used Black Friday to get in a little Christmas shopping, for the Aledo football team it was for taking care of business.
Junior running back Jase McClellan had his most productive day of the season, rushing for 308 yards and 4 touchdowns to pace Aledo (12-0) over Lovejoy, 62-28, in a 5A Division II Region II area round playoff game at Pennington Field.
As a team, Aledo rushed for 460 yards and had 603 total yards in the game.
“We felt like our offensive line matched up with their defensive front. And, obviously, Jase had a really big game. We haven’t given him the ball that much in any game during the year,” coach Steve Wood said of Aledo’s big rushing day.
Bearcat quarterback Jake Bishop passed for 143 yards and two TDs. He also scored on a 6-yard run. Ryan Anderson scored two rushing touchdowns, while Jo Jo Earle caught five passes for 83 yards, including a 13-yard touchdown.
The offensive onslaught was more than enough to power the No.1 Bearcats into the third round of the 5A Division II playoffs against South Oak Cliff, which earned a 48-16 victory over Frisco Friday evening. The game will be played at 7:30 p.m. Friday at Midlothian.
Lovejoy won the toss and elected to defer, giving Aledo the ball first.
McClellan and the Bearcats wasted little time in taking the lead. It took just four plays to cover 74 yards, with McClellan carrying the ball on three of the plays. He had a 55-yard run on the first play of the game, and capped the drive with a 2-yard TD run.
Aledo’s second drive started at the 1 -yard line after a wind-aided Lovejoy punt traveled 74 yards.
McClellan kick started the 10-play, 99-yard drive with a 21-yard run. Bishop had a pair of passes to Earle in the drive, as well as a 20-yard run. Bishop complete the drive with a 6-yard TD run to make it 14-0.
The Aledo special teams then contributed a turnover when Ryan Anderson jumped on a kickoff that the Leopards failed to field at the Lovejoy 19. It took just three plays for Aledo to cash in. Bishop hit Earl on a wide receiver screen from 13 for the score to make it 21-0 late in the first quarter.
The teams traded punts early in the second quarter, but Lovejoy’s 15-yard punt into the wind game Aledo the ball at the Leopards’ 34. The 5-play drive featured four McClellan runs that covered all 34 yards. He finished the drive with a 14-yard run to make it 28-0.
Lovejoy then got on the scoreboard with a 75-yard, 9-play drive to make it 28-7.
However, Aledo answered right back when Earle’s 41-yard kick return gave Aledo the ball at Lovejoy’s 49. McClellan, who had a 21-yard run in the drive, capped the drive with a 1-yard TD run to make it 35-7 at the half.
Lovejoy drove all the way to the Aledo 25 to open the second half, but defensive back Collin Johnson broke up a fourth-down pass in the end zone to stop the threat.
Aledo’s offense then drove right back 75-yards to make it 42-7. The big plays on the drive were runs of 17 yards by Bishop, a 17 yards pass from Bishop to fullback Jordan Montes, a 20-yard McClellan run and the 1-yard TD run by McClellan.
Lovejoy then went on a 13-play drive to make it 42-14 late in the third quarter. The Leopards converted a fourth-and-8 play in the drive from their own 43 to keep the drive alive.
Again, the Aledo offense answered right back, needing just 3 plays to cover 62 yards. Bishop threw a 23-yard pass to open the drive, then McClellan ripped off a 33-yard run to the Lovejoy 6.
Bishop then threw a high pass to the 6-4 Fay, who pulled down the TD pass on the first play of the fourth quarter to make it 49-14.
The Aledo defense then forced a three and out, but the Lovejoy punter then used the wind to roll a punt to the 1-yard line.
For the second time that Aledo was backed up to its own goal line, they handed the ball to McClellan. This time he rolled around the right end, got a block from Maylen Hayhurst to help him race down the sideline for 74 yards.
That was McClellan’s last play of the game. Anderson came in at running back to help finish the drive and give Aledo a 56-14 lead.
Aledo sent in the second string to finish the game and half of Lovejoy’s points came late against the second team.
Click here to view a gallery of action photos.
Jo Jo Earle scores on this first half pass play. Photo by Tom Marvin
Aledo quarterback Jake Bishop had several long runs for the Aledo offense in the playoff victory. Photo by Tom Marvin
Defensive back Collin Johnson knocks the ball away from a Lovejoy receiver on this fourth-down play. Photo by Tom Marvin
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