from DMN ::

Abilene Wylie - 28, Royse City - 0

IRVING – Royse City finally hit a wall in its memorable playoff run.

That wall was the Abilene Wylie
defense, which stifled one of the area's top rushing teams in a dominating 28-0 victory Friday over Royse City in a Class 3A Division I semifinal game at Texas Stadium.

Wylie (11-3) moves on to face either Cuero or Palestine in the Class 3A state championship next week. The loss snapped Royse City's 10-game winning streak and ended the most successful season in school history.

Wylie took control of the game on its opening possession - a methodic 17-play, 64-yard scoring drive that included three fourth-down conversions.

"I knew right then that it might be a long night," Royse City coach Rodney Webb said. "They did to us what we've been doing to teams all year."

Royse City (11-3) initially appeared to hold deep in its own territory on fourth-and-5, but an offside penalty kept the drive alive. On the next play, Wylie's Michael Kiger capped the drive with a 4-yard touchdown plunge.
"That was huge," Wylie coach Hugh Sandifer said. "We kept the ball for six minutes and got points on the board. It certainly got their attention."

So did Wylie's defense.

Royse City entered the game averaging 39 points and 457 yards per game but managed just 180 yards of total offense and was kept out of the end zone for the first time all season. Royse City also went for it on fourth down three times in the game and was turned away each time.

Senior quarterback James Mapps was particularly frustrated. He came into the game with 2,403 yards on the season but was held to 84 yards on 20 carries.
"I don't think they missed a tackle all night," Mapps said. "It was just one of those nights where nothing we tried worked. Those guys were good."

Meanwhile, Wylie used its balanced attack to control the time of possession and work its way down the field. Quarterback Case Keenum scored on a pair of short touchdown runs to give his team a commanding 21-0 lead and Kiger dealt the final blow with a 2-yard touchdown in the fourth quarter.

Things continued to get worse for Royse City, which suffered an even bigger loss late in the game when defensive lineman Jarrell Howard sustained an apparent neck injury and had to be immobilized and carted off the field with 3:32 remaining. Howard's condition was not immediately known after the game, but Webb said that the 270-pound junior displayed some movement in his extremities.

Abilene Wylie 14 0 7 7 -- 28
Royse City 0 0 0 0 -- 0
AWYL - Michael Kiger 4 run (Tyler Driskell kick)
AWYL - Case Keenum 2 run (Driskell kick)
AWYL- Keenum 1 run (Driskell kick)
AWYL - Kiger 2 run (Driskell kick)

Statistic AWYL ROYS
First downs 20 12
Rushing yards 40-165 35-135
Passing yards 108 45
Comp-att-int 10-18-0 2-10-0
Punts-avg 3-32.0 3-27.7
Penalties-yards 3-20 2-13
Fumbles-lost 0-0 2-1

INDIVIDUAL LEADERS
Rushing – AWYL: Michael Kiger 20-73, Gary Edwards 1-33, Jarred Scott 3-31, Chad Copeland 4-11, Tim Hibler 1-8, Case Keenum 8-7, Adam Morrow 2-2, Jacob Atkins 1-0. ROYS: James Mapps 20-84, Cameron Holliness 8-36, Mason Morris 2-9, Jacob Garcia 4-0.
Passing – AWYL: Case Keenum 10-18-0-108. ROYS: James Mapps 2-10-0-45.
Receiving – AWYL: Josh Poorman 5-47, Michael Kiger 3-34, Jordan Light 1-15, Scott Cassleberry 1-12. ROYS: Shawn Dabbs 1-33, Mitchell Martin 1-12.