Dillos Football continues 7-on-7 summer scrimmages

The San Saba High School varsity football team was in action last week on Monday, June 20, as the Dillos had scrimmages against host Llano High School, Mason High School, and Johnson City High School down at Jacket Stadium.

The Dillos opened the evening against the Punchers and compared to their scrimmage the previous week against Mason, San Saba did considerably better as they held on late for an impressive 12-6 victory.

To open the scrimmage, San Saba senior quarterback Lance Taylor engineered a really nice opening offensive drive as he connected on a pass to fellow senior wide receiver Tyler Johnson multiple times to mark the Dillos down the field. Johnson would show explosiveness off the line of scrimmage and get open against Mason’s defensive backs, make some nice catches and gain extra yardage downfield. The Dillos capped off a great opening drive when Taylor threw a short touchdown pass to Johnson to give San Saba an early 6-0 lead.

That advantage for the Dillos over the Punchers would hold the entirety of the first half as San Saba’s tight team defense gave Mason fits, not allowing them to gain many yards and forced a lot of inaccurate throws that resulted in incompletions.

After Mason got the ball to start the second half, the Dillos turned them away on defense as senior linebacker Zuri Herrera was in the perfect place to intercept a Mason pass off a deflection to give the Dillos the ball.

Taylor and Johnson then were back at it again on offense. San Saba got a huge play when Taylor threw a pass to Johnson, who burned the Mason coverage and ran along the right sideline for a gain of 30 yards. The Dillos cashed in right afterward as Taylor made a superb play by rolling out to his left and throwing a 15-yard touchdown pass across his body to extend San Saba’s lead to 12-0.

Although the Dillos allowed the Punchers to score their lone offensive touchdown of the scrimmage to get the score within 12-6, San Saba really hunkered down on defense when it mattered most the rest of the way.

With time running out in the scrimmage and the Dillos in desperate need of a defensive stop, they got just that. Following a pass breakup by Herrera on one play, the Dillos turned the Punchers away as junior linebacker Lane Miller hauled in an interception off a ricocheted pass to seal the win.

After San Saba played its second scrimmage against Johnson City, the Dillos concluded the night against a very tough Llano team.

However, the Dillos got off to another excellent start on offense. Following a couple of completions thrown to Johnson, Taylor found senior tight end Dylan Ware for a nice gain to get the Dillos deeper into the red zone. On the very next play, Taylor went back to Ware over the middle as the 6’7” tight end hauled in a pass over a defender for the touchdown. With the conversion attempt successful on a pass from Taylor to Johnson, the Dillos held an early 7-0 lead over the Jackets.

San Saba’s defense was very good in the first half as they limited the Jackets to just six points. The Dillos had an opportunity to add to their 7-6 right before halftime as Taylor completed a pass to Ware for a 21-yard gain to set up a firstand-goal situation. The Jackets’ defense eventually turned away San Saba as a Taylor pass was broken up in the endzone as time expired with the Dillos leading Llano 7-6 at halftime.

This young San Saba squad showed some growing pains as they struggled in the second half to make adjustments to Llano’s explosive offense. A handful of big plays by the Llano offense and some blown coverages by San Saba’s defense really came back to haunt the Dillos in the second half. Llano would outscore San Saba 20-0 in the second half as the Dillos closed the night with a 26-7 loss.

It was also announced last Thursday night during the San Saba All-Sports Booster Club meeting held at Arrowhead Bank that the annual upcoming 2022 Meet the Dillos event will be held at 5 p.m. on Friday, August 5, hosted by the school. It will be a major fundraiser event held by the booster club with a fish fry, silent auction, live auction, performances by the San Saba Golden Armadillo Band, and an intro of fall sports teams.

San Saba was supposed to play another slate of scrimmages against multiple teams on Monday, June 27, but severe weather across the area that evening led Llano ISD to right fully cancel football activities at Jacket Stadium for safety reasons.

Be sure to check out next week’s edition of the San Saba News & Star for more updates on Dillos and Lady Dillos varsity athletics. Sports editor Andrew Salmi can be contacted via email at salmi.courier@ gmail.com or by cell phone at (818) 645-1115.