Duncanville’s Defense Claws Through Bears in Highly Anticipated Season Opener

Photo credit Scorebook Live

By Jermia White

DALLAS—It had the lights, crowd attendance, news coverage, and above all, the competitiveness you’d expect from a Texas high school football game. The Panthers of Duncanville High made game winning defensive stops to defeat the Golden Bears of South Oak Cliff 23-10 in Saturday’s season opener.

Duncanville’s offense would start out with a sputtering start as junior quarterback Jameir Willis would throw an interception in the opening drive as defense would be the emphasis of this game for both sides.

Midway through the second quarter, Duncanville’s 4-star RB Caden Durham would give them a spark toting it 99 yards for the touchdown in what would be a major highlight of this game. Durham would finish the night with 119 yards.

Willis would later get the rolling as he opened the 4th quarter with a 10yard touchdown pass, upping the Panthers lead to 16-7 before exiting with a leg injury with 2:27 left in the game.

The Panthers defense led by 5-star junior, defensive end Colin Simmons would turn up the heat in the fourth. Simmons would end the night with 2 sacks and a tackle for a loss.

South Oak Cliff would add insult to injury, tacking on penalties in crunch time preventing any chance of a possible comeback.

With a little over a minute left in the game, Duncanville opts to let it all hang on a 4th & 13 play in which backup quarterback, Sophomore, Keelon Russell finds senior Kaleb Kenney on a 30-yard touchdown pass to seal the game.

In a post-game interview, Duncanville’s sophomore wide receiver DaKorien Moore was asked what message Duncanville was sending with such a good start to the season. Moore replied, “we’re just getting started.”

South Oak Cliff will look to get back on track next week as they play Lancaster while Duncanville looks to go 2-0 after their matchup with Jones from Florida.