Last Friday, I was excited to make the short trek out to Nelson Field in Austin, TX to see the top-ranked Dallas Parish Episcopal Panthers square off against the tenth-ranked Austin LBJ Jaguars. The last time that I had covered the Jaguars, they were one win away from earning a state title victory for Austin ISD. However, despite last year’s loss to Stephenville, the Jaguars still have retained a ton of talent, including future Division 1 athletes Fatu Mukuba, Latreveon McCutchin and Sedrick Alexander.
Dallas Parish Episcopal vs Austin LBJ
Despite of LBJ’s talent, don’t be fooled – Dallas Parish Episcopal might be the most loaded (talent-wise) team in private school football. For example, 2025 quarterback Sawyer Anderson has already amassed 14 scholarship offers from schools such as Arkansas and TCU. Additionally, 2023 three-star safety Daniel Demery, who is committed to Ole Miss, has 25 offers to schools such as Texas and Texas A&M.
Speaking of Anderson, the underclassman put up a prolific scoring performance, throwing for five touchdowns and 218 yards against LBJ. Along with Anderson, Episcopal also showcased a heavy dose of junior running back Maddux Reid, who rushed for 174 yards and helped to lead the Panthers to a dominant 44-21 victory over the Jaguars. So far this season, Parish running back Cedric Mays has been the guy for the Panthers out of the backfield, however Reid was the workhorse on Friday which makes me question whether Mays sustained some sort of injury during, or prior to, the game. However, if Reid can continue to put up performances like he did against LBJ and, Mays is indeed healthy, the Panthers would certainly be the team to beat in the realm of private school football in the state of Texas.
Although Episcopal was able to cruise to a victory, Sedrick Alexander was able to showcase why he is a Vanderbilt commit as he rushed for a whopping 227 yards and a touchdown, doing his best to keep LBJ competitive on Friday. You would certainly be hard pressed to find a game in which Alexander fails to make an impact by the final whistle. He is one of the Central Texas area’s best running backs and has already rushed for 543 yards through just three games this season.
Extra Point:
I am excited to see Sawyer Anderson again in action in the future. There is a reason why the young quarterback has as many offers as he does at this point in time. I will be interested to see how his game progresses over the course of the season and whether he can help Episcopal capture yet another state title.
Miles Logged:
12 miles
