The Taylor Mustangs had a chance to be down on themselves two weeks ago.

Coming off a loss to George Ranch, with important players hobbled by injuries, the Mustangs had every chance to mope, and not give full effort going into the district season.

But instead of that, the Mustangs did the opposite. Taylor came together, stepped things up in practice and made strides heading into the most important part of the year and it’s paid dividends.

“These guys are just a tight knit group and they came together right away and decided they were going to learn and grow from those two games,” said Taylor head coach Chad Simmons. “It’s like a family and the guys have come to practice, been focuses and held each other accountable. I think they get that this is a process. They knew that those two games didn’t define them and they bought into everything and have really improved.”

Taylor (2-2, 2-0) earned a big win over Cinco Ranch last week, and they kept it going in the second week of district, topping Seven Lakes (1-2, 0-1) 31-10.

“It’s a really good feeling to start district the way we have,” said senior running back Dante Archie. “We’ve been working hard all summer, everyone came together as a team and we all pushed through everything. We have a different mentality this year than last year and we want to go and get every win.”

It was a tale of two halves for Taylor, as the first half was tight before the Mustangs pulled away in the second half.

Taylor took the first drive of the game down and scored. Daniel Bruns ran in a 1-yard touchdown, but Seven Lakes came right back with a score two plays later as Donye Lake took a jet sweep and ran it in from 28-yards out for a touchdown of his own. Seven Lakes added a field goal early in the second quarter, but Taylor came back with just seconds remaining in the second quarter to tie things on a 42-yard field goal of its own, tying the game going into halftime.
“Seven Lakes hit us early and we had to make some adjustments even before halftime to our alignments,” Simmons said. “That helped us and one of the keys for us going in was slowing down their backs because their two guys are really good and they’re not easy to tackle. We struggled with that in the first quarter but we picked things up and turned things around in the second half.”

The second half was all Taylor. The Mustangs too the lead off a 45-yard run from Archie in the third quarter, and then after an interception by Josiah Rodriguez, stretched the lead to 14 on a 16 yard touchdown pass from Daniel Bruns to Jeremy McCullough in the fourth. Seven Lakes tried to get back into things but Rodriguez kept making plays, picking off two more passes and setting a Taylor school record for interceptions in a game with three.

“I love the challenge and I love when teams come at me,” Rodriguez said. “It builds my energy. I want to stop guys and hold it down or the team, so when I’m able to get a turnover and help these guys, it’s just an amazing feeling. All my guys have been here cheering for me and supporting me to and it means the world.”

Archie sealed things late in the fourth with a 22-yard touchdown run. He finished the game with 97 rushing yards and 63 receiving yards in his first game back from an ankle injury, while Taylor quarterback Daniel Bruns, who has had to transition to the position from receiver, threw for 152 yards in the win. Jeremy McCullough had two receptions for 29 yards and was another threat through the air for Taylor.

“I couldn’t have done it without these other guys,” Archie said. “The offensive line was amazing for me tonight and the rest of the team lifted me up and helped me not think about that ankle. I just wanted to go out there and play ball for my guys and I’m happy we came away with a win.”

Taylor gets a much needed bye week after the win and hopes to use it to get guys rest and hopefully get players healthy and back to full strength.

“This proves that we can beat teams and can push to a different level than we’ve been at the past two years,” Archie said. “We want to get back to those teams that went three or four or five rounds deep. We can be that kind of team, we just have to keep working and getting better.”

Taylor 31, Seven Lakes 10

First quarter

T: Daniel Bruns 1 run (Jackson Waller kick) 8:02

SL: Donye Lake 38 run (Alex Farinez kick) 7:04

Second quarter

SL: Farinez 23 field goal, 8:58

T: Waller 42 field goal, 0:15

Third quarter

T: Dante Archie 45 run (Waller kick) 2:49

Fourth quarter

T: Daniel Bruns 16 pass to Jeremy McCullough (Waller kick) 10:39

T: Dante Archie 22 run (Waller kick) 1:58

Team stats

Individual Statistics

Rushing – Taylor: Dante Archie, 12-97-2; Ethan Jacobson, 10-45; Josh Jacobson, 2-5; Daniel Bruns, 3-3; Seven Lakes: Barrett Hudson, 15-80; Donye Lake, 4-50; Jake Farris, 7-16; Shaan Patel, 1-(-10);  

Passing – Taylor: Daniel Bruns, 9-20-152-1-0; Seven Lakes: Shaan Patel, 7-19-45-0-3

Receiving – Taylor: Dante Archie, 3-63; Jeremy McCullough, 2-29-1; Kameron Green, 1-20; Jared Grafe, 1-17; Ethan Jacobson, 1-13; Joe Praise Adeyemi, 1-13; Cyrus Reyes, 1-(-3); Seven Lakes: Davis Yates, 3-16; Ryan Fowler, 2-15; Barrett Hudson, 1-10; Kaiser Floyd, 1-4;