Eagles hit the road to Llano looking for first win

Salado Eagles travel to Llano to face the 1-4 Yellowjackets in the final non-district football game at 7:30 p.m. Oct. 2.

Llano’s only win came in week two against the now 0-4 Bangs Dragons, a 3A-Div I team. The Yellowjackets won 41-12.

Llano has lost to Wall 28-13, Brady 44-6, Fredericksburg, 27-0 and Lakeview 28-14.

Last year, the Eagles lost to Llano 34-13 at home.

Salado is coming into the game with a winless record, after losing to the Gatesville Hornets at Eagle Stadium 40-23 on Sept. 25.

The Eagles trailed by as much as 34-3 at the half, when the Hornets put in substitute players for the remainder of the game.

The Hornets scored on their first possession on an 11 play drive, capped by a one yard run by Jacob Carley. David Saldivar’s kick made it 7-0 at 7:58 in the first.

After Salado went three-and-out, the Hornets scored on a 62 yard pass from Jeff Speer to Cooper Edmiston. The PAT failed.

Gatesville picked up a fumble and returned it 45 yards to the Salado 4 yard line to set up a short pass from Speer to Matthew Bell for a 20-0 lead.

The Eagles answered with a 34 yard field goal by Salado kicker Alex Carmona to trail 20-3.

Speer scored on a 42 yard quarterback keeper with 8:57 left in the half and a 27-3 lead after Sandival’s kick.

Speer threw his third touchdown of the game to Dakota Vernon and Sandival brought the score to 34-3 at the half.

Gatesville had a TD called back in the third and Tyler Stairs intercepted a Hornets’ pass, but Gatesville intercepted a Salado pass on the next series to give the Hornets the ball at the 38 yard line.

Alex Thompson scored the final touchdown for the Hornets on a 23 yard run with 8:15 left in the third quarter.

Salado would score three touchdowns in the fourth quarter, two of them on passes by sophomore quarterback Ryan Kyburz and one on the ground.

Kyburz hit Trey Sheppard for a 7 yard TD pass early in the fourth and Carmona kicked the extra point to make the score 40-10.

A screen pass from Kyburz to Preston Payne set up a 1 yard touchdown dive by Sheppard midway through the final period. The kicked was partially blocked and Salado trailed 40-16.

With less than a minute left in the game, Kyburz hit Payne for a 31 yard touchdown pass. Carmona booted the extra point to bring the score to 23-40.

The Eagles had their most productive game with 264 yards total offense. Kyburz was 17 of 34 passing with an interception and two passing touchdowns. Payne was his favorite receiver with 97 yards on five catches and a touchdown.