Arlington Martin football bounces back, soundly defeats Lamar to start district play

For the second year in a row, the fourth game of the season was a good one for Arlington Martin.

The Warriors took advantage of two turnovers early and built a big lead on the way to a 55-3 win over Arlington Lamar on Friday at Cravens Field in a District 8-6A UIL high school football game.

The victory snapped an 0-3 start for the Warriors — who also went 0-3 last year but rebounded with an 8-4 record.

“We need that -- when you are losing everything seems bad,” Martin coach Chad Rives said. “So I’m extremely proud of those guys. When you are 0-3 and are preaching it and banging each other in practice. I’m glad to see it finally paid off and we can do thing we need to when the time is right. The start we had was not ideal, but winning cures a lot of things, right?”

The win is the sixth straight for the Warriors over the Vikings and 10th in the last 11 meetings dating back to 2014. Martin is currently No. 7 in the Star-Telegram’s Class 6A rankings.

In the District 8-6A opener for both teams, the Vikings actually struck first.

Martin (1-3, 1-0) fumbled on its second possession of the first quarter and defensive lineman Marquis Reis picked it up at the Martin 6-yard line. The Vikings had -3 yards on the drive and settled for a 32-yard field goal by Noah Rather with 2:24 left in the first.

Martin responded with 29 points in the second quarter -- and ended up being 55 in a row by the end of the game.

Quarterback Brooks Brigance scored the first of his three touchdowns at the 10-minute mark on a 59-yard run.

Special teams miscues on the Vikings’ next two possessions turned into 14 points for Martin. A bad snap led to a fumble and Titus Thomas picked it up and returned it 17 yards to the 10-yard line.

On the first play Brigance scored. Ethan Brown’s PAT made it 14-3 with 6:12 to play in the first half.

Lamar (1-3, 0-1) had another three-and-out and another fumble on the snap happened. Thomas picked it up again and looked to have scored initially, but was ruled down at the 2-yard line.

The Warriors jumped offsides on the first play, but Brigance had a 7-yard keeper with 4:54. He added the 2-point conversion to extend the led to 19 points.

Lamar didn’t punt on the next possession, instead of going for it on fourth down. However, defensive lineman Jesse Ford got to Gannon Carey and sacked him for a 6-yard loss.

Martin had another quick drive— a 1-play, 40-yard scoring play. On a double-reverse run, Trantan Miles ran to his right, cut back to the middle and then down the Martin sideline. He stopped at the 5-yard line to avoid a tackle and then cut into to hit the red zone with 2:45 to play.

Martin took a 29-3 lead into the break.

The scoring barrage continued in the second half with three touchdowns in the third quarter. Brigance’s 22-yard touchdown run came only 15 seconds into the third.

The punting woes returned for the Vikings on their first drive. Thomas got the punt block and he picked it up in the end zone for a touchdown at the 9:32 mark.

“We work it every day and we take great pride in our special teams,” Thomas said. “When I blocked and it got in my hand, I was thinking six. I’ve been waiting for it.”

Daylan Cobb had a 1-yard run late in the third and Lamar Gordon tacked on a 2-yard run with 11:20 left to play.

Lamar, losers of three in a row since a Week 1 win against Plano West, hosts Haltom next week. Martin travels to Grand Prairie next week.

“This is what we needed for sure, we’ve been waiting weeks for this,” Thomas said. “Once we coming out here and showing everybody we are the (defending) district champions.”