With the amount of teams still playing in the postseason dwindling, there are fewer beasts to choose from. But we'll highlight a few of the top ones here from Week 3 of the playoffs behind us and three more weeks to go (or two for select classifications).
1. Scotty Young, QB, Denton Ryan: It's been a while since Young has made this list, and he hasn't been on it quite as much as I thought he might be this year when I started this. But then again, "as much as I thought" is kind of relative when you're talking about the Ryan gunslinger. In Saturday night's regional semifinal win over El Paso Chapin, Young threw for 429 yards and seven touchdowns to lead Ryan to a 61-21 win. The big performance gave Young 60 TD passes this season, which is five shy of his season total last year (in 13 games) and seven shy of the state record held by Graham Harrell.
2. Jared Lawson, RB, Liberty Christian: TAPPS folks don't make this list too often, but Lawson is impossible to leave off after Saturday's state semifinal 41-35 win over Dallas Christian. The junior was big enough in the Warriors' rushing attack, racking up 175 yards on 23 carries, but what he did on special teams will go down in Liberty lore. With the score tied at 35, Lawson returned a kickoff 67 yards as time expired to send the Warriors to the TAPPS Division II state final.
3. LaDarius Brown, WR/DB, Waxahachie: Brown didn't do a whole lot in the Indians' passing attack in sheer quantity, but his performance was top notch in terms of quality. Brown only had 96 yards receiving on three catches in Friday's big win over Highland Park in the regional semifinal. But in the Indians' run-first attack, that's quite a game. But all three of those catches went for touchdowns.
4. J.W. Walsh, QB, Denton Guyer: Walsh's stat line itself isn't anything to write home about. He rushed for 113 yards, which is a pedestrian ground game for the junior. He threw for 143 yards, which is slightly below average for the dual-threat. But he was the model of efficiency. He rushed for three scores and threw for three more. He completed 8 of 9 passes and his only incompletion came on a screen pass when no one was open and threw the ball in the dirt to prevent a sack.
Adam Boedeker is a sports writer/award-winning blogger for the Denton Record-Chronicle. He's counting the days til Saturday's Guyer-Ryan rematch.
