GC Football: Rice dominates in a lights-out 41-0 opening night victory

Aug. 27—RICE — Rice had problems in the season opener last season when the lights went off in the middle of the game. But the power was on Friday, and so were the Bulldogs ...

Talk about a lightning fast start, just look at what the Dawgs did in their season opener Friday night against Dallas A-Plus Academy. Michael Scott's Bulldogs hammered A-Plus (maybe they should change that grade?) all night in a 41-0 dominating victory to start the season off.

"It's a lot better to win games like that than to lose games like that," Scott said afterward. I hope it gives our kids some confidence without making them overconfident."

It could have been worse for the Dallas charter school. Rice dressed everyone for the game.

"We dressed everyone," Scott said, "and we played a lot of young kids."

It was a big night for the Ellington Family. Quarterback Zane Ellington scored two touchdowns on runs of 25 and 10 yards and his younger brother, freshman Reece Ellington, scored on an 8-yard run in his first varsity game.

Tailbacks Luke Chapman and Juan Paredes, who both play two ways and dominated at their linebacker positions Friday, got off to big nights. Chapman scored on a 40-yard run and a 20-yard run and Paredes scored on an 8-yard run.

Rice has one of the top kickers in the Golden Circle and Jaime Hernandez had a nice start to his season, booming kickoffs out of the end zone all night and connecting on five PATs.

The surprise of the night was the sensational play of Aidan Mohundro, who stole the limelight and the football all night. Mohundro, made three interceptions, including two clutch picks in the end zone, and a third pickoff that he returned 44 yards for a touchdown. Unfortunately, his TD was called back because of a questionable block-in-the back call.

There's more: Chance Cox had more than 120 yards in punt returns, bringing back a 60-yard return and a 50-yard return on his two biggest runs of the night.

Rice plays at Riesel Friday in another non-district game. Riesel was shut out 28-0 Friday by Rice rival Blooming Grove.