Glenn's slot-T chewing up opponents, game clock behind star Dejuan Dugar

For Glenn, the slot-T isn’t just an offense — it’s a way of life.

Clicking on all cylinders Friday, the Grizzlies rolled up 385 yards on the ground — including sophomore Dejuan Dugar rushing for 237 yards and three touchdowns — as they opened District 11-5A Division I play with a 38-28 win over Hendrickson at Bible Stadium.

“The slot-T has set the tone of what this program is now and how we carry ourselves,” said Grizzlies quarterback Sky Mendez, who makes a decision every snap on who to hand the ball off to. “It changes your mentality of how you play football as it’s a hard-nosed offense where you’re running the ball every play. It’s changed the culture and everything at this program.”

Since fully embracing the offense midway through last year, Glenn has had nothing but success.

The Grizzlies won five of their final six games to make the playoffs last fall, and now are 3-1 following Friday’s win — but more importantly are 1-0 in what appears to be a brutal district with no weak teams.

“Last year at this point we were 0-4, didn’t know what offense we were running and didn’t really know what we were doing,” Mendez said. “But we’ve bought-in, and tonight everything was working well. When we were executing and running (the offense) the way it should be run — they couldn’t stop it.”

With the game tied 28-28 early in the fourth quarter, Glenn dominated the game’s final 10 minutes.

It had a long, time-consuming drive that ended with Armando DonJuan’s 34-yard field goal to take the lead for good. Then after forcing a Hawks three-and-out, Glenn made it a two-score game on Jamarlyn Wilks’ 24-yard touchdown run on an option pitch from Mendez.

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“I was extremely impressed with our offense the entire game,” Glenn coach Brandon Krauskopf said. “We struggled two weeks ago (in a 10-7 loss to Rouse), and the offense was the main focus of our bye week. Our offensive coaches had a great game plan for tonight, and our offensive line rose to the challenge and really played well tonight against the biggest defensive line we’ve seen.”

In a game that didn’t see its first pass attempt until the 8:17 mark of the second quarter, Wilks — who finished with 63 yards and two scores on the ground — capped the game’s opening drive by reaching the end zone from the 21-yard line.

Hendrickson (1-3, 0-1) answered with Carson Workman’s 4-yard TD jaunt late in the first quarter, and the teams would trade scores until the fourth quarter.

Dugar’s first touchdown run came from 15 yards out early in the second quarter, then Hawks quarterback Joseph Rodriguez fired a 50-yard scoring strike to Bryan Ray.

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Dugar reached the end zone from the 17-yard line on Glenn’s ensuing possession prior to Rodriguez connecting with Courtney Dawson on a 30-yard TD toss with 13 seconds to go in the first half.

It seemed like the game would go into the break tied at 21-21, but instead of kneeling on the ball, the Grizzlies gave the ball to Dugar — and it paid off with him sprinting 63 yards for a touchdown.

“Nobody wants to go into halftime tied with someone, so that was a huge momentum-changer,” said Glenn running back Mason Johnson, who finished with 58 yards on the ground and was one of five Grizzlies to carry the ball. “We were all excited and a celebration for a touchdown doesn’t end just because you’re walking into the locker room. I think that made the second-half go smoother.”

Neither team threatened in the third quarter, and an interception by Hendrickson cornerback Jacob Donnelly eventually set up an 80-yard Hawks drive that ended with Workman’s 43-yard touchdown run to tie the game.

But in the end, the slot-T proved to be too much.

“They key was just our physicality,” Johnson said. “Getting off the ball quicker than them, hitting harder than them — just all the things that are required in the slot-T.”

Workman ran for 92 yards, Rodriguez finished with 173 yards passing and Ray had six catches for 106 yards to pace Hendrickson.

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With Dugar and the rest of Glenn’s backs running wild, the Grizzlies attempted only two passes

“This is what we needed,” Dugar said. “It’s good to be on the winning side and not the losing side to open district play. Our offensive line helped me a lot and all thanks to them for what I did tonight. They’re big, have low pad level and they moved some big dudes.”

Echoing Dugar’s thoughts, Krauskopf noted that beginning what people are calling the “District of Doom” with a win is about as big as it gets for a team’s fourth game of the year.

“This is the toughest district in the state of Texas,” he said. “But we came out and finished the second half like we were supposed to. Starting 1-0, now we have to go on a roll and put ourselves in position — but we control our own destiny.”

This article originally appeared on Austin American-Statesman: Glenn football defeats Hendrickson in district opening game