Posted Nov 5, 2022
By Thomas Jones – Austin American-Statesman
With the threatening clouds creating as much uncertainty as the various playoff scenarios swirling around Friday’s regular-season finale at Kelly Reeves Athletic Complex, Manor senior running back Quinten Joyner kept it simple.
Beat Stony Point, and the Mustangs would claim one of the two Division II postseason seeds in District 25-6A and keep their season alive.
“I had to put the team on my back and get us in the playoffs,” Joyner said. “This is my last year with these guys, and I want to make a big run with this team, especially all the seniors on this team.”
Joyner had plenty of big runs with 350 yards rushing and four touchdowns while leading Manor to a 45-10 win in a game delayed two hours because of the storms that rolled through Central Texas on Friday evening. It wasn’t a career high for the 5-foot-10, 210-pund USC pledge — Joyner had 404 yards against Cedar Park as a junior — but it certainly was a high point on a prep résumé that includes 4,824 rushing yards and 63 touchdowns.
“Quinten just took over the game like I hoped he would and I knew he could,” Manor coach James Keller said. “We knew our defense would handle its business, and the goals for the offense right now are to manage the game and let Quinten do his thing.”
Manor (7-3, 4-3) did its thing in every facet of the game against a talented Stony Point (5-5, 2-5) squad stymied all season by injuries at quarterback.
On offense, Joyner had scoring runs of 85 and 90 yards, and quarterback DeCondre Jeffery had a 17-yard scoring pass to Sean Harris. Ian Collins sparked the special teams with a 79-yard kickoff return for a score, and a run defense led by tackle Jayden Cofield and linebacker Sam Shaw limited TCU running back pledge Cameron Cook to 114 yards on 24 carries. Manor’s defense almost got on the scoreboard when senior Demarreon Green nabbed an interception and scampered 40 yards down the sideline for a score, but a penalty on the return negated the pick
“We watched a lot of film on (Cook), and our coaches just told us, ‘Hey, wrap him up and we’ll be fine,’” said Cofield, a Texas Tech pledge who will likely face Cook in college. “He had a good game, though; he’s not a bad player.
“We had been talking about this game all week. For our seniors, we knew it could be our last game, so that lit our fire. We didn’t want to go home tonight, and everyone played very hard.”
With a playoff spot all but locked up midway through the second half, the Manor coaches kept one eye on the game and the other on their phones while getting updates from the other ongoing District 25-6A games. Round Rock cruised past Vista Ridge, which meant an upset win by McNeil over Cedar Ridge would result in Manor hosting Bowie in a first-round game.
McNeil held a 15-point lead with 5 minutes to go against Cedar Ridge, and the Manor staff and players already had Bowie on their mind while slapping hands with Stony Point after the game. But by the time Keller gathered his team for a quick postgame chat, Cedar Ridge had tied the game and forced overtime against McNeil.
Cedar Ridge went on to win, which means Manor will travel to state-ranked Dripping Springs for its playoff opener instead of hosting Bowie.
Regardless of his team’s playoff fate, Keller couldn’t be more pleased with Manor’s first winning season as a Class 6A program. The Mustangs endured some midseason turmoil that included three consecutive losses, but Keller credited his team for gritting out key late-season wins.
“We had some rough weeks, but I’m so proud of how they’ve responded,” he said. “We have some special kids.”
Shared from: https://www.statesman.com/story/sports/high-school/2022/11/05/quinten-joyner-carries-manor-into-playoffs/69622509007/