Katy has always had a next man up mentality.

The Tigers are used to having success no matter what injuries or setbacks they face. Finding ways to push forward and setting their own standards.

The start of this season has tested even that. The Tigers lost three different running backs to injuries in the first three weeks of the season and had to adjust things each time, finding ways to compete and getting ready for the District 19-6A schedule.

But Katy (3-1, 2-0) as always, found a way forward. Last week it sophomore call up Fayo George who stole the show, rushing for over 100 yards and two touchdowns, and this week it was a balanced effort with two different players going over 100 yards rushing while the passing game went over 200 yards as well as Katy dominated Cinco Ranch (1-3, 1-1) in a 52-7 win.

“That’s why we have a program is to get those guys ready for these situations,” said Katy head coach Gary Joseph. “Obviously this is an extreme and we’ve had to use a lot of them but we have enough kids that we know can make an impact and we have an offensive line that can make those kids behind them better. We just have to continue leaning on them, we’re lucky we have so many guys in the pipeline because that’s an important part of what we do.”

After a week out of action with a small knock, Tremayne Hill was right back to his excellence, rushing 15 times for 115 yards and two touchowns, while Aqualis Jordan added 112 yards on 12 carries in the win.

Katy started things early as well and never let up in the matchup. Katy came out with four straight runs, sucking the Cinco Ranch defense in before going over the top on a play action where Gunner Nelson found a wide open Israel Olotu-Judah for a 47-yard touchdown pass. Katy’s defense made a stop and the next drive was more of the same, as Katy went to the ground for a number of plays before running the same play action and this time finding a wide open Cade McCall on a wheel route that went for 73-yards and another touchdown.

“Our offensive line just does such a great job of selling the run and it makes those play actions easy because the other team has no choice but to bring their safeties up to try to stop the run,” Nelson said. “For me when that happens it’s pitch and catch because my guy is open and all of their eyes are on the run. It’s all credit to the offensive line cause those guys did a phenomenal job.”

Katy added a third score early in the second quarter, when Hill capped off a 1-yard run and that was enough for Katy to bring in its backup quarterback, Jackson Franklin, who’s first pass of the game turned into a 41-yard touchdown to Olotu-Judah and a field goal with seconds left in the half made it 31-0 as the teams headed into the locker room.

“Israel is a really good football player and we’re lucky to have him,” Joseph said. “It’s his third year on the varsity, he’s one of our captains and he takes everything he does seriously. He’s quiet but he always steps up on the field and does everything he can for his teammates. That’s the kind of player you love to coach and it’s great to see him have success.”

The Tigers added three more scores in the second half, a pass from Nelson to Jon Stephens, another Hill touchown run and George score late in the fourth quarter. It took until late in the third for Cinco to put its first and only points on the board when Charlie Adamoli threw a 23-yard touchdown pass to Drew Tureau as Katy’s defense had the Cougars number all day, allowing barely over 250 yards of offense in the game, even after sending backups in in the second half.

“We got to the quarterback a lot tonight, but a lot of that had to do with our defensive backs as well,” said senior defensive lineman Adam Carter. “Guys like Jacob Hilton and the guys back there did a great job in coverage and it gave us time to get to the quarterback. A big part of our defense is playing complimentary like that and playing together and we did a really good job of that tonight.”

Nelson ended the night with 158 yards and three touchdowns on five of seven passing, while Olotu-Judah had 107 yards receiving on four catches with two touchdowns and Cade McCall had 73 yards receiving and a touchdown. One interesting note on the Tigers, is through four games, they have more passing touchdowns than rushing touchdowns, something which has not happened in recent memory with the program.

The Tigers get Seven Lakes left and the goal remains the same as the group strives to get better every day and continue to grow towards their best the later in the season it gets.

“Every single day our coaches just tell us the biggest goal is to just get better,” Carter said. “They want to see us progress through the season and they want to make sure we don’t slack off. Coach Joseph holds us to a standard and it’s up to us to meet that. That’s our goal every day.”

Katy 52, Cinco Ranch 7

First quarter

K: Gunner Nelson 47 pass to Israel Olotu-Judah (Giovanni Moreno kick) 9:34

K: Nelson 73 pass to Cade McCall (Moreno kick) 3:13

Second quarter

K: Tremayne Hill 1 run (Moreno kick) 8:14

K: Jackson Franklin 41 pass to Israel Olotu-Judah (6:00)

K: Moreno 22 field goal, 0:16

Third quarter

K: Nelson 19 pass to Jon Stephens (Moreno kick) 11:47

K: Tremayne Hill 16 run (Moreno kick) 6:45

CR: Charlie Adamoli 23 pass to Drew Tureau (Andrew Reagan kick) 1:16

Fourth quarter

K: Fayo George 3 run (Declan Morris kick) 3:40

Team stats

Individual Statistics

Rushing – Katy: Tremayne Hill, 15-115-2; Aqualis Jordan, 12-112; Tim Ogunbanjo, 3-51; Joshua Smith, 2-13; Fayo George, 3-11-1; Nethaniel Gayhart, 1-4; Cinco Ranch: Marcus Gadlin, 16-52; Brayden Gonzalez, 3-6; Charlie Adamoli, 3-(-14);

Passing – Katy: Gunner Nelson, 5-7-158-3-0; Jackson Franklin, 2-9-55-1-0; Cinco Ranch: Charlie Adamoli, 22-39-238-1-0;

Receiving – Katy: Israel Olotu-Judah, 4-107-2; Cade McCall, 1-73; Jon Stephens, 1-19-1; Ryan Carbone, 1-14;  Cinco Ranch: Scott Eckel, 6-72; Drew Tureau, 5-69-1; Matthew Courtios, 3-46; Kellen LeCronier, 3-21; Jacob Chevez, 1-9;