(Seguin) — A final football game was played by Seguin High School seniors on an emotional night for players, parents and coaches on Friday night at Matador Stadium.
The No. 4 team in Class 5A Division-I Smithson Valley Rangers won the game on the field 56-0, but it served as a backdrop to the accomplishments of the Matador seniors playing in their last game before a home crowd. The season concludes for Seguin with a fifth place finish in District 12-5A and ends a program-record run of five consecutive playoff appearances by the Matadors. The seniors on the team will graduate with that record in addition to their many achievements on the field in other sports and off the field in the community.
Seguin running back John Jackson finished the game with 83 rushing yards on 18 carries. The senior finished the season with a school-record 1796 rushing yards. Jackson was able to set the season record thanks to the blocking of his offensive linemen which included seniors Cooper Neumann, Seth Cevallos, Jake Mahaffey, Kenneth Moore, Carter Dunn and Matthew Koehler up front along with senior tight end Jackson Pond and lead blocking senior fullback Holt Haas.
Senior receiver Creed Weaver turned in his best night of the year with 120 yards receiving on five catches. And seniors Donovan Cray, Landon Trost and Aidan Dilworth lead the defense with six tackles a piece.
Following the game, Matador head coach Craig Dailey talked about his 25 seniors and looked to the future for Seguin football.
“Next week, we’ll meet with our seniors. We have about five seniors with some opportunities to play college football. And that’s a big deal to us. We want to help them,” Dailey said. “And in the same hand, the rest of the staff is going to go with the young guys and challenge them and push them and use this a learning season on to what we got to do to go on to the next level.”
Seguin ends their season with a 3-7 record. The Matadors were 3-4 in district play. The Rangers ended their regular season at 9-1, going 7-0 in district. Smithson Valley closes the 2023 regular season as the District 12-5A champions for the second consecutive year under longtime head coach Larry Hill.
Following the game, Seguin seniors made one final walk across the field at Matador Stadium. The march reached the north end-zone and students were joined by parents, friends and families as they watched a collection of childhood pictures displayed on the giant video screen behind the end-zone as a tribute to senior student-athletes.