{"id":1036469,"date":"2026-09-01T06:52:19","date_gmt":"2026-09-01T06:52:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/1036469\/"},"modified":"2026-09-01T06:52:19","modified_gmt":"2026-09-01T06:52:19","slug":"standout-defensive-performances-by-dallas-area-players-from-week-1","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/1036469\/","title":{"rendered":"Standout defensive performances by Dallas-area players from Week 1"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><img alt=\"South Oak Cliff's Cody Smith (42) is seen in the second half of a high school football game against Duncanville at Duncanville High School, Friday, Sept. 5, 2025.\" loading=\"eager\" fetchpriority=\"high\"   style=\"aspect-ratio:3 \/ 2\" class=\"x100 y100 opc bgpc ofcv bgscv block bg-gray200 mnh0px fill\"\/><\/p>\n<p>South Oak Cliff&#8217;s Cody Smith (42) is seen in the second half of a high school football game against Duncanville at Duncanville High School, Friday, Sept. 5, 2025.<\/p>\n<p>Chitose Suzuki\/Staff Photographer<\/p>\n<p>Outside of the players we have nominated for our\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.dallasnews.com\/projects\/test-proj\/boys-athlete-of-the-week-award-2026\/1788048000000\/\" data-link=\"native\" class=\"\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Boys Athlete of the Week<\/a>, there were other standout performances on defense this past week of the Texas high school football season.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/cdn-channels-pixel.ex.co\/events\/0012000001fxZm9AAE?integrationType=DEFAULT&amp;template=design%2Farticle%2Fplatypus_two_column.tpl\" alt=\"\" class=\"x1px y1px vh abs\" aria-hidden=\"true\" width=\"1\" height=\"1\"\/><\/p>\n<p>Here are a few of the standout performances that are worth highlighting.<\/p>\n<p>LBs Baylen Brannon Jr. and Cody Smith Jr, South Oak Cliff:<\/p>\n<p>22 tackles, 1 sack, 3 tackles for loss and 2 forced fumbles vs Richmond Randle<\/p>\n<p class=\"uiTextSmall f aic jcc\">Article continues below this ad<\/p>\n<p>Despite <a href=\"https:\/\/www.dallasnews.com\/high-school-sports\/football\/article\/south-oak-cliff-richmond-randle-jason-todd-5a-uil-22406999.php\" data-link=\"native\" class=\"\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">South Oak Cliff\u2019s 20-14 loss to Richmond Randle<\/a> at Blackshear Stadium last Friday, the SOC defense generated five turnovers. Linebackers Baylen Brannon Jr. and Cody Smith Jr. were all over the field in trying to help minimize Landen Williams-Callis\u2019 output.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>S Gabe Burnett, Irving MacArthur<\/p>\n<p>9 tackles, 3 sacks, 3 tackles for loss, 1 interception and 1 pass breakup vs Carrollton Creekview<\/p>\n<p>Irving MacArthur picked up a massive 32-26 win over Carrollton Creekview this past week. Gabe Burnett\u2019s busy night on defense stretched into the backfield with multiple sacks off blitzes and a pick in the endzone that later proved decisive in the win. Creekview\u2019s offense was one of the best in the Dallas area last year, when it didn\u2019t score less than 40 points in a game until mid-October.<\/p>\n<p>S Nic Montgomery, Bryan Adams<\/p>\n<p>17 tackles, 1 forced fumble, 1 fumble recovery vs Irving Nimitz<\/p>\n<p class=\"uiTextSmall f aic jcc\">Article continues below this ad<\/p>\n<p>Bryan Adams picked up a big early-season win over Irving Nimitz thanks in part to Nic Montgomery\u2019s 17 tackles and one forced turnover on defense. To seal the 42-35 win, teammate Lowell Powell-Cumby also had the game-clinching interception.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>LB Israel Samuel, Lake Highlands<\/p>\n<p>10 tackles, 2 tackles for loss, 2 sacks, 5 QB pressures, 1 forced fumble vs Forney<\/p>\n<p>Emerging junior prospect Israel Samuel had double-digit tackles and was causing havoc in the backfield with five pressures that resulted in two sacks. He\u2019s recently added offers from the likes of USC and Florida State.<\/p>\n<p>LB Hunter Yost, Richland<\/p>\n<p>19 tackles, 1 sack, 2.5 TFLs vs Frisco Wakeland<\/p>\n<p class=\"uiTextSmall f aic jcc\">Article continues below this ad<\/p>\n<p>Against a Wing-T offense, a team\u2019s linebacker play has to be disciplined and ready to read and react. Richland\u2019s star junior Hunter Yost was exactly that against Frisco Wakeland\u2019s new offense in his team\u2019s 42-7 win. He was sideline-to-sideline in keeping the Wakeland offense in check.<\/p>\n<p>LB Jake Folkerts, Walnut Grove<\/p>\n<p>12 tackles, 4 sacks, 8 TFLs, 1 pass deflection vs Mansfield Lake Ridge.<\/p>\n<p>Prosper Walnut Grove\u2019s debut in Class 6A went about as good as it could have hoped for with a 49-28 win over a playoff team last year in Mansfield Lake Ridge. Jake\u00a0Folkerts recorded a staggering four sacks and 12 tackles against one of the top dual-threat quarterbacks in the area, DeShawn Edwards.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"South Oak Cliff&#8217;s Cody Smith (42) is seen in the second half of a high school football game&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":1036470,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[5135],"tags":[5229,1596,1318,358,414736,291060,414735,414737,414739,414738,408484,3187,67,586,132,5230,68,2969],"class_list":["post-1036469","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-dallas","tag-america","tag-dallas","tag-football","tag-texas","tag-tp-bryan-adams-school","tag-tp-high-schools","tag-tp-irving-macarthur-school","tag-tp-lake-highlands-school","tag-tp-prosper-walnut-grove-school","tag-tp-richland-school","tag-tp-south-oak-cliff-school","tag-tx","tag-united-states","tag-united-states-of-america","tag-unitedstates","tag-unitedstatesofamerica","tag-us","tag-usa"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/117194468709072118","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1036469","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1036469"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1036469\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1036470"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1036469"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1036469"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1036469"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}