COLLEGE STATION — Lake Belton waited all offseason for a rematch with College Station A&M Consolidated after losing by self-inflicted wounds a season ago.

All the anticipation for this year’s meeting between the Broncos and one of the top Class 5A teams in the state quickly vanished, however, after the Tigers got hot and never looked back on the way to a 44-17 season-opening victory over Lake Belton on Friday night at Tigerland Stadium.

The Tigers’ offense was highlighted by dual-threat quarterback Amarian Moore, who threw for 123 yards and ran the ball 12 times for 197 yards. The Tigers churned out 565 yards of total offense and were fueled by methodical drives as well as the occasional explosive play.

Lake struggled offensively at times. Quarterback Maverik Maddux completed just six of 19 attempts for 90 yards. Maddux also threw an interception in the opening quarter of the game.

Lake Belton opened the scoring after capitalizing on a blocked punt that set up the Broncos at the Tigers 31-yard line. The 10-play opening drive was capped with a 35-yard field goal from Long Chung to give Lake a slim 3-0 lead.

After recovering a fumble on the following kickoff, Lake looked as if it would extend the lead. But two incomplete passes followed by a sack led to the the Broncos punting away the ball with just 5 minutes left in the first period.

A&M Consolidated used the stalled drive to explode for a short three-play march that ended with Moore sprinting away for a 70-yard touchdown and the Tigers’ 6-3 lead after the missed PAT attempt.

Consolidated’s Leo Befort then intercepted a Maddux pass, and the Tigers widened the gap when Camron Roston ran in for an 8-yard TD with a tick under a minute left in the quarter. Radley King’s PAT pushed the lead to 13-3.

The Tigers carried the first-quarter momentum into the second, and their three-play drive ended with Moore breaking away for a another long gain, this time for a 44-yard touchdown rush to push the lead to 20-3 with 10:21 remaining in the first half.

Lake Belton responded with a six-play drive that took the Broncos 84 yards and was capped with Maddux launching a 54-yard TD pass to Zion Harness to cut the margin to 20-10 with just under 8 minutes in the half.

Consolidated marched down the field in search of a response before fumbling at the Broncos 10.

After a bobbled snap gave the ball back to Consol at the Lake 11, the Tigers took advantage with a trick play when Cooper Johnson threw a 3-yard TD pass to Moore to push the lead to 27-17, which is where it stood at halftime.

The Broncos’ first possession of the second half began at the Consolidated 40, and Lake moved to the 24 before turning over the ball on downs.

Consolidated running back Ja’Marlon Mooring added a touchdown later in the third on a 15-yard run that extended the Tigers’ advantage to 37-10 with just more than 3 minutes remaining in the quarter.

Lake put together a 15 play, 95-yard drive in the fourth to cut the lead to 37-17 on Arrington Alexander’s 4-yard touchdown run. The drive was quickly answered by Consolidated backup quarterback Holt Goodwin, who scrambled 92 yards to the end zone to put the finishing touches on the Tigers’ victory.

A&M CONSOLIDATED 44, LAKE BELTON 17

Lake Belton 3 7 0 7 — 17

A&M Consolidated 13 17 7 7 — 44

LB — Long Chung 35 field goal

Con — Amarian Moore 70 run (kick failed)

Con — Camron Roston 8 run (Radley King kick)

Con — Moore 44 run (King kick)

LB — Zion Harness 54 pass from Maverik Maddux (Chung kick)

Con — King 34 field goal

Con — Ja’Marlon Mooring 15 run (King kick)

LB — Arrington Alexander 4 run (Ching kick)

Con — Holt Goodwin 92 run (King kick)

TEAM STATISTICS

LB Con

First downs 13 21

Rushes-yards 32-70 38-439

Passing yards 158 126

Comp.-Att.-Int. 13-26-1 11-17-1

Punts-average 4-30.8 2-12.5

Fumbles-lost 2-2 5-3

Penalties-yards 6-42 10-77

PARTIAL INDIVIDUAL STATISTICS

RUSHING — Lake Belton: Arrington Alexander 9-46, Davion Peters 10-30, Maddux 6-(-6); A&M Consolidated: Moore 12-197, Ja’Marlon Mooring 18-93, Goodwin 1-92.


PASSING — Lake Belton: Maddux 6-19-1-90, Reese Rosenbaum 7-7-0-68; A&M Consolidated: Moore 10-15-1-123, Cooper Johnson 1-1-0-3.

RECEIVING — Lake Belton: Harness 7-123, Peters 3-25, Alexander 2-5; A&M Consolidated: Brayden Dickson 4-43, Mooring 3-35.

dtaylor@tdtnews.com