Sealy senior Thomas Clark provided the bookending scores to help Sealy win 26-0 over the Royal Falcons Friday night at T.J. Mills Stadium in the Tigers’ first District 12-4A-D2 game.

Clark scored on both sides of the ball, first as a linebacker then as a receiver. He returned an interception 45 yards on the second play from scrimmage to give the hosts an 8-0 lead 32 seconds into the contest and caught an 11-yard touchdown pass on a beautifully thrown ball from junior quarterback D’vonne Hmielewski to the corner of the end zone to extend Sealy’s lead to 26 points in the second quarter.

“It was huge, for me it was huge because it was my first pick-six so I was excited but for the team, it was a huge momentum changer right off the bat,” Clark said. “I was proud of it and was happy to help my team.”

Hmielewski, who also provided a four-yard, shovel-pass touchdown to Connor Krenek and a handful of rushes over 20 yards, was equally proud of his senior teammate’s efforts.

“I’m so happy for Thomas because that was his first pick-six and he’s played varsity football for a long time so he deserves it and I’m extremely proud of him for it,” Hmielewski said. “That was definitely a game-changing moment even though it was their first series of the game.”

The Tiger defense continued making plays and didn’t allow Royal’s offense to cross midfield until the third quarter when it recovered a muffed punt at the Sealy 46-yard line. After a first down, the Falcons punted from the Tigers’ 34-yard line.

“It was great to see Gage Grigar and Mason Klotz back out there on defense, those are two important kids that come back and made a difference,” Head Football Coach Shane Mobley said. “I’m extremely proud of this team and how they have come together. It doesn’t matter who is stepping up – because it’s not my team, it’s the seniors’ team. It’s important the seniors take control and they have all the honor in what’s going on.”

Another senior who made an impact on both sides of the ball was Graham Samonte who won jump-balls as a receiver and delivered big tackles on the edge as a cornerback.

“I love Graham, he’s hard working and he’ll go catch the ball if it’s thrown to him,” Hmielewski said. “Even if it’s a bad ball, he’ll go up and grab it. That’s the type of receiver you want and we pick each other up; even if he drops one, he knows what I expect out of him, I know what he expects out of me and he knows I’ll be looking for him the next time. It’s a great relationship and I’m glad I get to throw the ball to him.”

The duo had an extra week of practice before opening district play and Mobley was pleased with the team’s effort Friday night after being idle the previous Friday night.

“Sometimes for me, the hardest game to play in is the one right after a bye week. You get two weeks to game plan, you work some stuff but you still get back in the swing of things and it was an important win and for us to get healthy again tonight,” Mobley said.

Sealy returns to action on the road next week in its rivalry matchup with the Bellville Brahmas, who earned a 72-0 win over Wharton in their first district game Friday night. Bellville entered this week ranked No. 6 in Dave Campbell’s state rankings, and No. 2 in the Houston Chronicle area media poll where the Tigers held at No. 5

“It’s huge, Bellville got a big win tonight but so did we, we shut them out so it’s going to be a great game next week,” Clark said.

“We know they’re talented, they have two dudes that can score from wherever they want to on the field but we’ve just got to do what we have to do and we’ll come out on top,” Hmielewski said.

“It’s huge being 1-0 after your first game because we know next week is going to be a dogfight. They’re very talented and we’ve seen these kids since I’ve been here it feels like. Robert Briggs, Richard Reese and that group, they are talented so with them being in the same county, I hope they win every single game except this one,” Mobley said. “We’ve got six days to prepare and get the kids’ minds right and go out and play football. It seems like every year when we play them, it doesn’t matter about rankings. They’re talented and we just have to go out and try to control the ball and control our game and if we can do that, we can make it a dogfight.”

Scoring summary

Royal 0-0-0-0

Sealy 18-8-0-0

Q1

11:26: Sealy Thomas Clark 45-yard pick-six, D’vonne Hmielewski two-point rush, 8-0

7:59: S Hmielewski to Connor Krenek 4 pass, Amador Lopez kick, 15-0

3:33: S Lopez 22 field goal, 18-0

Q2

11:14: Hmielewski to Clark 11 pass, Ethan Hart two-point rush, 26-0

Stats courtesy Sealy Tiger Sports Network

D’vonne Hmielewski: 14-of-20 passing, 177 yards, 1 touchdown, 1 interception; 15 carries, 84 rushing yards

Thomas Clark: 2 catches, 28 yards, 1 touchdown; 6 tackles, 1 interception

Connor Krenek: 8 catches, 74 receiving yards, 1 receiving touchdown, 2 carries, 6 rushing yards; 4 tackles

Graham Samonte: 4 catches, 75 yards; 3 tackles

Hector Murillo: 4 tackles

Ethan Hart: 13 carries, 38 rushing yards

Jeffrey Neu, Jonathan Monterroza, Rylan Reichardt: 3 tackles

Bryson Johnson: 7 carries, 35 rushing yards