Making Moves
Pearland QB, JD Head continues making strong 1st impression
Dennis Silva II
Sep 19, 2018, 5:00 am
Poise is what makes Head special Vype
Originally Appeared on Vype
Don Clayton knows a thing or two about quarterbacks.
The only head coach Cinco Ranch has known played quarterback at the University of Wyoming and got his Katy ISD career started by coaching the position at Katy High under Mike Johnston in the mid 1990s.
When Clayton speaks about signal-callers, he knows what he’s talking about. So when the veteran coach spoke effusively Saturday night of Pearland junior JD Head, after Head torched Clayton’s Cougars for 351 yards and six touchdowns on 20-for-32 passing in a win at Legacy Stadium, it meant something.
“I thought he was very smooth,” Clayton said. “I told him after the ballgame, ‘I enjoy watching you from one perspective, as a person who’s coached quarterbacks before, but I didn’t like you on this field tonight.’ He did a good job, even with some wind in his face in the first half. It just seemed nothing fazed him.”
That poise, Clayton said, is what makes Head special.
“He didn’t force the ball, and he looked like he had a plan every time he took the snap,” Clayton said. “That’s what I try to teach our quarterbacks — have a plan every time. Unfortunately tonight, we didn’t have the plan we needed. We forced the ball, and that leads to turnovers.”
The 6-foot-2, 175-pound Head is a summer transfer from Jones High in Oklahoma. As a sophomore last season, he completed 69 percent of his passes for 3,085 yards, 44 touchdowns and just eight interceptions in helping lead Jones to the state semifinals.
Head’s family moved to Houston in July when his dad, who had retired, got a job offer that was “too good to pass up.”
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Oswald Peraza hit a two-run single in the ninth inning to help the Los Angeles Angels snap a three-game losing skid by beating the Houston Astros 4-1 on Saturday night.
Peraza entered the game as a defensive replacement in the seventh inning and hit a bases-loaded fly ball to deep right field that eluded the outstretched glove of Cam Smith. It was the fourth straight hit off Astros closer Bryan Abreu (3-4), who had not allowed a run in his previous 12 appearances.
The Angels third run of the ninth inning scored when Mike Trout walked with the bases loaded.
Kyle Hendricks allowed one run while scattering seven hits over six innings. He held the Astros to 1 for 8 with runners in scoring position, the one hit coming on Jesús Sánchez’s third-inning infield single that scored Jeremy Peña.
Reid Detmers worked around a leadoff walk to keep the Astros scoreless in the seventh, and José Fermin (3-2) retired the side in order in the eighth before Kenley Jansen worked a scoreless ninth to earn his 24th save.
Houston’s Spencer Arrighetti struck out a season-high eight batters over 6 1/3 innings. The only hit he allowed was Zach Neto’s third-inning solo home run.
Yordan Alvarez had two hits for the Astros, who remained three games ahead of Seattle for first place in the AL West.
Key moment
Peraza’s two-run single to deep right field that broke a 1-1 tie in the ninth.
Key Stat
Opponents were 5 for 44 against Abreu in August before he allowed four straight hits in the ninth.
Up next
Astros RHP Hunter Brown (10-6, 2.37 ERA) faces RHP José Soriano (9-9, 3.85) when the series continues Sunday.