CEDAR CREEK — Alec Kana’s bandwagon picked up a few followers Saturday just in the first drive alone.
The freshman quarterback put together a Josiah Monroe-like highlight reel on his first series of the Bastrop Maroon-White game  at BISD Memorial Stadium.
The drive went 80 yards, with Kana putting together 62 yards of offense that included runs of 22, 20 and 11 yards and a 19-yard pass to Jacobi White.
The drive eventually ended in Marcus Reed driving through to the end zone from the 11-yard-line.
“Alec is a great athlete and has the ability to run. He had a lot of pressure on him, but made plays when he needed to,” said head coach Gerald Perry. “We have a really good pool of young quarterbacks. It was a very nice surprise to see them play so well.”
In his second series with the second-team offense, Kana demonstrated his throwing technique, completing 4-of-5 attempts for 33 yards and had a run of 13 yards before turning the ball over on downs.
In his first two varsity series in a game-like situation, Kana had 66 yards rushing and 52 yards passing for 118 yards of total offense with just 18 plays.
Monroe and the first team offense had a hard time gelling in the first half, but not because of a lack of skill.
The first team defense was keeping Bastrop’s wide receivers from making plays.
Monore didn’t complete a pass until the first team offense’s second series of plays when he found DeAndre Gains for a 13-yard pass.
“I was really pleased with the first team defense,” Perry said. “We were getting to the ball and hitting hard. They could have had several sacks, but we were limiting the contact on Josiah and our quarterbacks.”
Other highlights came from the running game, which saw strong performances from Reed and sophomore Jerome Clemons.
The running backs had a total of 84 yards on 14 carries and scored the only touchdown in the first four offensive series.
“We ran the ball very well,” Perry said. “Our running game looks like one of the stronger parts of our offense. Marcus (Reed) had a really good game and Trae Bunton had had a spectacular catch. I was very pleased with our running game.”