CEDAR CREEK — After dismantling the Seguin defense, Bastrop quarterback Josiah Monroe simply said, “We’re back.”
Monroe played one of the best games of his career Thursday night as his 417 yards of offense and six total touchdowns lifted Bastrop to a 51-31 win over Seguin at BISD Memorial Stadium.
“Last week we weren’t ready,” Monroe said. “We weren’t prepared (for McNeil). This week we got back to work and it paid off as you can see.”
It looked like it was going to be another long night for Bastrop when Seguin’s Kari Miller caught a 73-yard touchdown pass on the first play of the game.
That was the last the fans heard of Seguin’s offense for a while as Monroe and the Bears got to work rebounding from last week’s 22-20 loss to McNeil.
Monroe led Bastrop on a 70-yard drive that culminated with a 24-yard touchdown pass to D.J. Gains with 8:26 left in the first quarter.
After Bastrop’s defense held the Matadors (1-1) to a quick three-and-out, Monroe struck again with a 39-yard touchdown toss to Trae Bunton to put the Bears (1-1) ahead 14-7 going into the second quarter.
Monroe attacked again late in the second when the Bears capitalized on a Seguin fumble.
From his own 33-yard-line, the senior connected with Buddy Nunn for a 67-yard touchdown with 4:53 left in the half.
Down 21-7, the Matadors finally struck back when Brig Gerlich ran in a 6-yard touchdown with 3:33.
Hart McMillan sent Bastrop into the locker room with a 24-7 lead by booting his first career field goal with the Bears, a 20-yarder as time expired.
“(Josiah) did a great job of going through his reads,” said head coach Gerald Perry. “They gave us a lot of loose coverage and our slots made a couple of big plays. Based on their defensive line, (Seguin) gave us a lot of things that played into our hands.”
Monroe had 208 of his 325 passing yards in the first half, completing 9-of-17 attempts.
And his day wasn’t even close to being over.
Monroe was perfect in the second half, completing all six of his pass attempts.
Before he could throw his fourth and fifth touchdown passes, he ran one in for 59 yards on Bastrop’s first possession of the second half.
Gerlich tried to keep the Matadors close with a 2-yard touchdown run, but Monroe kept making it look easy as he connected with Mason Foytik and Trae Bunton for touchdown passes of 29 and 12 yards, respectively.
“I knew we were going to come out an play,” Perry said. “We still have a lot of young guys on defense and early on we were missing tackles and had some busted coverage, but it’s good to win and learn.”
Monroe finished the game completing 14-of-23 passing attempts for 325 yards and had five passing touchdowns to go with 92 rushing yards on eight carries with one touchdown on the ground.
Six Bastrop receivers finished with 30-or-more reveiving yards with Nunn leading the way with 67 yards on one catch.
Bastrop will host former District 25-5A rival Akins on Friday.

Bastrop 51, Seguin 21
Seguin        7    7    7    0    -    21
Bastrop    14    10    21    7    -    51

First quarter
S: Kharl Miller 73 pass from Brig Gerlich (Israel Rodriguez kick) -11:53
B: D.J. Gaines 24 pass from Josiah Monroe (Hart McMillan kick) – 8:26
B: Trae Bunton 39 pass from Monroe (McMillan kick) – 6:09

Second quarter
B: Buddy Nunn 67 pass from Monroe (McMillan kick) – 4:53
S: Gerlich 6 run (Rodriguez kick) – 3:33
B: McMillan 20 FG (:00)

Third quarter
B: Monroe 59 run (McMillan kick) – 10:07
S: Gerlich 2 run (Rodriguez kick) – 6:35
B: Mason Foytik 29 pass from Monroe (pass failed) – 4:48
B: Trae Bunton 12 pass from Monroe (McMillan kick) – 1:23

Fourth quarter
B: Mark Jackson 2 run (McMillan kick) – 9:58

B    S
First downs        22    16
Rushes-yards    30-181    33-109
Passing yards    325    174
C-A-I    14-24-0    7-14-0
Fumbles-lost    1-0    2-1
Punts-Avg.     3-34    4-27.3
Penalties-yards    8-60    4-30

Rushing
B: Josiah Monroe 8-92; Mark Jackson 10-44; Marcus Reed 8-33; Josh Taylor 1-8; Trae Bunton 2-6. S: Brig Gerlich 6-43; Dequan Hedspeth 15-30; Khari Miller 1-16; Ray Hunter 3-12.

Passing
B: Monroe 14-23-0 325 yds,; Dillon Becker 0-1-0 0 yds. S: Gerlich 7-13-0 174 yds.; Ricky Reeves 0-1-0 0 yds.

Receiving
B: Buddy Nunn 1-67; Bunton 4-63; D.J. Gaines 3-48; Josh Taylor 3-80; Jackson 1-33; Mason Foytik 2-33. S: Miller 2-122; Hedspeth 2-7; Ty Miles 1-17; Reeves 1-10; Ray Hunter 1-18.