ALL-AREA FOOTBALL: Rosewood's Taylor takes top defensive honor

By Rudy Coggins
Published in Sports on December 19, 2015 11:11 PM

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rcoggins@newsargus.com

Rosewood's offense should have asked for some type of payback from its young defense that had grown up during preseason practice and the first month of regular-season play.

Kaleb Taylor might have agreed with that request. The lone returning lineman with any considerable experience, Taylor -- like a true senior -- held himself accountable to help the young players learn the system.

"Yeah, I had more of a leadership role this year (and) I had to play both sides of the ball, especially since Tyree wasn't here any more," Taylor said. "I just had to use more football knowledge, try to explain thngs to the younger guys and show them the things that I've picked up over the couple of years that I've been here to help make them better.

"I had a lot more double teams this year. It was just different because I was really the backside guy before since no one was really paying me any attention (last year)."

Rosewood racked up 96 points during its first three games. That success took some of the pressure off of the defense.

But Taylor knew he and his understudies would need to step up. The unit allowed just one touchdown over the next eight quarters, and then executed a near-flawless effort against then-No. 1-ranked James Kenan.

Taylor knew that's when the defense found its identity.

Sure, the Eagles got into a couple of shootouts later in the season, but they made the necessary key stops on defense. RHS head coach Robert Britt said Taylor "graded out well" after every game.

"Everybody played sound defense ... didn't force any plays to happen and made sure they were in the right spot," Taylor said.