Taye Gatewood put up the type of offensive numbers that would have made fantasy football owners quiver Friday night.

And that was only in the first half.

But the junior quarterback threw for 558 yards and six touchdowns in the Mavericks’ 53-29 win over Catholic at Rowland Stadium. The victory was the 100th career win for coach Jeff Williams.

“We’ve got two more games left,” Gatewood said. “We want to send these seniors out on a good note with a playoff berth.”

With two games left (at Central next week and home for Northside on Nov. 3), Southside controls its own destiny. Win and they’re in.

“We needed that win, it was real critical,” Williams said. “We earned everything we got tonight, and I’m really proud of our football team.”

Gatewood got the party started quickly, throwing a 26-yard touchdown to Tyrese Solomon barely two minutes into the game, and he fired a 30-yard TD strike to Jordyn Jackson following a Catholic fumble for a 14-0 lead.

“I thought we were pretty explosive,” Williams said. “We felt pretty good coming into it. It’s what we do ... and then in the second half we ran it pretty good, and the defense got some turnovers.”

Catholic (3-5, 1-4) answered with a pair of touchdowns to close to within 14-13, but Gatewood was far from done through the air. His 81-yard strike to Jackson led to his 4-yard touchdown pass, and on the Mavericks’ final possession of the first quarter, Gatewood threw a swing pass to Solomon who, with two moves, darted 93 yards for a touchdown.

Gatewood had first quarter pass completions of 57, 26, 30, 81 and 93 yards.

“We have a bunch of weapons on the outside,” Gatewood said. “I can just give it to them and let them do their thing.”

“Taye was able to get the ball out to me quick and I like to make plays in the open (field),” Solomon said. “This is huge; it builds confidence for the team. Going into the next two games, we know we have to do the same thing and get a playoff berth.”

The Rockets, who finished with 356 total yards, stumping their toe with four turnovers, closed to within 27-20 on Luke Schildknecht’s second TD.

But Gatewood threw two more touchdowns in the final four minutes of the first half — 27-yarder to Jackson with four minutes left, and an 18-yard strike to Solomon with 13.9 left to play in the half.

The Rockets chewed up nearly 6½ minutes in the third quarter before settling for a 28-yard Christopher Elser field goal.

Southside added to its lead on Gatewood’s 58-yard TD strike on the final play of the third quarter.

Savoy finished with 60 yards rushing for the Mavericks. Gatewood had 18 yards rushing, though he would have had more had it not been for a 12-yard loss on a quarterback sack.
