Airline uncommitted 2025 QB Ben Taylor recently receives first offer, now seeking more

Taylor throws for 4 TDs as Vikings storm back in second half to win opener

BOSSIER CITY, Louisiana - Ben Taylor recently received his first college offer. 

The Airline junior quarterback hopes more is in the offing. Especially coming on the heels of his performance in Friday night’s season opener.

Taylor passed for nearly 300 yards and four touchdowns - three coming in the second half as the Vikings scored six unanswered touchdowns coming out of halftime, flipping the momentum in a wild 53-42 win against North DeSoto, last season's Division II non-select runner-up.

And that first offer Taylor received? Centenary College, right across the Red River in Shreveport, and fielding a football program for the first time since 1941. The school is playing an exhibition schedule this season before becoming a full-fledged NCAA member in 2024.

“It’s been good; I just got my first offer from Centenary,” Taylor said. “I’ve been talking to the coaches, getting invited to camps and (next) summer, I’m going to be more active in it.”

But Taylor added he has received interest from other schools in neighboring states.

“I talked to Baylor; they’ve invited me,” he said. “I’ve talked to a lot of Arkansas schools and I’m just keeping my options open, trying to get some offers.”

THE ‘FIX’ WAS IN

Airline went into halftime of Friday’s game trailing North DeSoto by two touchdowns, 28-14. The Vikings also gave up a touchdown with less than one second left on the clock in the second quarter.

But Taylor remarked there was really no panic from the Vikings. Instead, they spent the intermission just making adjustments.

“It was a lot of us,” Taylor said. “It was a lot of the players going in at halftime walking in, the coaches were talking to us.

“We went into the locker room and fixed some things, fixing things with the offense, the defense, (offensive) line, what we needed to do to get the ball moving.”

THIRD’S THE CHARM

Airline turned in a phenomenal third-quarter performance.

The Vikings outscored the Griffins, 33-0, putting together five unanswered touchdowns, with Taylor throwing two TDs in that span, to turn that double-digit deficit into a 47-28 lead. Three of those third-quarter TDs were set up by turnovers, two coming off interceptions by Jayden Gladney.

That run later turned into a 39-0 stretch as the Vikings built a 53-28 advantage early in the fourth quarter on Taylor’s fourth TD pass, a 6-yarder to receiver Bryson Broom.

“I just wanted to play my role,” Taylor said. “I had to get the ball to the playmakers, I had to make the right reads, do everything right, get the plays in and to be smart.”

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Taylor finished the night completing 31-of-43 passes for 293 yards.

“I feel good,” he said. “I’ve got to give all the glory to God. I want to praise my (offensive) linemen and all of my teammates, and I feel great overall, they helped me.”

MUTUAL ADMIRATION

One storyline entering Friday’s game was the return of both teams’ quarterbacks. With Taylor entering his second full year as a starter, so was his counterpart on the other side, North DeSoto sophomore Luke Delafield, last season’s SBLive Louisiana Newcomer of the Year after throwing for more than 2,500 yards and 38 TDs.

Delafield also did his part despite the loss, throwing for 368 yards and five TDs on 25-of-38 passing. There was more than 1,100 yards of total offense between the teams (North DeSoto had 603 to Airline’s 517).

Following the game, Taylor sought out Delafield and the two talked for several moments.

“I just told him I loved him, I told him he played a great game,” Taylor said. “We texted each other before the game; we told each other it was going to be a great game and we both knew it. I’ve known him for a while, so I just told him I loved him and he played his heart out.”

SOMETHING MORE TO PROVE

Last season, in the debut season under coach Justin Scogin, the Vikings started off 0-3, including a 46-21 loss to North DeSoto. But Airline proceeded to reel off seven straight wins, garnering the District 1-5A title in the process, before falling to Haughton in the first round of the playoffs.

So Taylor and his teammates were set out to prove on Friday that last season’s torrid stretch wasn’t a fluke.

“It’s great; we had really good receivers and a really good defense last year and everybody expected us to be a little bit worse, and we came out and we showed them that we were better, we were more prepared and that we were ready to play,” Taylor said.

“Yes. It was a great game.”

-- Buck Ringgold | buck@scorebooklive.com | @SBLiveLA