In an explosive battle against Cedar Ridge, RJ Martinez ‘21 smashed the Texas University Interscholastic League (UIL) record for most pass attempts in a game with a whopping 76. The statistic puts him in distinguished company as the previous record holder who had 75 pass attempts in a single game was “Johnny Football” Manziel, the former Texas A&M Heisman winner and Cleveland Browns quarterback.  In addition, Martinez completed 50 of his attempts to tie the state record held by Paul Millard, the former Flower Mound High School and University of West Virginia quarterback, and Kyler Murray, the former University of Oklahoma Heisman winner and current Arizona Cardinals quarterback and rookie of the year candidate.

“It’s definitely an honor, any quarterback in the state would definitely want to break a record, especially one by Johnny Manziel,” Martinez said. “He did [well] at A&M so it was an honor to break his record and to do it with the group of guys that I had: Oliver Yu and Robbie Jeng and all [the receivers] under Coach Wood’s coaching. It was a pleasure to do it.”

On his record-setting 76 pass attempts and 50 completions, Martinez finished with a stunning 606 yards and six touchdowns to have the 11th most passing yards in a single Texas game. He also played a huge factor in the ground game, averaging 14.8 yards a carry on his path to 193 yards and three touchdowns to help get the Warriors to a season-high 69 points.

“We came in confident and we knew the game plan that Coach Wood came together. We knew that we had worked hard in practice, and we were just trying to get the seniors to go out with a bang,” Martinez said. “ We executed well and it’s very humbling to know that I have great guys around me. Having Coach Wood to help me achieve those accolades and join such elite company is such a blessing. Knowing that our hard work isn’t going unnoticed is truly special.”

Martinez will return next year to lead the varsity football team through another season.