As the New Year begins it is always fun to reflect on last year…and part of the fun is trying to formulate lists and rankings of some of the best and worst things that happened during the past year…and there is probably no better venue for this than the sporting arena. It was in this spirit that I sat down and tried to come up with my Top 10 1A/Six-Man Games of 2014...not an easy task! So to help generate friendly debate…and maybe some unfriendly arguments…here is my list!
Top 10 Games in Texas Class 1A (Six-Man) Football of 2014:
#10 - Week 1: Robert Lee 58 Bronte 49
The old rivalry was revived this year as Bronte agreed to play six-man for the first time ever and traveled to Robert Lee for the Coke County Championship. Bronte jumped out to a 16-0 lead after one quarter of play and lead 26-22 at the half. Robert Lee owned the second half outscoring the Longhorns 36-23 to win the first game in this rivalry in 10 years. Robert Lee presented a balanced offensive attack that was to much for Bronte to account for; the Steers were 14-18-0 passing for 312 yards and 4 TDs to the Longhorns 48 yards and zero TDs, on the ground they gained 234 yards and scored 4 more TDs…Bronte did win the ground attack by rushing for 364 yards and 7 TDs and coming up just 4 yards shy of having 3 different players with over 100 yards rushing in the game. This was the only game of the year pitting a 1A school against a 2A school
#9 - Week 7: Patton Springs 98 Benjamin 81
These two squads short on numbers and battling injuries agreed to play this contest as a 5 on 5 game. High scoring and exciting throughout Patton Springs avenged their 65-19 loss suffered at the hands of Benjamin two weeks prior. A game like this is only possible in this classification and shows the true meaning of sportsmanship and fair play!
#8 - Week 5: Water Valley 58 Grady 56
This game was tied 34-34 entering the 4th quarter and each team scored three times in the final quarter however Water Valley converted all their extra point kicks and Grady missed one. Extra Points doomed Grady as the scored 8 TDs to Water Valley’s 7, won the turnover battle 0-1, and out gained WV offensively 524 to 430. Water Valley’s Kade York had a hand in 5 of his teams 7 touchdowns (4 passing, 1 rushing) while Grady’s E. J Rodriguez helped with 7 of his team’s 8 (4 passing, 3 rushing) and accounted for 463 yards of total offense by himself (242 passing, 221 rushing).
#7 - Semi-Final: Throckmorton 76 Calvert 72
In a battle to see who would represent the East in the Division II State Title Game…Throckmorton edged out Calvert in this 76-72 thriller. Calvert held an early 20-8 lead on the Greyhounds, but the game was tied 40-40 at the half. The teams battled back and forth in the second half and Calvert lead 64-62 early in the 4th quarter, but Throck jumped out to a 76-64 lead by mid quarter. Calvert would score once more and then late in the fourth Quarter Calvert held Throckmorton on 4th and 1 at the Calvert 2 yard line to force a turnover on downs and gave Calvert one last possession to try to play the spoiler, but it was not to be. Throckmorton would go on to win the DII State Championship. Quan Thompson had a hand in all of Calvert’s touchdowns passing for 4, rushing for 5 and returning a kickoff for another. Calvert scored 10 touchdowns to Throckmorton’s 9 but the difference in the game was extra point kicks…Throck was 7/9 while Calvert was just 6/10
#6 - Quarter-Final: Groom 38 Follett 32
This playoff game transpired much like the Week 5 game between these two Panhandle Powerhouses, which Groom was down 22-7 to the hometown favorite Panthers, only to hold Follett scoreless in the second half and reel off 26 unanswered points, 16 in the 4th and final quarter, to win 33-22 . In the playoff game rematch Groom held a 22-12 halftime lead only to see Follett battle back to take a 32-30 lead into the fourth and final quarter and that lead held up until the final 2 minutes of the game when Groom’s Trenton Fields scored the go ahead and final touchdown of the game with 1:40 left on the clock.
#5 - Week 11: Kress 50 Lazbuddie 42
In a game that would decide the DII District 3 title on the last week of the regular season, Lazbuddie scored with 59 seconds left in regulation to tie it all up at 42-42. Kress then took possession and with 19 seconds left in the game running back Jordan Reyes scored on a 13 yard TD run and the PAT was good to put Kress ahead 50-42. Lazbuddie got the ball back and was able to run 3 plays but their Hail Mary on the last play of the game was broken up and Kress won their first district title since 1981.
#4 - Week 10: Forestburg 58 Woodson 57
With Forestburg holding an 8-6 lead after one quarter of play Woodson busted out offensively in the 2nd quarter by scoring 33 points to take a 39-23 lead at halftime. Forestburg rallied and fought their way back in the 3rd holding Woodson scoreless and taking a 40-39 lead into the final stanza. The 4th quarter was back and forth and Forestburg scored with 17 seconds left in the game to win it 58-57 and secure them a playoff spot in a game that ended up deciding who would be the DII District 12 runner-up.
#3 - Bi-District: Savoy 101 Leverett’s Chapel 96
Leverett’s Chapel had a 96-95 lead with less than 2 minutes to play, however Savoy mustered together one last scoring drive in this track meet of a football game and scored made a long pass to get down field and set up a touchdown to take the lead 101-96 with 7 seconds left on the clock. In this game Savoy’s running back Alex Cadwell rushed for 582 yards 10 TDs and passed for another TD…almost equally impressive is the fact that Leverett’s Chapel kicker, Alex Castillo, was a perfect 12/12 with his PAT kicks on the night.
#2 - Week 9: Marfa 50 Garden City 46
Unranked Marfa upset top 10 ranked Garden City in this district battle that saw the lead change hands 6 times threw out the night. At the half Marfa lead 18-16 thanks in part to a rare 4 point 37 yard field goal for their first score of the game in the 1st quarter by Caleb Seegers. Marfa and Garden City would exchange scores in the 3rd quarter with Marfa making both their extra point kicks while GC missed one to extend Marfa’s lead to 4 points. In the final quarter Garden City scored first to take a 38-34 lead, Marfa then scored to take the lead back 42-38 and then held Garden City on their next possession to a turnover on downs. Marfa scored again to take 50-38 lead, their biggest of the night. GC scored on their last possession to bring the score within four points, but Marfa was able to run the clock out and hold on to a 50-46 lead…making the decision to kick that rare 4 point Field Goal back in the 1st quarter probably the most important decision of the game. Seegers’ 14 points in the kicking game were huge for Marfa. So was Salvador Roman, who rushed for 185 yards and 2TDs, passed for another TD, had 11 tackles and an INT of defense continually came up big on key plays of the game for Marfa. Marfa’s upset helped force a three way tie for the DI District 5 championship, to decide the playoff spots they used point differentials and Garden City was placed 1st and Marfa 2nd…edging out Rankin by 1 point!
#1 – Area Playoff Game: Calvert 32 Jonesboro 26 – In Over Time
After taking a 14-0 lead into the locker room at half time, Jonesboro was able to hold off a great Calvert team in a game that was a defensive battle from start to finish. The Eagles were still sitting pretty as they scored late in the 4th quarter to take a 26-12 lead over Calvert with 4:37 left to play…but it ain’t over till it’s over…Calvert with their backs to the wall returned the ensuing kickoff for a touchdown but failed their 2 point conversion kick making it 26-18. The Trojans then held Jonesboro, got the ball back and scored with 7 seconds left in regulation to make the score 26-24. The extra point attempt failed but Jonesboro was flagged on a roughing penalty which gave the Trojans a second chance to tie the game. Calvert’s second attempt was good (the only PAT they converted in the game) and tied it all up at 26-26. After a failed kickoff return by Jonesboro ran the clock out the game was forced into Overtime. Calvert had the first possession in overtime and scored to take their first lead of the game but failed their PAT attempt bring the score to 32-26. Moments later, a few plays into Jonesboro’s possession, Calvert picked off a Jonesboro pass to secure the victory and end one of the best defensive battles of recent memory in six-man football.
Honorable Mentions: Week 5 - Valley 84 Paducah 79; Week 5 - Groom 33 Follett 22; Week 3 - Abbott 44 Calvert 36; Week 9 - Gordon 60 Strawn 50; Area - Valley 66 Borden County 64
By: Rick Sherrod -
The 2014 Texas high school football season has come and gone.
My inaugural, September 5, 2014, Lone Star Football Network blog was titled, “Lone Star Football: Best Programs in the Nation?” In that discourse, suggested that my question was rhetorical; that the answer, by season’s end, would be self-evident.
Turns out . . . at least this time . . . and based on an arguably fair comparison of MaxPreps numbers at the start of the season against those at the end . . . turns out that for at least this year, I knew what I was talking about.
Early-Season MaxPreps Rankings
Going into week #2 of the 2014 season, only four states had ten or more schools in the Top 200 of the MaxPreps national rankings:
California—31
Texas—24
Ohio—19
Florida—12
Ahead of the Lone Star State by seven schools, California comfortably led the pack. Meanwhile, third-place Ohio trailed Texas by five, and fourth-place Florida was behind by a dozen.
This year’s season also started with fourteen of the fifty U. S. states unrepresented in the Top 200: Alaska, Connecticut, Delaware, Idaho, Iowa, Montana, New Hampshire, New Mexico, North Dakota, Rhode Island, South Dakota, Vermont, West Virginia, and Wyoming. That inglorious grouping looked pretty much the same at the end of December. Only Idaho, Iowa, and West Virginia climbed out of the basement (each state with a single representative in the most recent Dec. 27 listing). Meanwhile, Maine fell out of the Top 200 list, leaving at the end an “even” dozen states without a single top-200 representative.
It is, however, the top of the football food chain that deserves sustained attention.
December 27, 2014 MaxPreps Rankings
The most recent MaxPreps list is almost as consistent at the top as it is at the bottom. Not surprisingly—at least not to OCD Lone Star high school football fans—the order has shifted in a way that will please most Texans.
The top four states remain the same. Regular patrons of the Lone Star Football Network will find the order delightfully different:
Texas—25
California—20
Florida—20
Ohio—17
By season’s end Texas, with twenty-five schools on the Top 200 list, has climbed to the top, five ahead of California and Florida, respectively.
At one level, the list above is predictable, at least to a certain point. In a September 22 LSFN blog, I offered some additional perspective, juxtaposing MaxPreps rankings alongside U. S. population figures. A similar table appears immediately below, adjusted for the changes in the rankings since early September 2014:
| STATE | RANK IN U.S. POPULATION | ESTIMATED 2013
POPULATION IN MILLIONS |
|---|
| Texas | 2 | 26.4 |
| California | 1 | 38.3 |
| Florida | 4 | 19.5 |
| Ohio | 7 | 11.5 |
It is not extraordinary that the four top-ranked states are among the seven largest U. S. states in population. What is extraordinary is the fact that New York State (19.6 million); Illinois (12.8); the one-time “Cradle of Quarterbacks,” Pennsylvania (12.7); Georgia (9.9); Michigan (9.9); and North Carolina (9.8)—the remaining states making up the top ten—are not among the those states at the head of the MaxPreps Top 200.
| STATE | RANK IN U.S. POPULATION | SCHOOLS IN
MAXPREPS TOP 200 |
|---|
| New York State | 3 | 1 |
| Illinois | 5 | 6 |
| Pennsylvania | 6 | 5 |
| Georgia | 8 | 6 |
| Michigan | 8 | 6 |
| North Carolina | 10 | 2 |
What explains the above disjuncture? Doubtless, there are many things. Perhaps the greatest of these is the quality and character of popular values and personality within the respective states themselves. Who would dare to argue that Texas, California, Florida, and Ohio do not place value and emphasis on those qualities of character cultivated through participation in the sport that we all know and love? That must have something to do with the end-of-season MaxPreps numbers.
Whatever combination of peculiarities explain the clear ascendancy of the top four states, as often is the case from year to year, we find the Lone Star State regularly vying with the Golden State for top honors. Without a doubt, both Texas and California are veritable football factories for the NCAA.
Depending on where one puts the focus, these two states often appear in a dead heat for first.
For example, if one examines the 2014 MaxPreps list of the Top 100, Texas and California each contributed a dozen schools—twenty-four total, which comprises almost a quarter of the whole. However, whether we examine the Top 100 or the Top 200, there remains a comparison of apples and oranges when it comes to public versus private school representation on any MaxPreps listing.
It probably surprises no one that De La Salle in Concord, California tops the list, no matter how many teams are included. This celebrated private school is followed by #2 Bishop Gorman of Las Vegas, Nevada, and #3 St. Edward of Lakewood, Ohio. Subsequently, the first school from Texas—Allen—appears at #4.
Put a different way, the number-crunching formula used by MaxPreps christens the Allen Eagles as the very best team in the nation . . . among its fellow-public schools.
It is significant that fifty of the MaxPreps Top 200 appear to be private schools.* That’s twenty-five percent—one out of every four schools on the list. It is valid to ask whether the eligibility requirements imposed by University Interscholastic League make impossible any fair comparing of public and private school programs in sports or, for that matter, even (perhaps especially) academics.
Placing issues of equitable comparisons momentarily aside, eight of the twenty California schools are ranked in the Top 200 are private schools: #1 De La Salle, #19 St. John Bosco; #27 Bishop Amat; #32 Mater Dei, #34 Crespi Carmelite; #71 JSerra Catholic; #74 JunÃpero Serra (all in the top 100), and #122 Bishop Alemany. In contrast, #129 Bishop Dunn in Dallas is the only private school among the twenty-five Top 200 schools from the Lone Star State.
Many things about public education are likely soon to change considering the shifting tectonic plates upon which it has rested during the balance of our lifetimes. Education as we have known it will probably undergo dramatic changes during the coming quarter century. What will emerge, particularly regarding school athletic programs, is anybody’s guess. All things equal, as high school football under UIL supervision approaches its centennial in 2019, the second hundred years are likely to exhibit a decidedly different and feel and texture. Only time will tell what that might be, but odds look likely that private education will continue to wax increasingly strong.
For now, perhaps the most fitting conclusion to my series of 2014 blogs is . . . what else? . . . another list. Below are the names of the twenty-five Texas schools in this year’s MaxPreps Top 200. They are listed in order of their Texas rankings. The national MaxPreps ranking of each appears to the right of each school name.
1. Allen--#4
2. Cedar Hill--#7
3. Southlake Carroll--#21
4. DeSoto--#22
5. Dallas Skyline--#29
6. Denton Guyer--#41
7. Euless Trinity--#42
8. Aledo--#62
9. Katy--#164
10. Gilmer--#66**
11. Houston Westfield--#75
12. Arlington Martin--#77
13. Ennis—#108**
14. Klein Collins--#110**
15. Bishop Dunn--#129**
16. Navasota--#136**
17. Spring--#147**
18. Cibolo Steele--#151**
19. Tyler--#164**
20. Waco Midway--#165
21. Temple--#171**
22. Rockwall--#178**
23. Plano West--#182**
24. Abilene--#185**
25. San Angelo Central--#192**
A comparison of the September 2014 rankings with those of December 27th reveals that many of the Texas high school football powers fell out of the Top 200 by the season’s end: Argyle, Coppell, Dallas Highland Park, Dallas South Oak Cliff, Graham, Manvel, Lake Travis, Mesquite Horn, Pearland, San Antonio Brennan, and Stephenville, to cite some of the most recognizable names. The double asterisk (**, included above on the MaxPreps Top 25 Texas teams) designates the thirteen who climbed into the national Top 200 by the end of December. All good work if you can get it!
And so it ends, at least for 2014. For those of us who love the high school variety of football better than all the others, we now console ourselves with college bowl games, the upcoming NFL playoffs, and the possibility that the Dallas Cowboys, once and for all, will return to the winners circle after a twenty-year absence from The Show.
Enjoy as you are able and, like me, look forward to August 2015.
*This semi-scientific speculation is based on the notion that private schools are unlikely to include in their names the following: Archbishop, Benedictine, Bishop, Brother, Carmelite, Cathedral, Catholic, Christian, Jesuit, La Salle, Loyola, Nazareth, Mater Dei, Our Lady, Sacred Heart, Saint, Trinity, or Xaverian Brothers.
The ancient Romans ain’t got nuttin’ on those of us who are devoted fans of Texas high school football!
In fact, considering the spectacle at AT&T Stadium on the third “long weekend” of December 2014 . . . might not those citizens of the ancient world look with more than a little envy at the unequalled smorgasbord of sports entertainment provided for all of us last week?
The day before this year’s football finale began, Max Thompson’s Prep Rally column, “Why you should be watching the Texas high school football championships” (Dec. 17, 2014, http://sports.yahoo.com/blogs/highschool-prep-rally/why-you-should-be-watching-the-texas-high-school-football-championships-011250009.html) drew attention to the popularity of the three-day convocation of some of Texas’s best football players. Thompson noted that “last year 221,339 people watched the state crown its champions in person and another 14,288 attended the 6-man football championship games. A whopping 54,347 watched the title game between Allen and Pearland” alone.
Below, I offer a few highlights from the ten state finals taking place last Thursday through Saturday night.
Thursday, December 18
2A D-2 Bremond (15-0) vs. Albany (14-1)
Congratulations to the Bremond Tigers on their exciting 28-20, come-from-behind victory. Albany jumped out to a 14-0 first-half advantage but the Tigers, on a thirty-nine yard Roshauud Paul pass to Josh White, narrowed the gap to seven before intermission. After play resumed, at the 5:18 mark in the third, the Lions padded their lead, putting seven more points on the board. As the final quarter started, Albany rested on a 21-7 advantage.
And then the Tigers lit up the scoreboard. During the fourth period, Rayandre Browning scored on a thirteen yard run. Paul followed up Browning’s heroics with thirty-five and twenty-three yard touchdown dashes of his own. Thus the contest ended with the Tigers securing their second-ever state title.
2A D-1 Canadian (15-0) vs. Mason (14-1)
Canadian, in its fourth 21st-century finals appearance, earned its third state championship with a convincing 34-7 win over the Mason Punchers. All of the Wildcat points came after the Punchers established a 7-0 first quarter lead. Once into the second quarter, Canadian got on track and subsequently scored five unanswered touchdowns.
Offensively, Wildcat quarterback and offensive MVP Tanner Schafer contributed mightily to the cause, completing twenty-two of twenty-eight tosses for 233 yards and two touchdowns. Running back Chance Cook (seventy-nine yards on a dozen carries) scored the final two Wildcat touchdowns on eleven- and six-yard runs.
On the defensive side of the football, Canadian tightened the screws after Mason’s first score. The stingy Wildcat defense, led by defensive MVP Andrew Ezell, limited the Punchers to only eighty-nine yards in the final three quarters of the contest.
3A D-2 Newton (12-4) vs. Waskom (15-1)
The most fitting introduction to my thoughts on the Newton-Waskom contest is . . . “I stand corrected!” I sincerely believed that the Eagles would fly away from AT&T Stadium on late Thursday afternoon with their fourth state championship. Instead, neophyte finalist Waskom controlled the ballgame almost from the very start. Offensively, they did it completely on the ground.
Without a single yard passing, the Wildcats’ ground game dominated. In a “cousinage” performance reminiscent of the Abilene Eagles 2009 title win featuring performances by Ronnell and Herschel Sims, Waskom cousins Kevin and Junebug Johnson accounted for 198 of the Wildcats’ 350 ground yards. Fittingly, the former copped honors as offensive MVP.
Linebacker and defensive MVP, Chan Amie, also contributed offensively, carrying the football three times for eleven yards (five of them for a third-quarter score), and taking a second-quarter kickoff return eighty-eight yards for the touchdown. On the opposite side of the ball, Amie enjoyed a satisfying defensive performance making sixteen tackles and knocking loose an Eagle fumble. The 41-22 Wildcat win obscured the lopsided nature of the Waskom win.
3A D-1 Cameron Yoe (12-4) vs. Mineola (12-4)
Cameron’s Yoemen asserted dominance from the opening kickoff, when a mental mistake by Mineola special teams set the continuing tone for Thursday’s fourth opening-day state-championship matchup. An unfielded football, which fell lifeless between two Yellow Jackets, gave Cameron excellent field position on the Yellow Jacket seventeen yard line. With only sixty-one seconds off the clock, the Yeoman began a scoring spree that resulted in seventy total points—a total tying the record set in 2012 by Stephenville for most points scored in an eleven-man football title game. Subsequently, Cameron had the Mineola defense on its heels for most of the remainder of the evening. The Yoemen took the title 70-40, completing the three-peat and becoming one of three new teams in 2014 to gain membership in Club 4.
Yoemen offensive production came courtesy of junior running back Traion Smith, who rushed for 123 yards and five touchdowns on twenty-two carries; quarterback Reid
Nickerson who completed fifteen of twenty-one passes for 311 yards and five touchdown (as well as rushing for sixty-four yards on five carries); Aaron Sims, who caught six passes (several quite acrobatically and in heavy coverage) for 163 yards and three touchdowns; and Sicory Smith who caught five passes for 106 yards and a score.
That being said, at the final gun, spectators were left with a haunting sense that they had seen a preview of 2015, perhaps a slightly smaller version of the Katy-Cedar Hill contests that we’ve watched for three years running. If Mineola fell short in its first-ever title game appearance, it did so with a host of sophomore starters, led by the agile and highly athletic quarterback Jeremiah Crawford (who rushed for 121 yards and two scores on twenty-one carries) and complemented by his sophomore teammate, Chantz Perkins (who rushed for 149 yards and two touchdowns on twenty-two carries). The Yellow Jackets, who will lose only seven seniors, are only a tick or two away from being a championship-caliber football team.
At the same time, Cameron Yoe, which loses several senior starters, is nevertheless also a very young team. We may have witnessed, last Thursday night, the birth of a great new Texas high school football rivalry. Wouldn’t it be nice to see another to see another Yoeman-Yellow Jacket title game a year from now?
Friday, December 19
4A D-2 Gilmer (16-0) vs. West Orange-Stark (13-3)
Inspired by the memory of fallen teammate Desmond Pollard (who collapsed and died nine months earlier during a pickup basketball game), the six-time finalist Gilmer Buckeyes overcame seemingly long odds—trailing 19-0 at one point and entering intermission with a 25-7 halftime deficit. In the end, the Buckeyes won, 35-25, with room to spare, chalking up state title number three (2004, 2009, 2014) in the process. The West Orange-Stark Mustangs largely had their way during the opening twenty-four minutes. The second half proved an entirely different matter.
The Buckeyes, in the persons of Nick Smith and Devin Smith on the receiving end of third-quarter McLane Carter touchdown tosses, and Blake Lynch on four- and seven-yard fourth-quarter touchdown runs, posted twenty-eight unanswered second half points. Meanwhile, on the opposite side of the football, the Buckeyes imposed a suffocating defense and capitalized on multiple Mustang mistakes. Similar to the rapid-fire rhythm of Cameron Yoe the night before, early in the third quarter, Gilmer posted fourteen points in a scant eleven seconds. The feeding frenzy began with a Jackson Sikes interception of a West Orange-Stark pass on the first Mustang second-half possession. A six-play, seventy-five yard Gilmer drive made the score 25-14. The following Buckeye kickoff pinned the Mustangs deep in their own territory. On the very next play, WOS coughed up the football, allowing Buckeye defender Devin Smith to fall on it in the end zone. Suddenly—alarmingly—Gilmer was within four points.
Early in the fourth quarter, Gilmer took the lead on a Blake Lynch, four-yard touchdown dash. A little less than six minutes later, Lynch carried the ball into the end zone a second time, giving Gilmer a lead that it never lost. At the final gun, Gilmer emerged victorious.
4A D-1 Argyle (16-0) vs. Navasota (15-1)
In another battle of the undefeateds—Navasota and defending 4A D-2 state champion Argyle—the outcome largely turned on the performances of three marquee players: bruising Eagle running back and Arizona State commit, Nick Ralston, and the Rattlers’ record-setting duo of juniors, Shelton Eppler and Baylor commit, Tren’Davian Dickson.
Navasota struck not once but twice before Argyle got on the scoreboard. The first Rattler touchdown was a thirty-two yard pass from Eppler to Dickson. The reception set two new records: it added to Dickson’s week-old national, single-season-receiving high school touchdown record (which jumped to thirty-six) and Eppler’s sixty-eighth single-season touchdown pass, a toss that brought the Rattler signal caller even with Refugio’s Travis Quintanilla and his Texas high school record set in 2013. Eppler carried the second score into the end zone himself. But Argyle was hardly ready to roll over.
During the second quarter, Ralston (who ended the evening with fifty-four carries for 219 yards and three touchdowns) took the football into the end zone twice, leaving the score knotted at 14 as the first half closed. At the 6:49 mark in the third quarter, Eppler (who had to sit out the previous play courtesy of a vicious hit to the ribs) and Dickson hooked up again on a pass completion into double coverage, a pinpoint toss which Dickson, standing in the end zone, pulled the pigskin in with a single hand. Thus, Eppler surpassed Quintanilla, simultaneously enabling Dickson to add a thirty-seventh touchdown to his national record. More importantly, the score moved the Rattlers ahead, 21-14.
The next Argyle possession—a fifty-two yard, eleven-play drive— stalled on fourth down near the Rattler goal line. The Eagles pulled Ralston out of the game, set up in field goal formation, but snapped the ball directly to kicker, Drew Estrada. The subterfuge resulted in a quick, short Estrada dash into the end zone. On the following Navasota possession, the Eagles recovered a Dickson fumble on the Rattler thirty-five. With less than a minute left in the third, on fourth-and-eleven, Argyle quarterback (and coach’s son) Cooper Rodgers, hit Hunter Markwardt for a thirty-six yard score giving the Eagles a 28-21 lead, their first in the contest.
The Ratters proved unable to score on their subsequent possession. Argyle took advantage, using the opportunity to chew up much of the remaining clock behind Ralston’s pounding rushing attack. And then, with 1:39 remaining in the contest, Jerbreel Lipscomb intercepted an Argyle pass that gave the ball back to Navasota on the Argyle thirty-seven. Eppler again hit Dickson, who took the ball to the Eagle one. Eppler finished the job, scoring easily on an option-quarterback keeper, a Navasota touchdown and point after that sent the 4A D-1 title contest into overtime.
During the first OT, Ralston took his fiftieth carry of the night into the end zone. Eppler and Dickson returned the favor hooking up, respectively, for their seventieth touchdown pass and thirty-eighth touchdown reception of the 2014. If once was nice, twice was better. In the second OT, it was Eppler to Dickson—seventy-one and thirty-nine—all over again. Four plays later, it was game set and match as the Rattlers stopped the Eagle bell cow Ralston on a fourth-and-five rushing attempt which fell three yards short. Navasota’s 42-35, double-overtime victory marks the second Rattler championship in three seasons.
Eppler ended the evening thirty of fifty-four for 493 yards and four touchdowns (with two running touchdowns thrown in for good measure). His favorite target Dickson hauled in a dozen passes for 177 yards, four touchdowns, and offensive MVP honors.
5A D-2 Ennis (14-3) vs. Cedar Park (13-3)
The Ennis-Cedar Park matchup ending Friday night’s action initially appeared to be a near-effortless Ennis dash to the finish line for its fifth state title. Acquire that title the Lions indeed did . . . but not without considerable back-and-forth scoring that continued right down to the final Ennis possession.
Out of the gate, the Lions hung seventeen unanswered points on the Timberwolves. But in the second quarter, Cedar Park turned it into a football game. On three consecutive second-period possessions, the Timberwolves took the ball into the end zone, emerging with a 21-17 halftime lead.
The see-saw battle continued through the second half. Ennis retook the lead with a Tre Elliott two-yard touchdown run. Thereafter, a third-quarter Amir Alzer-to-Jack Grimm, thirty-yard touchdown strike gave the Timberwolves a transient 28-24 lead. On the very next play from scrimmage, Taylor Thompson took the pigskin seventy-one yards to retake the lead, 31-28. Cedar Park answered with their fifth touchdown of the evening when Alzer hit wide receiver Davis Fiala for a twenty-one yard strike with 4:21 left to play. The Timberwolves appeared to have a decisive 35-31 advantage.
Just when it looked like Cedar Park’s thirty-five points would be all the margin that the Timberwolves needed, Ennis converted on a third-and-nineteen, hook-and-lateral play from Devin Smith to Alston Lawrence to Taylor Thompson. Thompson picked up thirty-one yards, reviving the hope of a Lion victory. On the following play, the “other” Thompson “twin,” Donta, hauled in the winning, thirty-six yard touchdown pass with only twenty-one seconds left in the contest.
In a interesting twist, the offensive MVP award went to Cedar Park’s Thomas Hutchings (eighteen carries for 155 yards, including a seventy-five yard, go-ahead touchdown dash in the second quarter), who played both ways during the 2014 season. Defensive MVP honors went to Trey Edwards who picked off three of Alzer passes, and also made six tackles. The Ennis win makes the Lions a perfect 5-0 in state title competition.
Saturday, December 20
5A D-1 Aledo (15-1) vs. Temple (13-2)
If one offensive MVP award is good, then two is better—so Aledo senior quarterback Luke Bishop ought to think. Indeed, it took his brother Matt three Aledo title wins before copping 2011 offensive MVP honors. Brother Luke, however, captured the same recognition in both 2013 and 2014.
Bishop’s head-turning performance—nine completions of fourteen passes for 122 yards and two scores, and twenty carries for 169 yards and two touchdowns—sealed Aledo’s fifth state title in a short six years (2009, 2010, 2011, 2013, 2014), and the sixth Bearcat title overall (the first being in 1998). Nevertheless, Temple’s Wildcats did not easily or quickly concede.
Coming out strong, Temple and Aledo each scored twice during the opening quarter. Near first period’s end, Aledo secured an important edge when Bearcat Larry Brown took a pick six into the Wildcat end zone. During the second quarter, Aledo put up two more touchdowns, while Temple only managed a thirty-five yard field goal. At intermission, Steve Wood’s Bearcats went to the locker room resting on a comfortable 35-17 lead.
Temple came out strong in the second half, closing the gap to 35-31 on two Marques Hatcher touchdowns—his second and third overall. The two Temple scores came in a scant seventeen seconds, courtesy of the Temple recovery of an onside kick. A fourth-quarter, twenty-nine yard, Bishop-to-Jess Anders scoring toss put Aledo back in the driver’s seat, 42-31. But the Wildcats would not go away. Temple quarterback and Baylor commit Chad President narrowed the margin on a six-yard touchdown dash. Subsequently, the Wildcat defense held, allowing Temple to execute a spectacular four-play, seventy-yard drive that took only forty-seven seconds. The scoring drive was capped by a President pass behind the line of scrimmage to receiver Tyler Hannon, who immediately stopped short and hit Jordan Lee on a forty yard, deflected touchdown pass, which gave Temple a 45-42 lead with 5:50 remaining.
Following the ensuing kickoff, Luke Bishop executed a masterful thirteen-play, seventy-five yard drive that consumed all but forty-seven seconds on the game clock. The drive culminated in a six-yard, game-winning Bishop touchdown sprint, leaving only enough time for five Wildcat plays. Fittingly, the final of those five plays was a thirty-five yard “Hail Mary” toss into triple coverage in the end zone, a pass which was intercepted by—who else?—Luke Bishop.
A more exciting game could not have been seen during Saturday’s football trifecta. Or could it?
6A D-2 Katy (14-2) vs. Cedar Hill (14-2)
If the Aledo-Temple contest was hauntingly heart-stopping . . . round #3 of the Katy-Cedar Hill title game rivalry was just as good or better.
The football gods seemingly favored the Longhorns at the very start of the game. Katy’s first possession ended in a safety when Kyle Goss tackled Tiger quarterback Garrett Dioron in the Katy end zone. Cedar Hill’s enthusiasm was short lived, however, as Katy took a commanding 13-2 lead by the end of the opening half. The Tigers looked well on the way to tying Celina and Southlake Carroll for a state-record eight championship titles.
The second half was a very different story. Two different Longhorn quarterbacks—Justin McMillan and Avery Davis—threw third-quarter touchdown tosses to offensive MVP Damarkus Lodge (four receptions for 101 yards). Those two scores, combined with a McMillan two-point conversion pass to Darris Harper and a Brooks Ralph point-after kick, put Cedar Hill back on top, 17-13. Not to be outdone, Katy retook the lead 20-17 on a late-third-quarter, three-yard Rodney Anderson touchdown run.
The decisive fourth quarter witnessed precious little scoring. Indeed, the only points posted by either team came off the toe of senior Longhorn kicker, Brooks Ralph. His first field goal (a forty-four yarder hit with eight minutes left to play) tied the score at twenty. The second—a twenty-five yarder—split the uprights with only two seconds left in the contest. Cedar Hill recovered the subsequent onside kick, drawing closure to a superb 6A D-2 final.
Saturday afternoon’s Cedar Hill victory marked the second-consecutive state title and third-ever championship (2006, 2013, 2014) for Joey Mcguire’s Longhorn dynasty.
6A D-1 Allen (16-0) vs. Cypress Ranch (13-3)
The evening’s grand finale was an Allen Eagles bid for their forty-third consecutive win and a championship three-peat against the “Cinderella” Cy-Ranch Mustangs (a program of recent vintage in only its fifth varsity season).
Some 52,308 spectators took the time to travel to AT&T Stadium to watch the festivities. Texas A&M commit Kyler Murray did what Kyler Murray does. For the third consecutive title game, Murray received offensive MVP recognition, and well he should have. His twenty-two of thirty-two pass completions for 316 yards and five touchdowns, combined with another sixty-three ground yards, certainly authenticated Murray’s unanimous choice by Texas Associated Sports Editors as the 2014 Player of the Year. It took Murray less than one minute of play to put the Eagles on top 7-0, courtesy of his fifty-one yard scoring toss to teammate Cody Butler.
In spite of the comfortable 47-16 Eagle margin of victory, the Mustangs had their moments, especially early in the contest. Bruising running back Charlie Booker contributed 115 yards and two touchdowns to the Cy-Ranch cause. In fact, the Mustangs only trailed 14-10 as the second quarter neared conclusion. That slender four-point margin would not survive the opening half. With his trademark, big-play style, a
seventeen-yard, Murray-to-Kerry Hall pass extended the Eagle lead to 21-10, with only one second left before intermission.
The second half was mostly all Eagles. Booker contributed to the Mustang cause with a nineteen-yard, third-quarter touchdown run, but the Eagles answered with twenty-six points of their own. In winning Saturday night, Allen joined an elite corps of only three other big conference contenders—Abilene High (1954-1956), Midland Lee (1998-2000), and Southlake Carroll (2004-2006)—to have captured three consecutive state titles. In addition to completing the three-peat, Allen’s 2014 title punched the Eagle ticket into Club 4 (2008, 2012, 2013, 2014). They, along with 1A Throckmorton and 3A Cameron Yoe, joined the ranks of only twenty-six other schools, bringing the total membership of the “Four or More Club” to twenty-nine in this, the 95th year of Texas high school football under UIL supervision.
The Moral of the Story
The really good teams here in Texas don’t rebuild; they reload! Winning has to do with local talent . . . but even more importantly, it has to do with local culture. It has to do with an expectation of success.
For the vast majority of Texas high schools on the outside looking in—those who have yet to make it to The Show—there is a formula for success that can be learned by those hoping to create a winning championship tradition. It can come, at least in part, through a careful study of the history of the winningest programs and those things that have brought them dynastic success. And there’s no better place to learn it than the Lone Star State.
Stay Tuned . . .
It has been a fantastic 2014 football season. Sincere and heartfelt thanks to Shanon Hunt for allowing me to offer yet another voice to the chorus of bloggers, sportswriters, television and radio broadcasters, and a legion of other commentators who do their best to describe the greatest show on earth to their fellow-football fans. In early 2015, after the MaxPreps final 2014 rankings are released, this correspondent will contribute his final blog to the Lone Star Football Network.
I suspect that the numbers will show that Texas, our Texas, is better than anywhere else in America when it comes to learning the science and art of crafting a winning pigskin program.
By: Rick Sherrod -
One of my favorite quotes comes from the great American “philosopher,” Yogi Berra: the game “ain’t over until it’s over!” Perhaps truer and transparently obvious words were never spoken. Berra, of course, was applying the principle of Major League Baseball. Nevertheless, Yogi’s mantra is particularly fitting as we enter the fourth week of the Texas high school football playoffs.
Many worthies have already fallen by the wayside. Other scrappy teams have surprised us as they’ve fought their way through several season losses and suddenly find themselves among the remaining Elite Eight. More importantly, at this late date, almost anything can happen.
As we anticipate round #4 weekend action, two examples from days gone by naturally come to mind (at least to my mind, they do). If both teams concerned have seen better days—neither have made it to the semifinals during the 21st century—there was a time when the Plano Wildcats and Odessa’s Permian Panthers took center stage and enjoyed the spotlight.
The Wildcats have been state finalists nine times. On seven of those occasions—1965, 1967, 1971, 1977, 1986-87, and 1994—they restocked the high school trophy case with championship hardware. During roughly the same era of Texas high school football, the Panthers worked a similar magic in western part of the Lone Star State. Permian has been a finalist a record-setting eleven times, winning on six of those occasions (1965, 1972, 1980, 1984, 1989, and 1991).
A host of similarities exist between these two late-20th century football juggernauts. Perhaps the most fascinating one is a hard to pinpoint, ill-described commodity often identified simply as “mystique.” Like many things in life, it defies scientific analysis; it cannot be measured in a test tube; it can scare even be explained . . . but it is nonetheless as real as night and day . . . and it sometimes determines the outcomes of important playoff football contests.
Endless examples exist, but on the eve of the coming 2014 quarterfinal round, the two I like the best originate in Plano and Odessa.
Plano Wildcats
Football historian Bart Benne’s book, The Best High School Football in the Country (Dallas: Taylor Publishing Co., 1989), preserves a well-done record of the better part of Plano football’s “Golden Age.” In the introduction to his volume, Benne aptly defines the illusive quality “mystique” as “the games that were won against theoretically stronger opponents, or last-minute comebacks, or miraculous finishes.”
He marshals an avalanche of evidence that would convince even the crustiest of critics, but my favorite illustration springs from the December 3, 1977 quarterfinal contest—the “so called ‘Miracle Game’”—between Plano and its Metroplex rival Highland Park.
If trailing 21-0 at halftime wasn’t enough of a challenge for the Wildcats, the Scots scored yet again in early third quarter play. But the game “ain’t over until it’s over!” Down 28 points, Plano somehow seized that other equally intangible commodity—“momentum”—and turned the game around. Two-third quarter Wildcat touchdowns put Plano within 14 points of the Scots. Wildcat defender Carl Smith subsequently grabbed a Highland Park pitchout and took it sixty-six yards to the house, making it a one-possession contest. Subsequently, the Scots failed to run out the clock, giving Plano one last opportunity. The Wildcats made the most of it. With thirty-three seconds left on the clock, a sixty-one yard flea-flicker pass play took Plano into the Scot end zone for a fourth time. Wildcat Coach Tommy Kimbrough then called for two-point conversion which succeeded, giving Plano a most unlikely 29-28 victory.
The weekend following Plano’s Miracle Game, the Wildcats met a worthy opponent and fellow-football powerhouse in Odessa Permian. At Jones Stadium in Lubbock, Plano punched their ticket to the state final—a game that conferred upon the Wildcats their fourth state championship—but only by a narrow 3-0 margin.
Three years later, the Panthers would also go the distance, getting to their sixth championship contest. There they met the favored Port Arthur Jefferson Yellow Jackets. It became another contest in which “Mystique” would play a decisive role.
Permian Panthers
Before the spectacle of Friday Night Lights (New York: Addison-Wesley, 1990) and Buzz Bissinger’s ascent to national prominence, there was Regina Walker McCally. Her magnificent volume, The Secret of Mojo (self-published, 1986) predates Bissinger’s masterpiece by four years. Her opening chapter, “You Don’t Bet Against Mojo,” is one of the finest scene setters in the body of literature describing Texas high school football.
McCally tells her tale by starting on December 20, 1980. That cold and wintry day, the 5A championship contest took place before 22,179 spectators in Irving’s now-gone Texas Stadium where, prior to Jerry World, the Dallas Cowboys claimed the honor of being “America’s Team.”
The title matchup, pitting Panthers against Yellow Jackets, had much the same texture and feel of the 1977 quarterfinal Miracle Game, only with far worse weather conditions—twenty degree temperatures in whipping winds—making it all the more challenging to score. If Port Arthur’s 19-7 halftime lead was somewhat smaller, the Panther prospects at intermission seemed no less gloomy than those of the Wildcats three seasons before.
As McCally put it, Permian was “outweighed in the line and outgunned in the backfield” (p. 3). The Yellow Jacket offense featured Todd Dodge, the greatest statistic-producing passer in Texas high school history at that point in in time. Yellow Jacket speedster Brent Duhon was on the receiving end of many of his more than 3,000 yards of 1980 pass completions. Port Arthur’s dynamic duo would continue their football careers as Texas Longhorns . . . but before that day arrived . . . there was a high school title game to finish.
Panther coach, John Wilkins, restored composure in a heretofore chaotic halftime locker room, but only by sending coaches, trainers, managers, the team doctor, journalists, and even the sophomore and junior players out of the room. In a calm, quiet voice, he addressed his seniors saying, “This is a dream. It’s what everyone wants. It’s y’all’s dream. But it’s up to you to get it together now. You’ve worked too hard and come too far to quit now. And if you’ll just hang tough, we can win this thing in the fourth quarter!” (pp. 3-4). I suppose that was Wilkins’ way of repeating the Yogi Berra mantra in a somewhat more sophisticated fashion. Whatever the case, his words proved prophetic.
Things looked little better, however, as the Yellow Jackets held Permian for a three and out on the opening Panther series. Port Arthur quickly exploited their opportunity, taking the football to the Permian twenty-six yard line. And then the worm began to turn. The game “ain’t over until it’s over!” Permian safety Mark Glasscock picked off a Todd Dodge pass in the end zone. The subsequent Yellow Jacket possession resulted in a failed twenty-six yard Port Arthur field goal attempt.
The pulse of Mojo began to quicken.
A thirty-seven second, four-play, eighty-yard Panther drive at the end of the third period culminated in Permian’s first score since the early second quarter. The Panther touchdown narrowed the gap to 19-14. But thus the score remained until late in the final quarter. Mystique again took over when Port Arthur fumbled a Permian punt setting up an eight-play Panther drive that gave Odessa a 21-19 lead with only 4:13 left in the contest.
Several subsequent Dodge-to-Duhon passes fell incomplete, pinning Port Arthur down on a fourth-and-one at their own forty-six yard line. Again, Dodge’s next pass fell incomplete setting the stage for apparent Permian victory. But the drama wasn’t over just yet. Panther quarterback—the 136-pound Jerry Hix—lost the football immediately thereafter when a 207-pound Yellow Jacket lineman authoritatively separated Hix from the pigskin. A tired Panther defense returned to the field but nevertheless did their duty, stopping the Yellow Jackets at midfield following a failed Port Arthur fourth-and-twenty-one attempt.
Not only did Permian win the contest. On the final Panther possession, it only took Odessa’s offense three plays to put it into the end zone one last time. With seventy-three seconds remaining, Permian suddenly found itself back in the driver’s seat, leading 28-19. The July 1984 issue of Dave Campbell’s Texas Football Magazine would rank the 1980 Permian victory as “the second biggest upset between 1960-1984” (p.12).
Parting Thoughts
As one north-central Texas high school football coach recently and loudly reminded his team with twenty ticks left on the clock: “You’ve got to believe!” In this 2014 round #1 contest, three plays later that team tied the game and went on to win in quadruple overtime.
Are you a believer? Mystique is still out there. It does exist. Enjoy as you watch it at work this weekend. The game “ain’t over until it’s over!” At this late date in the season, virtually every team taking the field of play will stand a chance to win.
