On Saturday, December 11, 2010, the Lake Travis Cavaliers and the Friendswood Mustangs traveled to College Station, TX to play each other at Kyle Field in the State Sem-Finals for 4A D1. Kick off was at 2pm. This was a rematch of the 2008 State Semi-Finals in which Lake Travis pounded the Mustangs.
Like in 2008, only the lower level of Kyle Field was open. Friendswood filled the stands from the 10 yard line to the 10 yard line. Lake Travis had a smaller crowd. Both smaller than Friendwood's and smaller than the crowd that watched them in 2008.
Before the game began, I noticed (and commented) that few people were predicting an outcome for this game. I don't know if that is because they didn't want to inflate the heads of the players into thinking that this would game was in the bag, or if they truely didn't know how things would turn out. And it wasn't just local football watchers who were keeping quiet. I had trouble finding anyone who would put their thoughts out there for everyone to see After talking with people on twitter and facebook and reading about both teams, I, in an unusual move, did make a statement. I tried to be vague at first, but was not going to get off that easy. So, I said what I was thinking, And if the Mustangs had played the way they did against Montgomery, I would have been right.
Things started off well, thought not the best weather conditions for Friendswood. I've noticed that the Mustangs don't play their best in windy conditions. I honestly can't say if that's a coincidence, or if the wind effects the game some how. But that has been my observation.
Before the game, while the teams were in the locker rooms, the Coach from Lake Travis, 2 coaches form Friendswood, the team captians from Friendswood and the refs all shook hands and exchanged words. I assume they were pleasantries, but since I couldn't hear them . . .
During the pre-game activities, the cheerleaders were never introduced. A move that surprised the Friendswood cheerleaders, but not the Lake Travis cheerleaders. School songs were played. And the teams took to the field. Before either team had lined up on the sidelines, the Star Spangeled Banner was announced and the band began to play.
For the first time, I noticed some freshman uniforms on our sidelines as well as the JV jerseys. Lake Travis brought some of their younger players as well. They were more obvious because of the colors on their pants. I sure they were all beyond excited at the opportunity they had. It would have been great to see some of them get to play.
To start the game Friendswood won the toss and elected to receive. I have to say that this was somewhat of a relief to me. To the best of my knowledge, we have won the toss in every game except Santa Fe and Montgomery. We all know how those games turned out. I was hoping that this would be a good omen for the team.
The offense started strong. The team looked like they were picking up right where they left off against Montgomery last week. After the first three plays, I agreed to take my oldest daughter to the rest room. A flag was thrown as we were walking down the steps; the first of the game, but not the last. I never did find out what the flag was for, but that it was against Friendswood. I was quite surprised when I got back to my seats, saw that we had the ball and the score was 0-3. Why did we only have 3 points? Obviously, we scored a field goal (thanks Tyler Dement), but what happened that we had to "settle for 3" instead of put 7 on the board? I did learn that we got the ball back after our defense was too much for Lake Travis to handle.
Friendwood is marching down the field, but ended up in a 4th and 8 situation. They line up for the trick play that didn't work against Humble. Lake Travis had no idea what was going on and had to call a time out to ask the coaches what to do. Once the time out was over, Friendswood look a more traditional line up and I was glad to see it. We were there to win, not end up with thousands of hits on you tube. Unfortunatley, something didn't work right and Maetxold threw the ball away before we was sacked. The ball went back to Lake Travis on downs.
The Cavs were able to get their 2nd first down of the day, but then had to punt the ball back to the Mustangs from their 40 yard line.
The Mustangs staarted this possession from their 34 yard line. The Cavalier fans were booing, but I never saw or heard a reason for the boos. The first quarter ended during this posession and the score was Lake Travis Cavaliers 0 - Friendswood Mustangs 3. For both teams, during the 1st quarter, the defense played better than the offense. Our offense definetly was playing better than Lake Travis'.
The 2nd quarter didn't start well. Maetzold threw his first interception of the game. Thankfully, his intended receiver was there to make the tackle and the interceptor didn't get far. Our defense took the field, but it seemed as if they made some sort of change at the quarter and the change wasn't an improvment. We almost sacked their QB, but he was able to get a pass off that was caught and run for a first down. Their 3rd of the game. The Cavaliers continued to march down the field, and with 9:57 left in the half, Lake Travis found the end zone. The score was Lake Travis Cavaliers 7 - Friendswood Mustangs 3.
Kennemr caught the kick off and brought it out to the 34 yard line. He was close to breaking free for a touch down. Maetzold threw a nice pass to Kennemer, who had room to run, but the pass slipped right threw his hands. Then, Maetzold made a great throw, and the receiver made a great catch, but it was called back due to holding. I never saw any holding. Neither did the fans around me. The fans were screaming that there was no holding and that the refs were calling an unfair game.
The ball ended up going back to the Cavaliers. And our defense started tackling very poorly. I didn't have my roster and I didn't have a good view of the players numbers, so I don't know if that was usual starters or someone else who looked like they were playing flag football. During this drive, the Cavaliers landed their first penalty - holding. Bergeson made 2 great plays to prevent pass receptions for long yards. Thanks to those plays, the Cavaliers had to punt deep in their own territory. Kennemr caught the punt but had two defenders blocking his path and no one blocking for him. They danced a little, but ended up going no where.
On 2nd down, Maetzold was able to find a hole, but only gained 3 yards. We didn't see much of "Sneaky Pete" during this game. On the next play, we were called for an illegal shift. That's the first time I've ever seen that call in a high school football game. The Cavaliers had trouble tackling Johnson during this drive. At one point, it looked like they were trying to undress him. When I posted this on facebook and twitter, I got a laugh or two. Later, I learned that they actually did rip his jersey and someone on the sideline had to sew it back up. I didn't know that a sewing kit was something that was kept on the sidelines of a football game. The Mustangs used a time out on this drive, and decided a "trick" play that ususally gets lots of yards and often a touch down. Maetzold handed off to JJ, who took a few steps and then made a backwards pass to Maetzold, who threw an interception! This was his second interception of the day (not his last). This was close to half time and we were within field goal range.
The Cavaliers weren't able to do anything major before half time. The teams went to the locker rooms with the score board showing Cavaliers 7 - Mustangs 3.
Due to region band auditions, the Cavalettes (sp?) had to dance to a CD and the Cavalier band didn't even take the field. Our band was much smaller than usual, but did play "Sleigh Ride" for the Wranglerettes. Then they formed the word "Blue" and played the horse, and the drum line played the trash cans during that song (loved it). Then they formed "FHS" while the crowd cheered.
So, with Friendswood behind 7-3, the Mustangs would put my prediction to the test. I said that if the Mustangs were ahead, or no more than 14 points behind and half time, then we would win. To start the 2nd half Demet kicked off the ball that he probably could have put through the goal posts if he'd wanted to. I'm not sure if he had been given a green light, or if something changed in practice, but it was nice to see that he can still kick that far.
Whatever happened in the second quarter with our defense, the downward slide continued. It took the Cavaliers only 4 mintues and 3 seconds of playing time to find the end zone again. At this point in the game, the scoreboard showed 7:57 left in the 3rd quarter. Cavaliers 14 - Mustangs 3. The Lake Travis offense never felt the pressure that Montgomery's offense felt. I wish I could explain what happened.
Lake Travis kicked off to the Mustangs, who tried again to find the end zone. Several fans around me became very vocal during this drive, and remained vocal throughout the rest of the game. They were calling for flags on a late hit. But this is not the point at which I noticed something odd going on with the refs. We went through our first 3 downs and were 4th and 5 near the 50 yard line. The ball was thrown and it appeard that both a Mustang and Cavalier caught it at the same time. Both falling on the ball. I would like to have seen it from the other side, as I saw it from behind. It was ruled an incomplete pass and the Cavaliers took over on downs.
And them something happened that I haven't seen in quite a while. The Cavalier quarterback ran with the ball, after deciding not to throw it. There were Mustangs all around him, but none of them were able to get their hands on him. It was like they weren't even paying attention to him. So, in that moment, were the Lake Travis linemen that good, or was our defense that bad? Thankfully, our secondary was able to stop him before he made it all the way to the end zone. On the next play, a ref threw his flag for something that no one but him saw, false start against the defense. How was he able to see that, since he was behind the defense??? This is when someone around me voiced something he noticed about the refs. I began to pay attention to this, and the fan was right. The refs wouldn't even look at Coach Van Meter. They would go talk with the coaches from Lake Travis, but wouldn't even look at our coaches. I wonder why that was. And why it continued throughout the game.
The ball came back to our offense on downs, but we didn't get far down the field. This time, when the ref should have thrown a flag, he didn't. I'm not sure how they missed that horse collar foul, but they did. Then, Maetzold handed the ball off to JJ. He made a great run. It looked very exciting; until you saw where he ended up and realized that he had been running parrallel to the end zone instead of toward it. On the next play, Maetzold threw his third (but still not last) interception of the game. I do not know why Maetzold chose to throw to Kennemer, who was under double coverage, when Bolton was open and only a few yards away.
When the Mustang defense took the field after that third interception , they were a completely different defense. They looked like they did when we played Dawson last year in the regional title game - like a team who had given up. If you read my twitter and facebook feeds, it's clear that I was not happy with the way the team was playing. And if you saw them you wouldn't be happy either. Especially knowing what they are capable of. If they had given up, then I fault the team leaders for allowing that to happen, and the coaches for not putting in players who had better attitdues. The Cavaliers had no trouble getting into the end zone again. With 1:38 left in the third quarter, the score was Lake Travis 21 - Friendswood 3
The Cavalier's kicked the ball to the Mustangs, and our offense started again. Things weren't looking up. Our offensive line wasn't protecting Maetzold very well. I saw our quarterback get sacked while his offensive line wasn't paying attention and not doing anything to protect him. I saw people lined up to protect him, but only watch one direction and not notice that he was getting sacked from the other side. I also noticed that Maetzold wasn't moving around as much as he usually does. He didn't roll out of the pocket, he didn't move around in the pocket much, and he didn't give up on the pass and try to run much either. In fact, the only time I saw him try to do that, he slipped and lost serval yards.
The third quarter ended and the fourth began with the Mustangs still missing in action. Amazingly, we did manage to get a first down without a flag being thrown. But of course, I commented on this, and jinxed them. We were called for false start when no one moved. But that was the way of the day. Bolton had made a beautiful catch for that first down, but was hit hard. He didn't get up for a bit, but it looked like he just got the wind knocked out of him. A few mintues later, Maetzold threw his fourth and final interception of the game. He was trying to throw the ball away as he was about to be sacked, and it was caught by Lake Travis.
Our defense was able to prevent another Lake Travis touchdown. But they were able to score a field goal. So, with 3:01 left in the game, the score was Lake Travis 24 - Friendswood 3.
Not much exciting happened during the remainder of the game. Friendswood got the ball, had to punt, Lake Travis took a knee and that was that. Final Score Lake Travis Cavaliers 24 - Friendswood Mustangs 3
To say this is a disappointing loss is an understatement. I was told, by a somewhat reliable person, that the team had formed the nasty habit of getting loaded on Red Bull and Monsters before the games. The person who told me this did not know that I had made the same comment last week. If it's true, then they wore off in the 2nd quarter and by the 2nd half they were in a full on sugar crash.
I don't know what the mood was on the field, but in the stands there was quite a range of emotions. First it was excitement as the team played well in the first quarter. Then that excitement turned to frustration as the team didn't play to the level we've seen them play, and the level they needed to play. There was anger against the refs for not calling a fair game. There was disagreements with the play callers, as people around me didn't like the plays being called. There was disappointment as it began to look like the team had thrown in the towel. Have you ever noticed that a bad attitude is more infectious than the a good one? If the team really had given up, then the team leaders should have encouraged the team to not give up. And if that didn't work, or if the leaders were the ones who had given up, the coaches should have pulled the players with a bad attitude and let the other players who were just itching to play at such an awesome stadium have a turn. You never know, one of those younger players may have surprised everyone.
I wish I could say that our team played a good game and was beaten by a better team, but I'd be lying. I wish I could say that the team brought their A-game, but I can't. There are some players who stopped every player that needed to be stopped, moved every player that needed to be moved, and got the ball where it needed to go every time he stepped onto the field, but not every player can. In order for the Mustangs to have won Saturday (which was very possible), every player would have to honestly say he gave his best effort on every play.
Sunday, December 12, 2010
Sunday, December 5, 2010
Montgomery Bears vs. Friendswood Mustangs at Rice Stadium December 4, 2010
On December 4, 2010, at Rice Stadium in Houston, TX, the Montgomery Bears played the Friendswood Mustangs for the AAAA Region 3 Division 1 title and a trip to the state semi-final play off game against Lake Travis (who had defeated Cedar Park by 1 point earlier in the day). Kick off was at 7pm.
Immediately upon finding our seats, I noticed something different about this game. There was no inflated helmet for the players to run through. Friendswood's famous (or infamous) horn was also absent. Of course, Montgomery didn't have any inflatable for their team to run through either. Friendswood, who is normally very loud and proud during football games was shown up by Montgomery in that department - a first. But that's okay, our team spoke through their actions.
To start the game, Montgomery won the toss and decided to defer to the second half. Matt Kennemer caught the kick off and returned it to the 26 yard line to begin the game. Within the first three plays, it became obvious that the refs were not going to call a fair game. Now, I'm not going to say that this particular ref was biased. But I will say that he made several mistakes. First, he missed a face mask that was right in front of him. Then, he missed an offsides by the Bear's defense.
During Friendswood's first drive, Maetzold made his first off target throw. He overthrew Kennemer on a pass that would have been a touch down.
A few plays later, we learned that the lazy ref was actually carrying a flag. But I only saw him throw it when the offsides was so blatent that the defender was behind the offensive line before the ball was snapped (happened twice).
A few plays later, the first points were put on the board. Friendswood ticked two minutes and fifty seconds off the clock to make the score Bears 0 - Mustangs 7. Now it's time for Friendswood's defense to get their first look at Montgomery's star running back Leroy Dobbins.
Montgomery's first turn with the ball didn't go very well. They punted the ball away. Friendswood began on the 44 yard line. They marched down the field, but ended up trying for a field goal. For where I was sitting, Dement's kick looked good. From where the coaches were standing, the kick looked good. But the refs said no good, and the players didn't argue. I'm sure the players would have argued if they thought it was good, so I'll trust them on this. This was the first of a few plays that had me wishing for instant reply. Unfortunatley, I couldn't hit rewind the way I would on my DVR.
So, after Dement's failed field goal, the Bears took over on their own 20 yard line. This time the Bear's offense was a little more effective. They marched down the field and found the end zone with 1:18 left in the first quarter making the score 7-7.
With the kick off, Kennemr caught the ball and faked a hand off to Battle before running with the ball. This fake hand off, unlike the ones they did a few weeks ago, did not eat any time off the clock. But, he's only able to get to the 21 yard line before he is brought down. A couple of plays later, JJ breaks free and runs about 50 yards, dances with a few receivers and is brought down at the Bear's 29 yard line. On the next play, Maetzold overthrew Justin Battle (another overthrow). A few plays later, Maetzold looked to be in trouble, but managed to find Scott in the end zone. Dement's kick is good. So with 0:00 remaining in the first quarter, the score was Bears 7 - Mustangs 14. Of course, there were more officiating mistakes in this drive. Coach Van Meter was madder than I've seen him in a while, and he had good reason to be. I wish I had made more detailed notes on these plays. I remember very clearly seeing Coach Van Meter yelling at the official. And I remember believing that he was right and that the lazy official needed to read the rule book again. But I don't remember what happened during that play.
It took The Bears just under 3 minutes with their version of the spread offense to get into the end zone again. Score 14-14.
Two minutes later, Maetzold threw the only interception of the night. The Bears were able to run it back for a touchdown. 7:55 left in the half. Score 21-14 Bears.
Time for the Mustangs offense to try again. It seems that, at least on this night, Maetzold made this best plays while under pressure. During this drive, he made another great pass under pressure. Scott made a great diving catch near the 50 yard line. A few minutes later, Battle caught the pass on the screen play and was able to make it to the end zone. So, the score was tied again. Time left in the first half - 6:39.
Now, the Bears knew that the Mustangs were gunning for Leroy Dobbins, so they faked a hand off to Dobbins and went the other way with the ball. It was a very good fake. So good, that they tried it again on the next play. This time, it didn't work. After a few plays I would like to have seen again, the Bears got into the endzone again. Now the score was 28-21 Bears and there was 1:32 left in the half. Again, Kennemer faked a hand off to Battle. This time it only got him to the 18 yard line. But that's okay, 2 plays later, Battle made it to the end zone. The score was tied again, at 28, with less than a minute left in the half. Whoever said this would be a high scoring game was right.
This time, Dement kicked the ball to start the next set of plays. We noticed that Hardy and Dement were both kicking the ball to the same location each time. To the kicker's right near the 30 yard line. If anyone knows why the kickers were favoring this spot, please let me know.
The score didn't change in that 43 seconds before half time.
Montgomery chose to perform their half time show for their own crowd. Generally, manners dictate that half time shows are performed for the home crowd. But, I won't hold that against them. Friendswood's band always puts on a great half time show and this game was no exception. The sousaphone players were great while playing "Super Fly For a White Guy." The band played more tunes and worked the get the crowd involved (but weren't as successful as last week). And I won't mention that the pit and the drumline were about measures apart for a while (oops, just did). During half time, I got a tweet from Evan Mohl from the Galveston County Daily News that said that Pete Maetzold had surpased Jacob Karam's record for yards in a single season. Congrats, Pete.
Hardy kicked off the second half by kicking the ball to the same place. This drive by the Bears included some great tackling (Manning had a great one) and a few more plays I'd like to see again. However, due to a some mistakes by the Bears and some awesome defense by the Mustangs, this possession by the Bears did not earn them any points. Friendswood took over possession on downs at our 20 yard line. 2 plays later we were 40 yards closer to our end zone. But then, we earned a personal foul. I wasn't able to see what we were accused of doing, so I can't say if we deserved that 15 yard loss or not. Next play, Friendswood tried something they haven't done in a while. And it worked (again). Maetzold passed the ball to JJ, who ran parrallel to the line of scrimmage (not unusual), then threw the ball to the back corner of the endzone where Canada was waiting to catch the ball. 5:30 left in the 3rd quarter and the score was Bears 28 - Mustangs 35.
The Bears tried to march down the field again. But, our defense was ready, again. Four plays later, Montgomery punted the ball back to the Mustangs. Two minutes and eleven seconds after the last score, the Mustangs were in the end zone again. Dement's PAT kicks kept getting lower and lower, but it was good, and that's all that mattered. New score: Bears 28 - Mustangs 42.
At this point in the game, I take my youngest daughter to the rest room and we decide to grab some ice cream from the Marble Slab cart while we're up there. By the time we get back to our seats, the Mustangs have the ball near the goal line. The play is called a quarter back sneak, but I don't think it's much of a sneak when everyone knows what's going to happen. They should rename the play "line up behind Pete and push." The push worked. With 10:46 left in the game, the score was Bears 28 - Mustangs 49.
Time for Hardy to kick off again. Would he kick to his right and to the 30 yard line? If you said yes, you'd be wrong. This time he kicked it to his right and to the 35 yard line. Once again, the Bears offense is unable to capitalize. They have to punt. Kennemer caught the ball at our 35 yard line and is able to run 39 yards to the Montgomery 26 yard line. Where we were called for a personal foul. I was talking to someone and didn't see what happened. I tried several times to find out who did what, but was never able to find out. It ended up being 4th and 30 for the Mustangs deep in Bear territory. The Mustangs took a delay of game penalty to give themselves an extra 5 yards between them and the end zone. Even though he tried for a short kick, Maetzold's punt still bounced into the end zone. The Bears were able to try again, starting from their own 20 yard line.
Our offense almost got a very short rest; Gardner almost intercepted a pass. On the next play, Dobbins got open, but only made to the 1st down marker before he was chased out of bounds. That was the last 1st down the Bears would get. They had to punt. Kennemr caught the ball and was immediately brought down.
At this point, there was 1:04 left on the clock. 2 "knees" later, the game was over.
Montgomery was unable to score single point in the second half. I don't take stats (that's other people's jobs), but I think I can count on one hand the number of 1st downs Montgomery earned in thesecond half. One of the coaches said that they made one tiny defensive adjustment during half time. Whatever that tiny adjustment was, it worked very well. Our defense is continuing to improve. They are playing better than ever. Our offense isnt' looking their best (a few over thrown passes and a few missed assignments), but they are looking pretty good.
Next up, Friendswood will take on Lake Travis. This year, Lake Travis suffered 2 defeats after being unbeaten for (I think) 44 straight games. Cedar Park and Aledo beat Lake Travis. Both of those teams made it to the play offs. Lake Travis beat Cedar Park by 1 point this week, and I think Aledo is still playing. I have already suggested that our coaches study the films of those games in order to see what those teams did to stop Lake Travis.
This will be a rematch of the state semi-finals in 2008. That game featured Jacob Karam and the Friendswood Mustangs against Garrett Gilbert and the Lake Travis Caveliers. That game was also played at Kyle Field on the Saturday of Friendswood's Christmas parade and kick off for that game was 2pm. We are hoping for a different outcome to this game.
One other thing. Someone at church told his 2 year old daughter the Mustangs were playing the Montgomery Bears. She was confused, thinking they were playing the Gummy Bears. :)
Disclaimer: Please keep in mind that I am watching the game and "taking notes" by twittering and facebooking during the games. I am at each game with at least one of my kids, if not both. Sometimes, my husband is able to attend with usand sometimes I have other family with me as well. My football education is from attending high school football games for 30+ years and sitting between my dad and my grandpa for the first 12 of those years. I was 3 when my parents bought my first season ticket. I missed 2 home games from the time I was 3 years old through junior high, and started traveling (not missing a single game) during high school. I started taking my kids to games before they could walk and have been taking them ever since.
Immediately upon finding our seats, I noticed something different about this game. There was no inflated helmet for the players to run through. Friendswood's famous (or infamous) horn was also absent. Of course, Montgomery didn't have any inflatable for their team to run through either. Friendswood, who is normally very loud and proud during football games was shown up by Montgomery in that department - a first. But that's okay, our team spoke through their actions.
To start the game, Montgomery won the toss and decided to defer to the second half. Matt Kennemer caught the kick off and returned it to the 26 yard line to begin the game. Within the first three plays, it became obvious that the refs were not going to call a fair game. Now, I'm not going to say that this particular ref was biased. But I will say that he made several mistakes. First, he missed a face mask that was right in front of him. Then, he missed an offsides by the Bear's defense.
During Friendswood's first drive, Maetzold made his first off target throw. He overthrew Kennemer on a pass that would have been a touch down.
A few plays later, we learned that the lazy ref was actually carrying a flag. But I only saw him throw it when the offsides was so blatent that the defender was behind the offensive line before the ball was snapped (happened twice).
A few plays later, the first points were put on the board. Friendswood ticked two minutes and fifty seconds off the clock to make the score Bears 0 - Mustangs 7. Now it's time for Friendswood's defense to get their first look at Montgomery's star running back Leroy Dobbins.
Montgomery's first turn with the ball didn't go very well. They punted the ball away. Friendswood began on the 44 yard line. They marched down the field, but ended up trying for a field goal. For where I was sitting, Dement's kick looked good. From where the coaches were standing, the kick looked good. But the refs said no good, and the players didn't argue. I'm sure the players would have argued if they thought it was good, so I'll trust them on this. This was the first of a few plays that had me wishing for instant reply. Unfortunatley, I couldn't hit rewind the way I would on my DVR.
So, after Dement's failed field goal, the Bears took over on their own 20 yard line. This time the Bear's offense was a little more effective. They marched down the field and found the end zone with 1:18 left in the first quarter making the score 7-7.
With the kick off, Kennemr caught the ball and faked a hand off to Battle before running with the ball. This fake hand off, unlike the ones they did a few weeks ago, did not eat any time off the clock. But, he's only able to get to the 21 yard line before he is brought down. A couple of plays later, JJ breaks free and runs about 50 yards, dances with a few receivers and is brought down at the Bear's 29 yard line. On the next play, Maetzold overthrew Justin Battle (another overthrow). A few plays later, Maetzold looked to be in trouble, but managed to find Scott in the end zone. Dement's kick is good. So with 0:00 remaining in the first quarter, the score was Bears 7 - Mustangs 14. Of course, there were more officiating mistakes in this drive. Coach Van Meter was madder than I've seen him in a while, and he had good reason to be. I wish I had made more detailed notes on these plays. I remember very clearly seeing Coach Van Meter yelling at the official. And I remember believing that he was right and that the lazy official needed to read the rule book again. But I don't remember what happened during that play.
It took The Bears just under 3 minutes with their version of the spread offense to get into the end zone again. Score 14-14.
Two minutes later, Maetzold threw the only interception of the night. The Bears were able to run it back for a touchdown. 7:55 left in the half. Score 21-14 Bears.
Time for the Mustangs offense to try again. It seems that, at least on this night, Maetzold made this best plays while under pressure. During this drive, he made another great pass under pressure. Scott made a great diving catch near the 50 yard line. A few minutes later, Battle caught the pass on the screen play and was able to make it to the end zone. So, the score was tied again. Time left in the first half - 6:39.
Now, the Bears knew that the Mustangs were gunning for Leroy Dobbins, so they faked a hand off to Dobbins and went the other way with the ball. It was a very good fake. So good, that they tried it again on the next play. This time, it didn't work. After a few plays I would like to have seen again, the Bears got into the endzone again. Now the score was 28-21 Bears and there was 1:32 left in the half. Again, Kennemer faked a hand off to Battle. This time it only got him to the 18 yard line. But that's okay, 2 plays later, Battle made it to the end zone. The score was tied again, at 28, with less than a minute left in the half. Whoever said this would be a high scoring game was right.
This time, Dement kicked the ball to start the next set of plays. We noticed that Hardy and Dement were both kicking the ball to the same location each time. To the kicker's right near the 30 yard line. If anyone knows why the kickers were favoring this spot, please let me know.
The score didn't change in that 43 seconds before half time.
Montgomery chose to perform their half time show for their own crowd. Generally, manners dictate that half time shows are performed for the home crowd. But, I won't hold that against them. Friendswood's band always puts on a great half time show and this game was no exception. The sousaphone players were great while playing "Super Fly For a White Guy." The band played more tunes and worked the get the crowd involved (but weren't as successful as last week). And I won't mention that the pit and the drumline were about measures apart for a while (oops, just did). During half time, I got a tweet from Evan Mohl from the Galveston County Daily News that said that Pete Maetzold had surpased Jacob Karam's record for yards in a single season. Congrats, Pete.
Hardy kicked off the second half by kicking the ball to the same place. This drive by the Bears included some great tackling (Manning had a great one) and a few more plays I'd like to see again. However, due to a some mistakes by the Bears and some awesome defense by the Mustangs, this possession by the Bears did not earn them any points. Friendswood took over possession on downs at our 20 yard line. 2 plays later we were 40 yards closer to our end zone. But then, we earned a personal foul. I wasn't able to see what we were accused of doing, so I can't say if we deserved that 15 yard loss or not. Next play, Friendswood tried something they haven't done in a while. And it worked (again). Maetzold passed the ball to JJ, who ran parrallel to the line of scrimmage (not unusual), then threw the ball to the back corner of the endzone where Canada was waiting to catch the ball. 5:30 left in the 3rd quarter and the score was Bears 28 - Mustangs 35.
The Bears tried to march down the field again. But, our defense was ready, again. Four plays later, Montgomery punted the ball back to the Mustangs. Two minutes and eleven seconds after the last score, the Mustangs were in the end zone again. Dement's PAT kicks kept getting lower and lower, but it was good, and that's all that mattered. New score: Bears 28 - Mustangs 42.
At this point in the game, I take my youngest daughter to the rest room and we decide to grab some ice cream from the Marble Slab cart while we're up there. By the time we get back to our seats, the Mustangs have the ball near the goal line. The play is called a quarter back sneak, but I don't think it's much of a sneak when everyone knows what's going to happen. They should rename the play "line up behind Pete and push." The push worked. With 10:46 left in the game, the score was Bears 28 - Mustangs 49.
Time for Hardy to kick off again. Would he kick to his right and to the 30 yard line? If you said yes, you'd be wrong. This time he kicked it to his right and to the 35 yard line. Once again, the Bears offense is unable to capitalize. They have to punt. Kennemer caught the ball at our 35 yard line and is able to run 39 yards to the Montgomery 26 yard line. Where we were called for a personal foul. I was talking to someone and didn't see what happened. I tried several times to find out who did what, but was never able to find out. It ended up being 4th and 30 for the Mustangs deep in Bear territory. The Mustangs took a delay of game penalty to give themselves an extra 5 yards between them and the end zone. Even though he tried for a short kick, Maetzold's punt still bounced into the end zone. The Bears were able to try again, starting from their own 20 yard line.
Our offense almost got a very short rest; Gardner almost intercepted a pass. On the next play, Dobbins got open, but only made to the 1st down marker before he was chased out of bounds. That was the last 1st down the Bears would get. They had to punt. Kennemr caught the ball and was immediately brought down.
At this point, there was 1:04 left on the clock. 2 "knees" later, the game was over.
Montgomery was unable to score single point in the second half. I don't take stats (that's other people's jobs), but I think I can count on one hand the number of 1st downs Montgomery earned in thesecond half. One of the coaches said that they made one tiny defensive adjustment during half time. Whatever that tiny adjustment was, it worked very well. Our defense is continuing to improve. They are playing better than ever. Our offense isnt' looking their best (a few over thrown passes and a few missed assignments), but they are looking pretty good.
Next up, Friendswood will take on Lake Travis. This year, Lake Travis suffered 2 defeats after being unbeaten for (I think) 44 straight games. Cedar Park and Aledo beat Lake Travis. Both of those teams made it to the play offs. Lake Travis beat Cedar Park by 1 point this week, and I think Aledo is still playing. I have already suggested that our coaches study the films of those games in order to see what those teams did to stop Lake Travis.
This will be a rematch of the state semi-finals in 2008. That game featured Jacob Karam and the Friendswood Mustangs against Garrett Gilbert and the Lake Travis Caveliers. That game was also played at Kyle Field on the Saturday of Friendswood's Christmas parade and kick off for that game was 2pm. We are hoping for a different outcome to this game.
One other thing. Someone at church told his 2 year old daughter the Mustangs were playing the Montgomery Bears. She was confused, thinking they were playing the Gummy Bears. :)
Disclaimer: Please keep in mind that I am watching the game and "taking notes" by twittering and facebooking during the games. I am at each game with at least one of my kids, if not both. Sometimes, my husband is able to attend with usand sometimes I have other family with me as well. My football education is from attending high school football games for 30+ years and sitting between my dad and my grandpa for the first 12 of those years. I was 3 when my parents bought my first season ticket. I missed 2 home games from the time I was 3 years old through junior high, and started traveling (not missing a single game) during high school. I started taking my kids to games before they could walk and have been taking them ever since.
Monday, November 29, 2010
Humble Wildcats vs. Friendswood Mustang - November 27, 2010
Saturday, November 27, 2010 the Humble Wildcats took on the Friendswood Mustangs at Thorne Stadium on Aldine-Bender in Houston. Kick off was at 2pm.
Although I should not have been there (I woke up with fever that morning and later learned I have strep throat), I took some ibuprofen and went to enjoy a Texas tradition.
I had been told that this would be the best test for Friendswood so far. And that Humble ran the exact same offense that Friendswood uses. To me, this means that both defenses would know how to contain their own offense. It would all depend on which offense is better at the scheme and which defense is better at containing that offense.
Before the game even started, something went wrong. The GSL sponsor for Friendswood forgot to assign a group of representatives for this game. Some cheerleaders blue crew members took care of it when Humble's representatives began to walk across the field. Oops.
The game "started" with a delay of game penalty. Then, before the ball was kicked, the whistles blew again. Never did find out why. Friendswood won the toss and was waiting to watch the kick. It was anticlimactic everyone standing up, clapping, cheering, screaming, and . . . waiting. Once the ball was finally kicked, Kennemer caught it and passed it off to Johnson, who made it to Friendswood's 38 yard line before he was run out of bounds. Watching Friendswood's offense, it seemed that they were a bit excited. There was one false start penalty in the first drive, but they just looked like they had too much red bull before the game (a little unusual for the Mustangs).
For the first quarter both defenses were effective. There were several punts before someone finally found the end zone. Thankfully, it was Maetzold's pass to Stevens that put the first points on the board. There were only 2 minutes and 40 seconds left in the first quarter before the score became 0-7.
By the end of the first quarter, the score was still 0-7. At some point during that 1st quarter, Johnson left the game and did not return. He was never tended to on the field, so not many people realized he was injured. I later learned that he had a possible concussion and his fate for next week won't be known until the middle of the week.
It took 7 minutes 29 seconds into the second quarter for anyone to score again. Once again it was Friendswood. Friendswood could probably have scored earlier, but on 2nd and 10 and again on 3rd and 10 we tried some sort of weird "trick" play that looked like everyone was lining up for an onsides kick. The offensive line lined up on the west side of the field, leaving the center, quarterback and a receiver on the east side of the field. The offensive line just stood up and relaxed when the ball was hiked. Two receivers (one on each side of the field) ran, trying to get free. Both times, the receivers were in a position to make a catch (not necessarily an easy catch), but Maetzold overthrew his intended receivers. He seemed to have that problem off and on throughout the game. So, on 4th and 10, Friendswood punted it away.
I think the Mustangs may have been watching too much you tube.
Humble wasn't able to do anything either. The ball went back and forth for the rest of the half. At the end of the half, Humble attempted a 39 yard field goal, bur the kick was wide left. That made the score at half time 0-14 Friendswood.
Now about half time. I completely understand why bands do what they do during regular season half time shows. I understand that they are working to create a show that the judges will like during their competitions. And, believe me, I know how hard they work. That said, the play off half time shows are so much more fun. They get the crowd involved and the band looks like they're having fun.
So, with half time over, it was time for the football team to re-take the field. The third quarter continued much as the first two had gone. Lots of punting (each team did throw one interception during the first half). Once again, when the score changed, the points were added to Friendswood's score. Again, it was Maetzold's pass to Stevens that changed the score board. So, with 5:07 left in the 3rd quarter, the score was Humble 0 - Friendswood 21.
Even 21 points down, Humble did not give up. They went for it on 4th and 14 from the Friendswood 23 and got the first down. A few plays later, they put some points of their own on the board and with less than a minute to play in the third quarter, the score was Humble 7 - Friendswood 21.
It took another 8 minutes for someone to find the end zone again. This time it was a pass from Maetzold to Battle. With 3:59 left in the game, the score was Humble 7 - Friendswood 28.
Then, it looked like Humble was just coming into their stride. I'm not sure if our defense was letting up, or if their offense was playing better. They were driving to the end zone again when Wood came up with an interception near their 25 yard line and ran it back to our 35. A few plays later, with 1:27 left on the clock, Friendswood pushed it's way into the end zone to make the score Humble 7 - Friendswood 35. And then . . .
Once again, it's a good thing Zach Hardy knows how to tackle. This time, someone else might have caught the ball carrier. But still.
I think our defense thought the game was over. They showed little resistance as Humble marched down the field and scored another touch down of their own. It took the Wildcats 1:13 of playing time to score that touch down. Humble decided to go for the 2 point conversion, but were unsuccessful. Fitzpatrick ended up with the ball in the end zone, play over. The score was 13-35 Friendswood.
There were only 14 seconds left on the clock. So, that was the end of the game.
Once again, the refs were unable to call a fair game. We received 15 yard penalties for infractions that earned Humble a warning. At one point, the penalty was called against us when an Humble player tried to start a fight. There were a few calls concerning whether or not a play was a reception or an incomplete pass that were debatable. Those types of calls. I don't know why officials find it necessary to make unfair calls against Friendswood, but it seems to be happening way too often. And if you read my tweets and facebook posts during the game, you'll see that I comment on every questionable call, not just the ones that go against Friendswood. And you'll notice that there are alot more that go against Friendswood than for Friendswood.
I'm glad that our coaches have taught our team to not worry about the officials biases and go out and play the game. It shows that we have student athletes of character. And that we deserve each and everyone win we get.
This game was one of the best games I've seen our defense play. They held Humble to only 242 offensive yards. I hope they continue to improve I suspect that from here on out, each offense they see will be better than the last. Our offense this week was better than the week before, but still inconsistent. They have to maintain that level of greatness to get past the tougher defenses they will face.
The next stop on the road to the state championship game will be at Rice Stadium on Saturday, December 4, 2010. The Friendswood Mustangs will again play from the home side as we take on the Montgomery Bears in the Regional Finals (state quarter finals). Kick off will be at 7pm and the gates open at 6pm. Be there and wear blue!
Although I should not have been there (I woke up with fever that morning and later learned I have strep throat), I took some ibuprofen and went to enjoy a Texas tradition.
I had been told that this would be the best test for Friendswood so far. And that Humble ran the exact same offense that Friendswood uses. To me, this means that both defenses would know how to contain their own offense. It would all depend on which offense is better at the scheme and which defense is better at containing that offense.
Before the game even started, something went wrong. The GSL sponsor for Friendswood forgot to assign a group of representatives for this game. Some cheerleaders blue crew members took care of it when Humble's representatives began to walk across the field. Oops.
The game "started" with a delay of game penalty. Then, before the ball was kicked, the whistles blew again. Never did find out why. Friendswood won the toss and was waiting to watch the kick. It was anticlimactic everyone standing up, clapping, cheering, screaming, and . . . waiting. Once the ball was finally kicked, Kennemer caught it and passed it off to Johnson, who made it to Friendswood's 38 yard line before he was run out of bounds. Watching Friendswood's offense, it seemed that they were a bit excited. There was one false start penalty in the first drive, but they just looked like they had too much red bull before the game (a little unusual for the Mustangs).
For the first quarter both defenses were effective. There were several punts before someone finally found the end zone. Thankfully, it was Maetzold's pass to Stevens that put the first points on the board. There were only 2 minutes and 40 seconds left in the first quarter before the score became 0-7.
By the end of the first quarter, the score was still 0-7. At some point during that 1st quarter, Johnson left the game and did not return. He was never tended to on the field, so not many people realized he was injured. I later learned that he had a possible concussion and his fate for next week won't be known until the middle of the week.
It took 7 minutes 29 seconds into the second quarter for anyone to score again. Once again it was Friendswood. Friendswood could probably have scored earlier, but on 2nd and 10 and again on 3rd and 10 we tried some sort of weird "trick" play that looked like everyone was lining up for an onsides kick. The offensive line lined up on the west side of the field, leaving the center, quarterback and a receiver on the east side of the field. The offensive line just stood up and relaxed when the ball was hiked. Two receivers (one on each side of the field) ran, trying to get free. Both times, the receivers were in a position to make a catch (not necessarily an easy catch), but Maetzold overthrew his intended receivers. He seemed to have that problem off and on throughout the game. So, on 4th and 10, Friendswood punted it away.
I think the Mustangs may have been watching too much you tube.
Humble wasn't able to do anything either. The ball went back and forth for the rest of the half. At the end of the half, Humble attempted a 39 yard field goal, bur the kick was wide left. That made the score at half time 0-14 Friendswood.
Now about half time. I completely understand why bands do what they do during regular season half time shows. I understand that they are working to create a show that the judges will like during their competitions. And, believe me, I know how hard they work. That said, the play off half time shows are so much more fun. They get the crowd involved and the band looks like they're having fun.
So, with half time over, it was time for the football team to re-take the field. The third quarter continued much as the first two had gone. Lots of punting (each team did throw one interception during the first half). Once again, when the score changed, the points were added to Friendswood's score. Again, it was Maetzold's pass to Stevens that changed the score board. So, with 5:07 left in the 3rd quarter, the score was Humble 0 - Friendswood 21.
Even 21 points down, Humble did not give up. They went for it on 4th and 14 from the Friendswood 23 and got the first down. A few plays later, they put some points of their own on the board and with less than a minute to play in the third quarter, the score was Humble 7 - Friendswood 21.
It took another 8 minutes for someone to find the end zone again. This time it was a pass from Maetzold to Battle. With 3:59 left in the game, the score was Humble 7 - Friendswood 28.
Then, it looked like Humble was just coming into their stride. I'm not sure if our defense was letting up, or if their offense was playing better. They were driving to the end zone again when Wood came up with an interception near their 25 yard line and ran it back to our 35. A few plays later, with 1:27 left on the clock, Friendswood pushed it's way into the end zone to make the score Humble 7 - Friendswood 35. And then . . .
Once again, it's a good thing Zach Hardy knows how to tackle. This time, someone else might have caught the ball carrier. But still.
I think our defense thought the game was over. They showed little resistance as Humble marched down the field and scored another touch down of their own. It took the Wildcats 1:13 of playing time to score that touch down. Humble decided to go for the 2 point conversion, but were unsuccessful. Fitzpatrick ended up with the ball in the end zone, play over. The score was 13-35 Friendswood.
There were only 14 seconds left on the clock. So, that was the end of the game.
Once again, the refs were unable to call a fair game. We received 15 yard penalties for infractions that earned Humble a warning. At one point, the penalty was called against us when an Humble player tried to start a fight. There were a few calls concerning whether or not a play was a reception or an incomplete pass that were debatable. Those types of calls. I don't know why officials find it necessary to make unfair calls against Friendswood, but it seems to be happening way too often. And if you read my tweets and facebook posts during the game, you'll see that I comment on every questionable call, not just the ones that go against Friendswood. And you'll notice that there are alot more that go against Friendswood than for Friendswood.
I'm glad that our coaches have taught our team to not worry about the officials biases and go out and play the game. It shows that we have student athletes of character. And that we deserve each and everyone win we get.
This game was one of the best games I've seen our defense play. They held Humble to only 242 offensive yards. I hope they continue to improve I suspect that from here on out, each offense they see will be better than the last. Our offense this week was better than the week before, but still inconsistent. They have to maintain that level of greatness to get past the tougher defenses they will face.
The next stop on the road to the state championship game will be at Rice Stadium on Saturday, December 4, 2010. The Friendswood Mustangs will again play from the home side as we take on the Montgomery Bears in the Regional Finals (state quarter finals). Kick off will be at 7pm and the gates open at 6pm. Be there and wear blue!
Friday, November 19, 2010
Houston Wheatley Wildcats vs. Friendswood Mustangs - Nov. 19, 2010
What can I say about tonight's game. Well, the score wasn't a good reflection of the game; let's start there. As usual, the Mustangs played down to their opponent. I can see both good and bad in doing this - mostly bad. But, as I'm a "glass half full", "always look at the bright side" kind of person (usually) I had to come up with one good thing. The only good thing I can think of is that this makes the Mustangs difficult to scout. To scouts, we always look unimpressive. Even to the fans, we always look unimpressive. I'm sure that to college scouts, we look unimpressive. The players and team rarely show what they can really do. Is this by design? Or just a bad habit the team has fallen into.
So, for tonight's game, we didn't look all that great, but we got the job done. To start the game, Friendswood won the toss and elected to receive. With the very first play, we learned that Wheatley doesn't kick well. They had to re-kick the kick off. A Wildcat touched the ball at the 43 yard line, so that is where we began. You would think, after all the hype, that we would march right down to the end zone. Wrong. We made three plays and punted. Our offensive line provided no protection to Maetzold. The line of scrimmage never moved. Just out of curiosity, I wonder if Hardy or Dement could have hit a field goal from the 43 yard line?
Wheatley didn't do any better on their first possession. They punted on their first possession. We blocked the punt, but it still rolled a good ways.
Again, Friendswood had a bad possession. Someone on the offensive line consistently missed his assignment (I honestly don't know if it was the same person every time). Maetzold was almost always under pressure and the receivers were well covered. This remained a problem for the Mustangs for the entire game. The difference on this possession is that we were able to get out of it with points on the board. With 7:35 left in the first quarter, the score was Houston Wheatley 0 - Friendswood 3.
After recovering a fumble and moving back down the field, Friendswood scored again, but the point after attempt missed. With three minutes forty seven seconds left in the first quarter, the score was Houston Wheatley 0 - Friendswood 9.
Wheatley received the kick off, but wasn't ale to do anything with it - the ball went back to Friendswood on downs. And what did Friendswood do? March right down to the end zone, that's what. Now there's 1:17 left in the first quarter and the score is Houston Wheatley 0 - Friendswood 16.
Once again, (and this happened more than once during the game) it was a good thing for Friendswood that the place kickers know how to tackle (though Hardy is a better tackler than Dement). I don't know what happened, but for the last few games our kick off coverage has been terrible. And there were a few other mistakes, like players standing around watching the quarterback being sacked.
I think you've read enough to know how the game went. By half time, the score was Houston Wheatley 0 - Friendswood 23. During the first half we learned that Kennemer needs new shoes (or something, he's been tripping over his own feet for a couple of weeks). We learned that Hardy can still tackle well. We learned that Dement can tackle, but not as effectively as Hardy. We learned that Wheatley has good pass coverage and that Wheatley can get through our offensive line.
But for as much as we learned, we were also left with questions - why is Wheatley getting through our offensive line so easily? Why were they able to do this and still cover our receivers? And why is the place kicker having to tackle the ball carrier?
After half time, it took our defense a few plays to wake up, but after that they played well (when they got to play). Our defense made several tackles resulting in negative yards.
In the third quarter, Wheatley got their only points of the game. They attempted a 2 point conversion, but were unsuccessful. I later learned these were the first points a HISD school has scored against a 24-4A team (not an honor the team was looking for).
The 4th quarter brought Friendswood's back up and a few JV players onto the field. We got to see Gardner's speed, but we never saw his arm. Our players performed well. I'm glad they got some playing time, and I hope they are able to get some more.
The final score at the end of the night was Houston Wheatley Wildcats 6 - Friendswood Mustangs 50.
This was probably one of the most fairly called games this season. There were only 2 calls that I disagreed with, both being whether or not Wheatley had earned a first down.
And somone should probably mention to our offense that when playing a school where basketball is more important than football, it's a bad idea to throw long passes into coverage. The basketball players will leap up and snag the pass out of the air.
There is definitely some work for our team to do this week. The problem with bad snaps (both to Maetzold and to Garner) must be fixed. This is a must. The kick off return protection also must be fixed. And if Kennemer needs new shoes, then lets get him some; or help him figure out why he's tripping over his own two feet. Let's get our offensive line protecting Maetzold better and get our receivers open. On the defense side, the tackling is looking better for the starters, but the backups and JV players need to work on their fundamentals and techniques.
Time to do some research on Humble. They are our next opponent. Saturday, November 27, 2010 at 2:00pm at Thorne Stadium.
So, for tonight's game, we didn't look all that great, but we got the job done. To start the game, Friendswood won the toss and elected to receive. With the very first play, we learned that Wheatley doesn't kick well. They had to re-kick the kick off. A Wildcat touched the ball at the 43 yard line, so that is where we began. You would think, after all the hype, that we would march right down to the end zone. Wrong. We made three plays and punted. Our offensive line provided no protection to Maetzold. The line of scrimmage never moved. Just out of curiosity, I wonder if Hardy or Dement could have hit a field goal from the 43 yard line?
Wheatley didn't do any better on their first possession. They punted on their first possession. We blocked the punt, but it still rolled a good ways.
Again, Friendswood had a bad possession. Someone on the offensive line consistently missed his assignment (I honestly don't know if it was the same person every time). Maetzold was almost always under pressure and the receivers were well covered. This remained a problem for the Mustangs for the entire game. The difference on this possession is that we were able to get out of it with points on the board. With 7:35 left in the first quarter, the score was Houston Wheatley 0 - Friendswood 3.
After recovering a fumble and moving back down the field, Friendswood scored again, but the point after attempt missed. With three minutes forty seven seconds left in the first quarter, the score was Houston Wheatley 0 - Friendswood 9.
Wheatley received the kick off, but wasn't ale to do anything with it - the ball went back to Friendswood on downs. And what did Friendswood do? March right down to the end zone, that's what. Now there's 1:17 left in the first quarter and the score is Houston Wheatley 0 - Friendswood 16.
Once again, (and this happened more than once during the game) it was a good thing for Friendswood that the place kickers know how to tackle (though Hardy is a better tackler than Dement). I don't know what happened, but for the last few games our kick off coverage has been terrible. And there were a few other mistakes, like players standing around watching the quarterback being sacked.
I think you've read enough to know how the game went. By half time, the score was Houston Wheatley 0 - Friendswood 23. During the first half we learned that Kennemer needs new shoes (or something, he's been tripping over his own feet for a couple of weeks). We learned that Hardy can still tackle well. We learned that Dement can tackle, but not as effectively as Hardy. We learned that Wheatley has good pass coverage and that Wheatley can get through our offensive line.
But for as much as we learned, we were also left with questions - why is Wheatley getting through our offensive line so easily? Why were they able to do this and still cover our receivers? And why is the place kicker having to tackle the ball carrier?
After half time, it took our defense a few plays to wake up, but after that they played well (when they got to play). Our defense made several tackles resulting in negative yards.
In the third quarter, Wheatley got their only points of the game. They attempted a 2 point conversion, but were unsuccessful. I later learned these were the first points a HISD school has scored against a 24-4A team (not an honor the team was looking for).
The 4th quarter brought Friendswood's back up and a few JV players onto the field. We got to see Gardner's speed, but we never saw his arm. Our players performed well. I'm glad they got some playing time, and I hope they are able to get some more.
The final score at the end of the night was Houston Wheatley Wildcats 6 - Friendswood Mustangs 50.
This was probably one of the most fairly called games this season. There were only 2 calls that I disagreed with, both being whether or not Wheatley had earned a first down.
And somone should probably mention to our offense that when playing a school where basketball is more important than football, it's a bad idea to throw long passes into coverage. The basketball players will leap up and snag the pass out of the air.
There is definitely some work for our team to do this week. The problem with bad snaps (both to Maetzold and to Garner) must be fixed. This is a must. The kick off return protection also must be fixed. And if Kennemer needs new shoes, then lets get him some; or help him figure out why he's tripping over his own two feet. Let's get our offensive line protecting Maetzold better and get our receivers open. On the defense side, the tackling is looking better for the starters, but the backups and JV players need to work on their fundamentals and techniques.
Time to do some research on Humble. They are our next opponent. Saturday, November 27, 2010 at 2:00pm at Thorne Stadium.
Tuesday, November 16, 2010
Friendswood Mustangs vs. Richmond Foster Falcons - play offs round 1 Nov. 11, 2010
It was a move designed to give the winners a chance to scout their competition. On Thursday, November 11, 2010, both teams traveled to Angleton High School to complete in the bi-district championship. Foster played on the home side of the stadium and Friendswood on the visitors side. I don't know how it is determined which team will take which side, but there is something that should be considered: the size of the teams traveling fan base. Had that been a Friday night game, we could have easily overfilled the stands. The home side of the stands however were less than 60% full, maybe less than 50%.
Unfortunately, I had to miss the kick off, but I was in the stands about 10 minutes afterward. Which was a good thing, since the Mustangs put the first points on the board at 7:12pm. 2:47 minutes of playing time had elapsed and people began to think the Mustangs were on their way to a BBB (Big Butt Beating). Unfortunately, all those people were wrong.
The defense took to the field for the first time, and looked really good. Unfortunately, they did leave a few holes from time to time. And, unfortunatley, the Falcons saw those holes. In reality, the offense struggled more than the defense. Yes, you read that right. Our offense struggled more than our defense. Johnson "fumbled" the ball twice. I also learned that he can juggle. There was a third time that he "fumbled" the ball, but it was ruled an incomplete pass.
That combined with failed 4th down conversions three times (highly unusual for the Mustangs) and the failed punt fake, and the incomplete passes, showed the Mustangs offense to be having a bad night (unprepared? big heads?) Even after Bergeson's awesome interception, the Mustangs weren't able to get to the endzone.
It was a very close call for Friendswood. I hope that the team realizes that anyone can beat them, if they don't practice hard all week and they don't show up to play for the whole game.
This coming Friday, November 19, 2010, the Friendswood Mustangs will take on the Houston Wheatley Wildcats at Galena Park ISD Stadium at 7pm. I hope to see the Mustangs show everyone that we have what it takes to get to Dallas in December.
Unfortunately, I had to miss the kick off, but I was in the stands about 10 minutes afterward. Which was a good thing, since the Mustangs put the first points on the board at 7:12pm. 2:47 minutes of playing time had elapsed and people began to think the Mustangs were on their way to a BBB (Big Butt Beating). Unfortunately, all those people were wrong.
The defense took to the field for the first time, and looked really good. Unfortunately, they did leave a few holes from time to time. And, unfortunatley, the Falcons saw those holes. In reality, the offense struggled more than the defense. Yes, you read that right. Our offense struggled more than our defense. Johnson "fumbled" the ball twice. I also learned that he can juggle. There was a third time that he "fumbled" the ball, but it was ruled an incomplete pass.
That combined with failed 4th down conversions three times (highly unusual for the Mustangs) and the failed punt fake, and the incomplete passes, showed the Mustangs offense to be having a bad night (unprepared? big heads?) Even after Bergeson's awesome interception, the Mustangs weren't able to get to the endzone.
It was a very close call for Friendswood. I hope that the team realizes that anyone can beat them, if they don't practice hard all week and they don't show up to play for the whole game.
This coming Friday, November 19, 2010, the Friendswood Mustangs will take on the Houston Wheatley Wildcats at Galena Park ISD Stadium at 7pm. I hope to see the Mustangs show everyone that we have what it takes to get to Dallas in December.
Saturday, November 6, 2010
Friendswood host Texas City and comcast on Thursday night
On Thursday, November 4, 2010, a first happened at Henry Winston Stadium in Friendswood, TX. There was a Thursday night varsity football game. The game was moved to Thursday night to accomodate Comcast, who wanted to show the game live. The home side of the stadium was full, as usual. I don't know if other families had to do as much juggling as I did. Being a Thursday game, I had to ask for help trying to be in two places at once (I hate asking for help). Being Thursday night, my kids had other activities (one of which had to be skipped and one couldn't be skipped.) And being Patriotic Half Time, that meant my older daughter was involved with the game activitites.
On a side note, for those who have never seen Friendswood's patriotic half time, you should check it out on you tube. It involves the marching band, Wranglerettes, FHS choir, FJH band and FJH choir.
This game was special for me, not only because my daughter sang at half time, but also because my dad and mom finally took me up on my invitations for them to come to a football game. Of course, my mom got there just before half time because she took my younger daughter to her activity, and they both left after half time. But still, it was fun. I really enjoyed talking football during the first half with my dad.
Now, for the game. Due to this being a Thursday game, I hadn't seen many predictions before the game. And since I ususally do my studying on Friday, I hadn't had time to look at everything. My only prediction was that Friendswood would win.
At kick off time, it was a little chilly, but thankfully the wind had died down. The wind would not be the factor it was in the Santa Fe game. Of course, the temperature dropped as the game continued and probably the only people who weren't chilly were the ones in uniforms or in the press box. Now, I know that many people are asking, what color uniforms were the Mustangs wearing. They wore the same uniforms as homecoming - blue jerseys and black pants.
Friendswood won the toss and elected to receive. I think luck is with the Mustangs. I'd have to double check, but I think the only time we didn't win the toss this year was the game against Santa Fe.
This game got off to a great start, for Friendswood. 1 minute 35 seconds into the game and after 4 plays, Friendswood drove 70 yards to the end zone.
The Mustang defense seemed to erased the loss to Santa Fe from their mouthes as well. They sacked the Texas City quarter back during Texas City's first posession and held them to less than 10 yards. Friendswood got the ball back, and took it back to the end zone. So, with 7:33 left in the first quarter, the score was Texas City - Friendswood 14.
After the point after kick, Friendswood kicked the ball to Texas City, who still couldn't do anything with it. The problem was that once Friendswood got the ball again, they didn't have as much luck as they had had. Instead of ending the drive with a touch down, the Mustang's drive ended when Tyler Dement kicked a (36 yard?) field goal. So, with 3:24 left in the 1st quarter, the score was Texas City 0 - Friendswood 17. The play before the kick had been a beautiful pass from Maetzold to Johnson. It was right on targer, but the Texas City defenders saw what was coming and nearly intercepted the ball. It could've been a touch down, but oh well.
And then, . . . something happened. Not sure what, but our defense seemed to decide it was nap time.
The first quarter ended with a score of 0-17, but the buzzer didn't seem to wake up our defense. 48 seconds after that buzzer, Texas City found the end zone for the first time that evening. With 11:12 left in the half, the score was Texas City 7 - Friendswood 17.
Shortly after that, there was a fight on the field. That's the first fight I've seen this year (but I did miss the first half of the La Marque game). Instead of saying the player who through the punch was thrown from the game, the ref said the player "disqualified himself from the game for throwing a punch." That was #7 (D'Onti Foreman) from Texas City.
It only took 4:24 of playing time for Friendswood's offense to answer. After a false start on 4th and 2 from the 35, Maetzold got the ball to Johnson, who ran into the endzone. So with, 6:48 left in the half. The score was Texas City 7 - Friendswood 24.
So, now that our defense has had a little time off the field, do you think they woke up? If you said "yes", you'd be wrong. First, Friendswood was called for unsportsmanlike conduct (Mustangs, I know the coaches taught you better than that.). Then, they got bounced around like pinballs while Texas City ran 54 yards to the end zone. Now, there's just under six minutes left before half time, and the score was Texas City 14 - Friendswood 24.
Friendswood tried to march back down the field, but after penalties for false start and holding, Friendswood was looking at 1st and 20. Maetzold handed off to Johnson, who ran one whole yard. But anyone who knows Friendswood knows they didn't give up, Friendswood marched down the field, and should have had a touch down, but Texas City benefited from the ref who looked away during the pass interference. Our receiver was tripped, and therefore didn't make the catch. If there's one thing that seriously irritates me during footall games, it's officials who don't call a fair game.
Friendswood tried again, but this time, the ball went over on downs. Texas City got the ball back. But, they didn't have the ball for long. Jordon Wood intercepted the ball on our 34 yard line. This fired up the Mustangs (as if they weren't already hyped). The next play, Maetzold passed to Bolton, who ran to Texas City's 37 yard line. Unfortunately the Mustangs just couldn't get past the 14 yard line. Instead, Tyler Dement was called on again to kick a field goal. The kick was good, and with 37 seconds left in the half, the score was Texas City 14 - Friendswood 27.
Texas City was able to take posession one more time. Our defense still looked like they were taking a nap, but were able to hold Texas City enough to prevent them for scoring again.
I was really surprised by the size of Texas City's band. I didn't count, but the drill team may have been larger than the band. The Stingeree band played "The Horse" in a "TC" formation, then marched off the field to their fight song (which, by the way, is Dickinson's school song, and Santa Fe's fight song). Then it was time for Friendswood's Annual Patriotic Half Time Show.
First, the Wranglerette's danced to a medely of patriotic tunes. Afterward, the FHS and FJH choir joined the band in a patriotic number. One of the best parts of the show was the honoring of everyone who has ever served in our military - each branch: Navy, Coast Guard, Air Force, Army, Marines (always save the best for last.) was honored with part of their song. This year, my husband was unable to be there to be honored, but my dad was there.
The second half started out with all the fans screaming. The Mustangs fans were screaming for someone to tackle the runner, while the Stingeree fans were screaming for him to keep going. It's a good thing for Friendswood that Zach Hardy can kick as well as tackle. Zach was the only person between Texas City and opening the half with a touch down. Now we know that our special teams group is still enjoying their mid game nap, what about the rest of the defense? As soon as we saw them on the field, we knew the answer - Yes, they were. It took Texas City less than four minutes of playing time to put more points on the score board. With 8:15 left in the 3rd quarter, the score was Texas City 21 - Friendswood 27 (only a 6 point game). Would Friendswood add to their total when they got the ball back?
The answer - no. We had to punt. Thankfully, Texas City didn't get far before we intercepted the ball. I wish I had seen who caught it. Before we made it to midfield - there were late flags after a play. The refs said there was dead ball personal foul against Friendswood. I still don't know what we did. On the next play, the only injury of the game occured. A Texas City player was carried off the field. I never saw his number or heard what happened.
The quarter ended before anyone else added to the numbers on the score board: Texas City 21 - Friendswood 28.
Texas City was the next team to score, and for the first time that night, Texas City held the lead. With 11:05 left in the game, the score was Texas City 28 - Friendswood 27.
Five minutes later, Friendswood scored again. Friendswood decided to go with a 2 point conversion, and it worked. With 6:12 on the clock the score was Texas City 28 - Friendswood 35. Meaning, that Texas City would need more than a touch down to win the game.
Finally, our defense decided to play football again. They were able to hold Texas City and force a punt.
And for all intensive purposes, that was the all game. There were still a few plays, but only Friendswood had more chances to score.
So, with that win, Friendswood has done all it can do (expect beat Santa Fe) to win the outright district title. We would have to wait until after Friday night's games to learn their official fate on the title, as well as who the next opponent would be. We now know that Friendswood (9-1, 5-1) is the district 24-4A Champion! We also know that we will play Richmond Foster Thursday (November 11, 2010, Veteran's Day) in Angleton. I hope that our team used the Friday night (11-5-10) off to rest and scout the teams they expect to encounter in the play offs.
I'm glad that the first play off game with be on a Thursday, but purely for person reasons. My oldest daughter and I are heading to Dallas/Fort Worth for the weekend. Now we don't have to chose between going to the game and arriving in the metroplex in the daylight.
I hope Friendswood wins, and is able to do more scouting next weekend.
On a side note, for those who have never seen Friendswood's patriotic half time, you should check it out on you tube. It involves the marching band, Wranglerettes, FHS choir, FJH band and FJH choir.
This game was special for me, not only because my daughter sang at half time, but also because my dad and mom finally took me up on my invitations for them to come to a football game. Of course, my mom got there just before half time because she took my younger daughter to her activity, and they both left after half time. But still, it was fun. I really enjoyed talking football during the first half with my dad.
Now, for the game. Due to this being a Thursday game, I hadn't seen many predictions before the game. And since I ususally do my studying on Friday, I hadn't had time to look at everything. My only prediction was that Friendswood would win.
At kick off time, it was a little chilly, but thankfully the wind had died down. The wind would not be the factor it was in the Santa Fe game. Of course, the temperature dropped as the game continued and probably the only people who weren't chilly were the ones in uniforms or in the press box. Now, I know that many people are asking, what color uniforms were the Mustangs wearing. They wore the same uniforms as homecoming - blue jerseys and black pants.
Friendswood won the toss and elected to receive. I think luck is with the Mustangs. I'd have to double check, but I think the only time we didn't win the toss this year was the game against Santa Fe.
This game got off to a great start, for Friendswood. 1 minute 35 seconds into the game and after 4 plays, Friendswood drove 70 yards to the end zone.
The Mustang defense seemed to erased the loss to Santa Fe from their mouthes as well. They sacked the Texas City quarter back during Texas City's first posession and held them to less than 10 yards. Friendswood got the ball back, and took it back to the end zone. So, with 7:33 left in the first quarter, the score was Texas City - Friendswood 14.
After the point after kick, Friendswood kicked the ball to Texas City, who still couldn't do anything with it. The problem was that once Friendswood got the ball again, they didn't have as much luck as they had had. Instead of ending the drive with a touch down, the Mustang's drive ended when Tyler Dement kicked a (36 yard?) field goal. So, with 3:24 left in the 1st quarter, the score was Texas City 0 - Friendswood 17. The play before the kick had been a beautiful pass from Maetzold to Johnson. It was right on targer, but the Texas City defenders saw what was coming and nearly intercepted the ball. It could've been a touch down, but oh well.
And then, . . . something happened. Not sure what, but our defense seemed to decide it was nap time.
The first quarter ended with a score of 0-17, but the buzzer didn't seem to wake up our defense. 48 seconds after that buzzer, Texas City found the end zone for the first time that evening. With 11:12 left in the half, the score was Texas City 7 - Friendswood 17.
Shortly after that, there was a fight on the field. That's the first fight I've seen this year (but I did miss the first half of the La Marque game). Instead of saying the player who through the punch was thrown from the game, the ref said the player "disqualified himself from the game for throwing a punch." That was #7 (D'Onti Foreman) from Texas City.
It only took 4:24 of playing time for Friendswood's offense to answer. After a false start on 4th and 2 from the 35, Maetzold got the ball to Johnson, who ran into the endzone. So with, 6:48 left in the half. The score was Texas City 7 - Friendswood 24.
So, now that our defense has had a little time off the field, do you think they woke up? If you said "yes", you'd be wrong. First, Friendswood was called for unsportsmanlike conduct (Mustangs, I know the coaches taught you better than that.). Then, they got bounced around like pinballs while Texas City ran 54 yards to the end zone. Now, there's just under six minutes left before half time, and the score was Texas City 14 - Friendswood 24.
Friendswood tried to march back down the field, but after penalties for false start and holding, Friendswood was looking at 1st and 20. Maetzold handed off to Johnson, who ran one whole yard. But anyone who knows Friendswood knows they didn't give up, Friendswood marched down the field, and should have had a touch down, but Texas City benefited from the ref who looked away during the pass interference. Our receiver was tripped, and therefore didn't make the catch. If there's one thing that seriously irritates me during footall games, it's officials who don't call a fair game.
Friendswood tried again, but this time, the ball went over on downs. Texas City got the ball back. But, they didn't have the ball for long. Jordon Wood intercepted the ball on our 34 yard line. This fired up the Mustangs (as if they weren't already hyped). The next play, Maetzold passed to Bolton, who ran to Texas City's 37 yard line. Unfortunately the Mustangs just couldn't get past the 14 yard line. Instead, Tyler Dement was called on again to kick a field goal. The kick was good, and with 37 seconds left in the half, the score was Texas City 14 - Friendswood 27.
Texas City was able to take posession one more time. Our defense still looked like they were taking a nap, but were able to hold Texas City enough to prevent them for scoring again.
I was really surprised by the size of Texas City's band. I didn't count, but the drill team may have been larger than the band. The Stingeree band played "The Horse" in a "TC" formation, then marched off the field to their fight song (which, by the way, is Dickinson's school song, and Santa Fe's fight song). Then it was time for Friendswood's Annual Patriotic Half Time Show.
First, the Wranglerette's danced to a medely of patriotic tunes. Afterward, the FHS and FJH choir joined the band in a patriotic number. One of the best parts of the show was the honoring of everyone who has ever served in our military - each branch: Navy, Coast Guard, Air Force, Army, Marines (always save the best for last.) was honored with part of their song. This year, my husband was unable to be there to be honored, but my dad was there.
The second half started out with all the fans screaming. The Mustangs fans were screaming for someone to tackle the runner, while the Stingeree fans were screaming for him to keep going. It's a good thing for Friendswood that Zach Hardy can kick as well as tackle. Zach was the only person between Texas City and opening the half with a touch down. Now we know that our special teams group is still enjoying their mid game nap, what about the rest of the defense? As soon as we saw them on the field, we knew the answer - Yes, they were. It took Texas City less than four minutes of playing time to put more points on the score board. With 8:15 left in the 3rd quarter, the score was Texas City 21 - Friendswood 27 (only a 6 point game). Would Friendswood add to their total when they got the ball back?
The answer - no. We had to punt. Thankfully, Texas City didn't get far before we intercepted the ball. I wish I had seen who caught it. Before we made it to midfield - there were late flags after a play. The refs said there was dead ball personal foul against Friendswood. I still don't know what we did. On the next play, the only injury of the game occured. A Texas City player was carried off the field. I never saw his number or heard what happened.
The quarter ended before anyone else added to the numbers on the score board: Texas City 21 - Friendswood 28.
Texas City was the next team to score, and for the first time that night, Texas City held the lead. With 11:05 left in the game, the score was Texas City 28 - Friendswood 27.
Five minutes later, Friendswood scored again. Friendswood decided to go with a 2 point conversion, and it worked. With 6:12 on the clock the score was Texas City 28 - Friendswood 35. Meaning, that Texas City would need more than a touch down to win the game.
Finally, our defense decided to play football again. They were able to hold Texas City and force a punt.
And for all intensive purposes, that was the all game. There were still a few plays, but only Friendswood had more chances to score.
So, with that win, Friendswood has done all it can do (expect beat Santa Fe) to win the outright district title. We would have to wait until after Friday night's games to learn their official fate on the title, as well as who the next opponent would be. We now know that Friendswood (9-1, 5-1) is the district 24-4A Champion! We also know that we will play Richmond Foster Thursday (November 11, 2010, Veteran's Day) in Angleton. I hope that our team used the Friday night (11-5-10) off to rest and scout the teams they expect to encounter in the play offs.
I'm glad that the first play off game with be on a Thursday, but purely for person reasons. My oldest daughter and I are heading to Dallas/Fort Worth for the weekend. Now we don't have to chose between going to the game and arriving in the metroplex in the daylight.
I hope Friendswood wins, and is able to do more scouting next weekend.
Monday, October 25, 2010
Friendswood Mustangs play Santa Fe Indians - What happened?
Friday, October 22, 2010, the Friendswood Mustangs traveled to Santa Fe to play the Indians. I usually like to get to the stadium with enough time to get a good seat and visit the concession stand before the pre-game activities begin. This week, however, due to my daughter's Friday evening dance rehearsal, I didn't get to the stadium until 20 minutes before kick off. We had no trouble finding a place to park However, we ran into a problem when we entered the stadium. The visitor's side of the stadium was already full! Thankfully, my new friend saw my daughters and me wandering the stadium and called me up to her. We squeezed in, but there was only enough room for 2 of us. We put stadium cushions on the top step for my youngest daughter - halfway through the first quarter, she decided it would be more comfortable to stand at the fence than to sit on the steps. We ended up sitting in the student section. When I was in high school, I was in the band, so this was a new experience for me.
This game was an series of coulda, shoulda, woulda's. Friendswood won the toss and elected to receive. I was expecting Friendwood's usual high power, high scoring offense. But that's not what I saw. Friendswood struggled to march down the field and couldn't convert on 4th down. Santa Fe got the ball on downs at the 26 yard line. Thankfully, the Indians couldn't move the ball either. The Indians punt and Matt Kennemer is able to run the ball back to the line of scrimmage. So, here we go, right? Wrong.
Here Friendswood earns the first, but not the last, penalty of the game. Santa Fe earned their first penalty during Friendswood's first drive. This drive confirmed that all was not right for the Friendswood Mustangs. For the second time, Friendswood QB Pete Maetzold threw a pass that went no where. I never did find out what happened. Did he drop the pass? Fingers slip?
Possession continued to trade back and forth for the rest of the 1st quarter. The only good thing for Friendswood was Santa Fe's missed field goal attempt. The kick was short and wide right. So, the score at the end of the 1st quarter was 0-0. And for those wondering, Friendswood did have the white pants on again this week.
To start the second quarter, Pete Maetzold threw his first, but not his last, interception of the game. So, Santa Fe gets the ball again, but can't do anything with it. Friendswood takes over on downs at the 30.
Friendswood tried a few running plays that didn't work (just a note, if we try the same play 5 times, and it doesn't work 5 times, let's try something else). Finally, it looks like Friendswood may gets the first points on the score board. Jonathon Johnson was in the end zone and wide open. Maetzold's pass was right on. But, one of the Santa Fe defenders saw the pass and almost intercepted it at the 1 yard line. Thankfully, he wasn't able to hold onto the ball. After penalties, Friendswood is unable to convert on 4th down and loses possession of the ball. The score remains tied at 0.
Again, the Indians aren't able to do anything with the ball. They punt and Friendswood ends up with possession at the 34 yard line. And what does Friendswood do? Throw and interception. That's right, Maetzold's second interception of the night.
After trading possessions, with 1:30 left in the half, the score changes to 7-0. People who've been following district 24-4A this season would expect the team who scored to be Friendswood. But they would be wrong. It was Santa Fe 7 - Friendswood 0. Many in the stands were wondering what was wrong with our team. Were they sick? Were they over confident after their win against Manvel? Whatever it was, that was not the Mustangs that we had been watching all season.
After a few plays, the clock said :00 and everyone thought the half was over. But after some discussion on the field, 2 seconds were added to the clock. Everyone hoped Friendswood would tie the game before the half. But, . . . Maetzold threw his third interception of the game.
And that was the end of the first half. Santa Fe tackled well during the first half, mostly by tripping or grabbing the feet of the offense. And Friendswood wasn't passing well. Not a good combination for Friendswood fans. I wonder what was said in the locker room. I would hope some soul searching was going on, as well as some honest discussion about all the things what were going wrong.
Santa Fe received the kick off by Tyler Dement to start the second half. They looked like they came out of the locker room with renewed confidence. The first two plays yielded two first downs. Santa Fe seems to be giving the ball to Joseph Walton on every play. And as long as Friendswood couldn't stop him, they had no reason to change strategies. (Where Friendswood on the other hand was getting the ball to Johnson on every play and it wasn't working - time to change strategies. What's that definition on insanity again?)
Santa Fe's offense was on the field for the first 5 minutes 25 seconds of the second half. And how do we capitalize when we finally get the ball? We go three and out.
And how does Santa Fe thank us for getting the all back to them so quickly? A 79 yard touch down. So, with 4:49 left in the 3rd quarter, the score is Friendswood 0 - Santa Fe 14.
Possession was traded a few more times, but finally, with 3:30 left in the 3rd quarter, Friendswood gets on the score board! Friendswood 7 - Santa Fe 14.
Possession was traded again, more fouls called. Friendswood players had more than one opportunity to be heroes. On one big pass, Keith Canada had an opportunity to be a big hero with a catch. Instead, he is only able to prevent an interception. It could have been much worse. Good save Canada. And with 4:36 left in the game, Friendswood scores again. And the point after attempt is off. But, Zach Hardy is tackled after the kick. So, with a roughing the kicker penalty, Zach gets a second chance. The score is now tied at 14. All the Friendswood fans are saying, the game ain't over yet. And many are asking who are these guys and where are our Mustangs?
And, thanks to some missed tackles, Santa Fe gets back into the end zone 2 minutes 22 seconds later. With the score 21-14, Friendswood fans began to leave. Not me, we are dedicated fans, we stayed 'til the end.
With Friendswood in possession, we thought we had a real chance. The team seemed to be in control. TJ Scott caught a ball and it looked like he was in the end zone. However, he was out of bounds. Try again. This time, instead of the touchdown we were expecting, Friendswood fumbled the ball. So, with 55 seconds left in the game, Santa Fe took over possession, and even more Friendswood fans began to leave. The game appeared to be over. But appearances can be deceiving. 23 seconds later, Friendswood regained possession of the ball. And with 8 seconds left in the game, a double reverse from Maetzold to Johnson to Maetzold works and ends with Pete in the end zone!! Friendswood 20 - Santa Fe 21. The PAT is ruled no good. I still don't know what was wrong with the kick, but the officials ruled it no good. I didn't have the best seat in the house, but from where I was sitting, it looked good. Apparently Matt Kennemer thought the kick was good, too. He argued with the official for quite a while. Another team mate (who's number I didn't get) came over and got Kennemer to walk away. After he walked away, another ref threw a flag for Kennemer's arguing. A few minutes later, the ref, who didn't have a flag anymore, threw his that - though I'm not sure exactly why.
So, with 30 yards worth of penalties, and 8 seconds left on the clock and Santa Fe in possession of the ball.
The game ended with a score of 20-21, Santa Fe. And the Mustangs perfect season ended with that final buzzer. Unlike many Friendswood players and fans, I am not blaming the refs. I think the refs did a poor job of officiating the game, but I think the officials were unbiased in their poor calls. Both teams suffered for the refs mistakes. Was the last kick good? Was it wide right? Better question - why in the world did it come down to that. Friendswood, a team who is known for playing down to their opponents' level, did not perform well Friday night. There are no two ways about it. What happened? I've never seen Pete Maetzold throw three interceptions in one half. And I've never seen him throw a pass that went less than 5 yards and hit the dirt before being touched. And he didn't do it just once, but twice. I've never seen the definition of insanity played out before my eyes by the Mustangs. Why did we lose to Santa Fe? Why did Friendswood (8-0, 4-0 before the game) lose their perfect season to Santa Fe (4-3, 0-3 before the game)? We should not have struggled against this team. If we had to lose our perfect season, it should have been against Texas City, Manvel or Dawson. Not Santa Fe.
I hope our Mustangs use this bye week to regroup, refocus and rework fundamentals. And, if they are sick, I hope they are able to get healthy. And to the team - remember we have great back ups for our starters. If you are sick, don't be afraid to say so and let your back up get some playing time. Our next game will be the first ever Thursday night game played in Henry Winston Stadium. It will feature the patriotic halftime show with the Wranglerettes, FHS band and choirs and FJH band and choirs. November 4, 2010 against Texas City. I hope we get to see the real Mustangs that night. And, I hope none of the junior high or high school teachers schedule a test for that Friday.
I was able to talk to one of the players Saturday. He mentioned that they would be in the playoffs and it's all good. I reminded him that the goal is not to get to the play offs. The goal is to get through the play offs and play in Dallas in December for the State title. His response, "Yes ma'am. We want to play for 6 weeks after the end of the regular season." The fans want that too.
This game was an series of coulda, shoulda, woulda's. Friendswood won the toss and elected to receive. I was expecting Friendwood's usual high power, high scoring offense. But that's not what I saw. Friendswood struggled to march down the field and couldn't convert on 4th down. Santa Fe got the ball on downs at the 26 yard line. Thankfully, the Indians couldn't move the ball either. The Indians punt and Matt Kennemer is able to run the ball back to the line of scrimmage. So, here we go, right? Wrong.
Here Friendswood earns the first, but not the last, penalty of the game. Santa Fe earned their first penalty during Friendswood's first drive. This drive confirmed that all was not right for the Friendswood Mustangs. For the second time, Friendswood QB Pete Maetzold threw a pass that went no where. I never did find out what happened. Did he drop the pass? Fingers slip?
Possession continued to trade back and forth for the rest of the 1st quarter. The only good thing for Friendswood was Santa Fe's missed field goal attempt. The kick was short and wide right. So, the score at the end of the 1st quarter was 0-0. And for those wondering, Friendswood did have the white pants on again this week.
To start the second quarter, Pete Maetzold threw his first, but not his last, interception of the game. So, Santa Fe gets the ball again, but can't do anything with it. Friendswood takes over on downs at the 30.
Friendswood tried a few running plays that didn't work (just a note, if we try the same play 5 times, and it doesn't work 5 times, let's try something else). Finally, it looks like Friendswood may gets the first points on the score board. Jonathon Johnson was in the end zone and wide open. Maetzold's pass was right on. But, one of the Santa Fe defenders saw the pass and almost intercepted it at the 1 yard line. Thankfully, he wasn't able to hold onto the ball. After penalties, Friendswood is unable to convert on 4th down and loses possession of the ball. The score remains tied at 0.
Again, the Indians aren't able to do anything with the ball. They punt and Friendswood ends up with possession at the 34 yard line. And what does Friendswood do? Throw and interception. That's right, Maetzold's second interception of the night.
After trading possessions, with 1:30 left in the half, the score changes to 7-0. People who've been following district 24-4A this season would expect the team who scored to be Friendswood. But they would be wrong. It was Santa Fe 7 - Friendswood 0. Many in the stands were wondering what was wrong with our team. Were they sick? Were they over confident after their win against Manvel? Whatever it was, that was not the Mustangs that we had been watching all season.
After a few plays, the clock said :00 and everyone thought the half was over. But after some discussion on the field, 2 seconds were added to the clock. Everyone hoped Friendswood would tie the game before the half. But, . . . Maetzold threw his third interception of the game.
And that was the end of the first half. Santa Fe tackled well during the first half, mostly by tripping or grabbing the feet of the offense. And Friendswood wasn't passing well. Not a good combination for Friendswood fans. I wonder what was said in the locker room. I would hope some soul searching was going on, as well as some honest discussion about all the things what were going wrong.
Santa Fe received the kick off by Tyler Dement to start the second half. They looked like they came out of the locker room with renewed confidence. The first two plays yielded two first downs. Santa Fe seems to be giving the ball to Joseph Walton on every play. And as long as Friendswood couldn't stop him, they had no reason to change strategies. (Where Friendswood on the other hand was getting the ball to Johnson on every play and it wasn't working - time to change strategies. What's that definition on insanity again?)
Santa Fe's offense was on the field for the first 5 minutes 25 seconds of the second half. And how do we capitalize when we finally get the ball? We go three and out.
And how does Santa Fe thank us for getting the all back to them so quickly? A 79 yard touch down. So, with 4:49 left in the 3rd quarter, the score is Friendswood 0 - Santa Fe 14.
Possession was traded a few more times, but finally, with 3:30 left in the 3rd quarter, Friendswood gets on the score board! Friendswood 7 - Santa Fe 14.
Possession was traded again, more fouls called. Friendswood players had more than one opportunity to be heroes. On one big pass, Keith Canada had an opportunity to be a big hero with a catch. Instead, he is only able to prevent an interception. It could have been much worse. Good save Canada. And with 4:36 left in the game, Friendswood scores again. And the point after attempt is off. But, Zach Hardy is tackled after the kick. So, with a roughing the kicker penalty, Zach gets a second chance. The score is now tied at 14. All the Friendswood fans are saying, the game ain't over yet. And many are asking who are these guys and where are our Mustangs?
And, thanks to some missed tackles, Santa Fe gets back into the end zone 2 minutes 22 seconds later. With the score 21-14, Friendswood fans began to leave. Not me, we are dedicated fans, we stayed 'til the end.
With Friendswood in possession, we thought we had a real chance. The team seemed to be in control. TJ Scott caught a ball and it looked like he was in the end zone. However, he was out of bounds. Try again. This time, instead of the touchdown we were expecting, Friendswood fumbled the ball. So, with 55 seconds left in the game, Santa Fe took over possession, and even more Friendswood fans began to leave. The game appeared to be over. But appearances can be deceiving. 23 seconds later, Friendswood regained possession of the ball. And with 8 seconds left in the game, a double reverse from Maetzold to Johnson to Maetzold works and ends with Pete in the end zone!! Friendswood 20 - Santa Fe 21. The PAT is ruled no good. I still don't know what was wrong with the kick, but the officials ruled it no good. I didn't have the best seat in the house, but from where I was sitting, it looked good. Apparently Matt Kennemer thought the kick was good, too. He argued with the official for quite a while. Another team mate (who's number I didn't get) came over and got Kennemer to walk away. After he walked away, another ref threw a flag for Kennemer's arguing. A few minutes later, the ref, who didn't have a flag anymore, threw his that - though I'm not sure exactly why.
So, with 30 yards worth of penalties, and 8 seconds left on the clock and Santa Fe in possession of the ball.
The game ended with a score of 20-21, Santa Fe. And the Mustangs perfect season ended with that final buzzer. Unlike many Friendswood players and fans, I am not blaming the refs. I think the refs did a poor job of officiating the game, but I think the officials were unbiased in their poor calls. Both teams suffered for the refs mistakes. Was the last kick good? Was it wide right? Better question - why in the world did it come down to that. Friendswood, a team who is known for playing down to their opponents' level, did not perform well Friday night. There are no two ways about it. What happened? I've never seen Pete Maetzold throw three interceptions in one half. And I've never seen him throw a pass that went less than 5 yards and hit the dirt before being touched. And he didn't do it just once, but twice. I've never seen the definition of insanity played out before my eyes by the Mustangs. Why did we lose to Santa Fe? Why did Friendswood (8-0, 4-0 before the game) lose their perfect season to Santa Fe (4-3, 0-3 before the game)? We should not have struggled against this team. If we had to lose our perfect season, it should have been against Texas City, Manvel or Dawson. Not Santa Fe.
I hope our Mustangs use this bye week to regroup, refocus and rework fundamentals. And, if they are sick, I hope they are able to get healthy. And to the team - remember we have great back ups for our starters. If you are sick, don't be afraid to say so and let your back up get some playing time. Our next game will be the first ever Thursday night game played in Henry Winston Stadium. It will feature the patriotic halftime show with the Wranglerettes, FHS band and choirs and FJH band and choirs. November 4, 2010 against Texas City. I hope we get to see the real Mustangs that night. And, I hope none of the junior high or high school teachers schedule a test for that Friday.
I was able to talk to one of the players Saturday. He mentioned that they would be in the playoffs and it's all good. I reminded him that the goal is not to get to the play offs. The goal is to get through the play offs and play in Dallas in December for the State title. His response, "Yes ma'am. We want to play for 6 weeks after the end of the regular season." The fans want that too.
Saturday, October 16, 2010
Homecoming 2010
Friday, October 15, 2010, Friendswood played it's annual homecoming game. This year. the game was played against the Manvel Mavericks.
The night before the game, there was the traditional homecoming parade. This year, there was a small problem with the parade that I'm not sure anyone anticipated. The sun set just as the parade was starting. So, by the time the parade got to where I was standing with my daughter (about halfway down the parade route) it was so dark it was hard to see everyone on the "floats"
Now, I have to get on my soap box for a bit here. First, why in the world is a theme other than some derivative of "Beat the Mavericks", or whoever we're playing that year, necessary. This is the fourth homecoming parade I've seen in Friendswood and each has had a theme; such as, Under the Sea, Disney Movies, etc. Second, putting a bunch of people on a lowboy trailer with a sign made from poster board is not a float. What ever happened to chicken wire and paper mache? Floats used to take weeks to build. Now, it looks like someone spent 10 minutes on some of them. Tsk tsk.
Now, to the important stuff, the game.
Due to the homecoming activities being held during half time, our band and Wranglerettes performed their entire shows before the game. The band looked good. This was the first time I had seen the entire show. Of course, there's still some work to do. The Wranglerettes looked wonderful, as always.
When the players took the field, everyone was surprised to see our boys in blue wearing black pants. That's right, black pants. It immediately sparked conversation, both at the stadium and on facebook.
Manvel won the toss and elected to receive. On their first possession, they went three and out. And then we got a penalty for roughing the kicker, which means an automatic first down. The Mavericks used this mistake to take themselves into the end zone. Just three minutes and thirty-six seconds into the game, the score stood at Manvel 7 - Friendswood 0. During that entire drive, well, except one play where Brezina broke up a pass attempt, our defense looked like they had just woke up from a nap and weren't completely awake.
Now, our offense gets it's first turn on the field and we thought it was time for the show to began. We thought wrong. The Mustangs went three and out and the only penalty (offsides by Manvel is called as a false start against Friendswood). This was when I began to suspect the black pants of being bad juju.
So, Manvel's offense gets the ball back. And once again, our defense looks like they're not fully awake.
I wondered if maybe they stayed up too late the night before? Was the pep rally after their bedtimes? Did homecoming activities interfere with their Friday afternoon naps? Whatever the problem was, they didn't look good. With just over a minute left in the quarter, Manvel scored again. We ended the quarter with a score of Manvel 14 - Friendswood 0. I'd have to go back to double check, but I think that was the first time we'd been down by 14 all season.
Friendswood had possession of the ball as the second quarter began. And once again, the Friendswood fans waited with baited breath for our team to get on the board, but again it wasn't to be. Maetzold had to punt, again.
Once again, our defense had a chance to show everyone what they're made of. And once again, they left everyone wondering who those boys were and what had they down with out Mustangs. 3 minutes into the second quarter, Manvel gets on the board again. Now we're down by 21. And I know this is the first time we'd been down by 21 in a long time. Thinking back, I don't think we'd been that far down since we played Lake Travis in College Station for the State Semi-Finals in December 2008. Earlier I had said that during half time the Mustangs should take the black pants off and put the white ones back on. Now I was suggesting that those black pants should be burned during half time.
With this possession, finally, things begin to go right. It took Friendswood sixteen minutes 47 seconds to get on the board and the score was Manvel 21 - Friendswood 7.
Once our offense started clicking, our defense did too. During this drive, Friendswood was able to hold Manvel to only 1/2 yard. It was time for Friendswood's offense to take over again.
Keith Canada got what I think was his first touch down pass of the year! Bringing the score to Manvel 21 - Friendswood 14. We're still down by 14, but things are looking up.
One thing I love about Friendswood's kickers - not only can they kick, but they can tackle, too. And on this return, it was necessary for Dement to tackle the runner. Dement was the only man between the runner and the end zone. The runner was brought down at Friendswood's 46.
Here, our defense, well, let's just say they've been watching too many Texans' games. Note to our defenders covering the receivers: It's a lot easier to prevent the receiver from catching the ball than to try and catch him after he has the ball and is running. You can not play them 5 steps or even 5 yards off. With that being said, you can imagine what happened next. I believe it took Manvel all of three plays to find the end zone. So, with 58 seconds left in the half, we are again down by 14.
Garrett Ward caught the kick off, which was more of a line drive straight to him, on the 44 yard line. We were driving, and thought another score was coming, but then Maetzold threw an interception. Manvel was able to get to the 39.
At half time the score was 28 - 14 Manvel. It was nothing short of amazing that we were only 14 points behind. Things should have been much worse.
When the players came out after half time, the first thing I noticed was that the players still had the black pants on. The ball was kicked to us for the kick off. This is the kick off where they kicked the ball straight to JJ. He was able to run it back to the 22 yard line. Then Maetzold scrambled to the 3. On the next play, 31 seconds into the second half, Friendswood finds the end zone. New score - Manvel 28 - Friendswood 21.
Once Manvel got the ball back, I think they confirmed their theory concerning our defense. If you run up the middle, it will take us a while to stop you. Manvel was able to get close to the goal line, but never find they end zone. They had to settle for a field goal. Now there's 7:15 left in the third quarter and Friendswood is down by 10.
Friendswood is quickly able to score again. Two minutes twenty-five seconds later, Friendswood makes is into the end zone. Now, instead of being down by 10, we're down by 3. 31-28.
We were all hoping our defense would get the ball back to the offense quickly, but it didn't look like it was going to happen. That is until Matthew Lewis intercepted a Manvel pass. After a few plays Maetzold passed to Justin Battle who found the end zone. For the first time in this game, Friendswood held the lead, by 4 points. I wonder how long it's been since Friendswood had to wait until there was only 1:30 left in the 3rd quarter to have the lead.
On the kick, Caleb Taube, with the assistance of a few others, made an awesome tackle. The Mavericks and Mustangs traded possessions until, 2 minutes and 19 seconds into the quarter, the Mavericks scored again. The extra point kick bounced off the uprights and the score was 37-35. I need to look up the official rules on the ball hitting the upright. I know that the kick was no good. What I don't know is whether or not the ball was still in play. The Mustangs caught the ball and began to run with it, but the officials blew it dead. I'm glad to see that the Mustangs continued playing to the whistle, but I'm not sure if it was really a live or dead ball. Hmmm
Friendswood used their next possession to march down the field. Around the Mavericks' 25 or 30 yard line, there was some sort of bobble that resulted in a fumble recovered by the Mavericks. Even though I saw the whole thing, I'm still not exactly sure what happened. The center kicked the ball to Maetzold who tossed it to JJ. I'm not sure if Maetzold ever had control of the ball.
So, the Mavericks have the ball and the lead. The marched down the field, thanks to a face mask penalty by Friendswood. They did earn a penalty of their own, but still had to punt. When they set up for the punt, the fans began screaming for them to watch out for the fake. The boys behind the line of scrimmage were set up too far back. The fans were right. The "kicker" took the ball and tried to run with it. Under pressure, he decided to kick the ball, but it went out of bounds not far away.
Each team earned a few penalties during the next drive. Friendswood earned a penalty for holding. The Mavericks earned a penalty for illegal substitution. Then Friendswood made it to the end zone. It was decided to go for two instead of one, trying to put a far enough lead on the board that it would take more than one touchdown by Manvel to win the game. Unfortunately, it didn't work. So with 3:09 left in the game, the score was Manvel 37 - Friendswood 41.
Manvel was driving and was getting much closer to the end zone than I liked. But with 4 seconds left, a Manvel pass was intercepted by Friendswood. I wish I had seen which player had the presence of mind to catch the ball and then protect the ball as he slid to the ground rather than try to run back to score. With the next snap, Maetzold took a knee and that was the end of the game. Final score Manvel 37 - Friendswood 41.
I know several people liked the black pants that the Mustangs were wearing, but I still think they may be jinxed. Once our offense woke up, they looked really good, but it's dangerous to wait that long to get into the game. And the defense, where do I begin.
I thought the arm tackling problem had been fixed. Friday night I was proved wrong. My husband and I discussed the memorable punishments our coaches handed our when we were in school; and which of those might be effective in this situation. My suggestions are monster walks, suicides and running.
For the third time in a row, Friendswood was very close to being outscored by Manvel, and may have been outplayed.
So, Friday, October 22, the Mustangs will travel to Santa Fe to take on the Indians. The Mustangs are 8-0 on the season and 4-0 in district. Santa Fe is 4-3 on the season and 0-3 in district play.
I will be in the stands in Santa Fe. Will you? If not you can follow me on twitter at @momrod2000 for updates.
The night before the game, there was the traditional homecoming parade. This year, there was a small problem with the parade that I'm not sure anyone anticipated. The sun set just as the parade was starting. So, by the time the parade got to where I was standing with my daughter (about halfway down the parade route) it was so dark it was hard to see everyone on the "floats"
Now, I have to get on my soap box for a bit here. First, why in the world is a theme other than some derivative of "Beat the Mavericks", or whoever we're playing that year, necessary. This is the fourth homecoming parade I've seen in Friendswood and each has had a theme; such as, Under the Sea, Disney Movies, etc. Second, putting a bunch of people on a lowboy trailer with a sign made from poster board is not a float. What ever happened to chicken wire and paper mache? Floats used to take weeks to build. Now, it looks like someone spent 10 minutes on some of them. Tsk tsk.
Now, to the important stuff, the game.
Due to the homecoming activities being held during half time, our band and Wranglerettes performed their entire shows before the game. The band looked good. This was the first time I had seen the entire show. Of course, there's still some work to do. The Wranglerettes looked wonderful, as always.
When the players took the field, everyone was surprised to see our boys in blue wearing black pants. That's right, black pants. It immediately sparked conversation, both at the stadium and on facebook.
Manvel won the toss and elected to receive. On their first possession, they went three and out. And then we got a penalty for roughing the kicker, which means an automatic first down. The Mavericks used this mistake to take themselves into the end zone. Just three minutes and thirty-six seconds into the game, the score stood at Manvel 7 - Friendswood 0. During that entire drive, well, except one play where Brezina broke up a pass attempt, our defense looked like they had just woke up from a nap and weren't completely awake.
Now, our offense gets it's first turn on the field and we thought it was time for the show to began. We thought wrong. The Mustangs went three and out and the only penalty (offsides by Manvel is called as a false start against Friendswood). This was when I began to suspect the black pants of being bad juju.
So, Manvel's offense gets the ball back. And once again, our defense looks like they're not fully awake.
I wondered if maybe they stayed up too late the night before? Was the pep rally after their bedtimes? Did homecoming activities interfere with their Friday afternoon naps? Whatever the problem was, they didn't look good. With just over a minute left in the quarter, Manvel scored again. We ended the quarter with a score of Manvel 14 - Friendswood 0. I'd have to go back to double check, but I think that was the first time we'd been down by 14 all season.
Friendswood had possession of the ball as the second quarter began. And once again, the Friendswood fans waited with baited breath for our team to get on the board, but again it wasn't to be. Maetzold had to punt, again.
Once again, our defense had a chance to show everyone what they're made of. And once again, they left everyone wondering who those boys were and what had they down with out Mustangs. 3 minutes into the second quarter, Manvel gets on the board again. Now we're down by 21. And I know this is the first time we'd been down by 21 in a long time. Thinking back, I don't think we'd been that far down since we played Lake Travis in College Station for the State Semi-Finals in December 2008. Earlier I had said that during half time the Mustangs should take the black pants off and put the white ones back on. Now I was suggesting that those black pants should be burned during half time.
With this possession, finally, things begin to go right. It took Friendswood sixteen minutes 47 seconds to get on the board and the score was Manvel 21 - Friendswood 7.
Once our offense started clicking, our defense did too. During this drive, Friendswood was able to hold Manvel to only 1/2 yard. It was time for Friendswood's offense to take over again.
Keith Canada got what I think was his first touch down pass of the year! Bringing the score to Manvel 21 - Friendswood 14. We're still down by 14, but things are looking up.
One thing I love about Friendswood's kickers - not only can they kick, but they can tackle, too. And on this return, it was necessary for Dement to tackle the runner. Dement was the only man between the runner and the end zone. The runner was brought down at Friendswood's 46.
Here, our defense, well, let's just say they've been watching too many Texans' games. Note to our defenders covering the receivers: It's a lot easier to prevent the receiver from catching the ball than to try and catch him after he has the ball and is running. You can not play them 5 steps or even 5 yards off. With that being said, you can imagine what happened next. I believe it took Manvel all of three plays to find the end zone. So, with 58 seconds left in the half, we are again down by 14.
Garrett Ward caught the kick off, which was more of a line drive straight to him, on the 44 yard line. We were driving, and thought another score was coming, but then Maetzold threw an interception. Manvel was able to get to the 39.
At half time the score was 28 - 14 Manvel. It was nothing short of amazing that we were only 14 points behind. Things should have been much worse.
When the players came out after half time, the first thing I noticed was that the players still had the black pants on. The ball was kicked to us for the kick off. This is the kick off where they kicked the ball straight to JJ. He was able to run it back to the 22 yard line. Then Maetzold scrambled to the 3. On the next play, 31 seconds into the second half, Friendswood finds the end zone. New score - Manvel 28 - Friendswood 21.
Once Manvel got the ball back, I think they confirmed their theory concerning our defense. If you run up the middle, it will take us a while to stop you. Manvel was able to get close to the goal line, but never find they end zone. They had to settle for a field goal. Now there's 7:15 left in the third quarter and Friendswood is down by 10.
Friendswood is quickly able to score again. Two minutes twenty-five seconds later, Friendswood makes is into the end zone. Now, instead of being down by 10, we're down by 3. 31-28.
We were all hoping our defense would get the ball back to the offense quickly, but it didn't look like it was going to happen. That is until Matthew Lewis intercepted a Manvel pass. After a few plays Maetzold passed to Justin Battle who found the end zone. For the first time in this game, Friendswood held the lead, by 4 points. I wonder how long it's been since Friendswood had to wait until there was only 1:30 left in the 3rd quarter to have the lead.
On the kick, Caleb Taube, with the assistance of a few others, made an awesome tackle. The Mavericks and Mustangs traded possessions until, 2 minutes and 19 seconds into the quarter, the Mavericks scored again. The extra point kick bounced off the uprights and the score was 37-35. I need to look up the official rules on the ball hitting the upright. I know that the kick was no good. What I don't know is whether or not the ball was still in play. The Mustangs caught the ball and began to run with it, but the officials blew it dead. I'm glad to see that the Mustangs continued playing to the whistle, but I'm not sure if it was really a live or dead ball. Hmmm
Friendswood used their next possession to march down the field. Around the Mavericks' 25 or 30 yard line, there was some sort of bobble that resulted in a fumble recovered by the Mavericks. Even though I saw the whole thing, I'm still not exactly sure what happened. The center kicked the ball to Maetzold who tossed it to JJ. I'm not sure if Maetzold ever had control of the ball.
So, the Mavericks have the ball and the lead. The marched down the field, thanks to a face mask penalty by Friendswood. They did earn a penalty of their own, but still had to punt. When they set up for the punt, the fans began screaming for them to watch out for the fake. The boys behind the line of scrimmage were set up too far back. The fans were right. The "kicker" took the ball and tried to run with it. Under pressure, he decided to kick the ball, but it went out of bounds not far away.
Each team earned a few penalties during the next drive. Friendswood earned a penalty for holding. The Mavericks earned a penalty for illegal substitution. Then Friendswood made it to the end zone. It was decided to go for two instead of one, trying to put a far enough lead on the board that it would take more than one touchdown by Manvel to win the game. Unfortunately, it didn't work. So with 3:09 left in the game, the score was Manvel 37 - Friendswood 41.
Manvel was driving and was getting much closer to the end zone than I liked. But with 4 seconds left, a Manvel pass was intercepted by Friendswood. I wish I had seen which player had the presence of mind to catch the ball and then protect the ball as he slid to the ground rather than try to run back to score. With the next snap, Maetzold took a knee and that was the end of the game. Final score Manvel 37 - Friendswood 41.
I know several people liked the black pants that the Mustangs were wearing, but I still think they may be jinxed. Once our offense woke up, they looked really good, but it's dangerous to wait that long to get into the game. And the defense, where do I begin.
I thought the arm tackling problem had been fixed. Friday night I was proved wrong. My husband and I discussed the memorable punishments our coaches handed our when we were in school; and which of those might be effective in this situation. My suggestions are monster walks, suicides and running.
For the third time in a row, Friendswood was very close to being outscored by Manvel, and may have been outplayed.
So, Friday, October 22, the Mustangs will travel to Santa Fe to take on the Indians. The Mustangs are 8-0 on the season and 4-0 in district. Santa Fe is 4-3 on the season and 0-3 in district play.
I will be in the stands in Santa Fe. Will you? If not you can follow me on twitter at @momrod2000 for updates.
Friday, October 8, 2010
Friendswood defies the sports prognosticators
I love it, I love it, I love it! Why am I so excited, read the high school football match ups in today's Galveston County Daily News, then look at the final score and you'll see.
Tonight's game was played at Etheredge Stadium in La Marque. I haven't been down there since I was a senior in high school (many, many moons ago) so I decided to drive down there this morning and get the lay of the land. I knew that I would be arriving late to the game and it would be after dark when I got there, so I wanted to see where I was going.
And why did I get there late, well, tonight was my oldest daughter's first choir concert. Why did the junior high schedule a choir concert on a Friday night during football season? Well, the answer is - I don't know. Several people have asked the same question. In the audience, there were several people in their Friendswood Mustang best, and lots of parents were checking their cell phones often. As soon as the concert was over, the only thing you heard people ask was, "What's the score?" or "Who's winning?" or "How far into the game is it?" Several families made a bee line to the parking lot to head to La Marque. I was lucky enough to find a friend of my daughter's and her mom who were planning to drive to La Marque, just the two of them. So we rode together. It was great, I made a new friend and my daughter got to visit with her friend. Then, on the way back, my new friend's husband joined us, and I got to make another new friend. More people, who live close to us, and have at least 2 things in common with us. :)
Now, for the game. From what I heard, there were a few memorable moments in the first half. I was told that Jordan Wood made his first interception of the game (way to go Jordan!) and one of the officials needs a refresher course. From what I heard, penalties that should have been marked as 15 yard penalties were marked as 20 yards more than once (maybe he just needs a refresher on counting to 15 and 20). And some bad calls were made. However, I was also told that Coach Van Meter never threw his hat during the first half, so things couldn't have been too bad. We arrived at the game with less than two minutes in the half. The score was Friendswood 27 - La Marque 13. I'm not sure if La Marque missed the point after kick, or if it was blocked.
Friendswood, as always, had a great half time performance. Well, what I saw and heard of it anyway. Since we were the visitors, we saw the show from the back. Not great sound quality back there. I was very impressed by the color guard at one point. I saw at least 20 rifles spinning in the air. They went up together, all went the same height, and were all caught at the same time. Good job girls. La Marque, it appears, does not have a marching band this year, which is really sad. A marching band not only provides an awesome opportunity for students to learn music and discipline, it also adds to the atmosphere at the games. As Friendswood's band showed last week, a band can cause an opponent to make mistakes as well as pump up their own team. La Marque did have some people in the stands wearing La Marque's yellow shirts with jeans who played percussion. Unfortunately, they only seemed to know one cadence. They did not perform at half time. La Marque's portion of the half time show was to be twirlers who were to perform to a CD as well as their drill team (they had 10 - 15 members) who danced to a CD. Sadly, there were some technical difficulties and the twirlers never made it onto the field.
It didn't take long for me to see why everyone was talking about Tim Wright before the game. La Marque's running back is talented - he is fast as well as strong and is able to find or make openings. At the end of a later play, I saw him go several yards with every Mustang defender who was on the field trying to take this guy down. He is rather impressive.
During this same drive, I saw why La Marque relies so heavily on their run game as opposed to their passing game. During that same possession, Garrett Ward almost intercepted the ball (I think that would be his first of the year) and on the next play Jordan Wood came down with his second interception of the evening. A few plays later, Friendswood scored bringing the score to 34 - 13 with 9:15 left in the 3rd quarter.
It didn't take long for La Marque to answer back. And unfortunately, we helped them along the way. With 7:37 left in the 3rd quarter, La Marque scored. After a time out, La Marque's special teams lined up off to one side, leaving the kicker and the spotter standing alone in the center of the field. After a few seconds, everyone shifts to their normal positions. I've only seem one other team do this, and I think it was Lake Travis (though don't hold me to that). I still don't understand the point of that move.
When La Marque kicked the ball to us, our receivers attempted a trick play. The person who caught the ball turned to face backward and pretended to hand off to several runners. It was a neat play, but they did it on every single kick off. It worked sometimes. Other times it just seemed to eat away time and cost us yards. I would suggest that this be a "sometimes" play as opposed to an "every kick off" play.
On the next set of plays between touchdowns, we caused the only fumble I saw tonight. Unfortunately, the ball rolled out of bounds before we could scoop it up and run with it. So, La Marque remained in possession of the ball. Also during these plays, I saw Wright's one man show and his incredible strength and determination. With all the players trying to take him down, Mr. Kennemer was in the stands yelling "Strip! Strip!" Of course, I new immediately what he meant and didn't think anything of it. The next time he yelled it, he got some funny looks from the people in front of me and I realized why it was funny. The guy sitting behind me, between me and Mr. Kennemer pretended to take his shirt off and said, "Well, if you think it will help." After that, Mr. Kennemer changed his comments to "Strip the ball! Strip the ball!" During this drive, La Marque scored again. This is the closest I saw the score. Friendswood 34 - La Marque 27 with 2:43 left in the 3rd quarter.
After the catch of this kick off, our team began a series of unfortunate events. Matt Kennemer was running with the ball, the goal line was in his sights and there was only one yellow jersey that looked like he could catch him. But then, Kennemer's blocker got tangled up with the man he was blocking. Both players hit the ground, and Kennemer tripped over them. If it had happened a little farther in front of him, Kennemer probably could have jumped the players and kept going for the end zone. But as it was, they were just too close and Kennemer ended up tripping over the two. I don't blame the blocker. Like I said, unfortunate event. It was a one time thing. A few plays later, our ball carrier (didn't make a note of who it was, sorry) tripped over his blocker (different blocker) costing us yards (though probably not a touchdown this time.) This might have been a good time to take a time out. The team looked a little frustrated. But we ended up punting and giving the offense a breather and time to settle down.
The next time our offense had the ball, I saw another unusual play. Maetzold passed to Canada. There were two Cougar defenders there. The ball bobbles between a couple of players before landing in Canada's hands. However, the play was ruled an incomplete pass before he caught the ball. From where we were sitting, it didn't appear that he had gone out of bounds. Maybe this was that same ref who needs a refresher course? A few plays later, something happened that has the entire Friendswood side on it's feet booing the officials. I did not boo, because I try to teach my kids respect. But I wanted to do alot more than boo. Maetzold passed the ball to Justin Battle who made a wonderful catch as he was running across the field (in). But before his feet even touched the grass, a La Marque defender grabbed his face mask, jerked his head around and threw to the ground. It literally looked like he was trying to take his head off. Immediately a flag was thrown and Friendswood cheered. Then we heard what the official penalty was. Do you think it was a personal foul? Perhaps unnecessary roughness? Maybe he was about the be the second player of the night to be ejected from the game for personal fouls. If you guessed any of these, you would be wrong. Friendswood was given a 15 yard penalty for having an ineligible receiver down field. Are you serious?!?!? The La Marque defense just tried to decapitate Justin Battle and you're calling an ineligible receiver against us?!?! Then, as they are marking off the penalty, instead of moving the ball 15 yards, they move it 25!!! And all the while, Van Meter is arguing with the officials (and rightfully so - he didn't throw his hat, but he did throw his headset) and the La Marque coaches are using the distraction to sneak onto the field and talk to their players. There were 2 coaches on the field talking to 2 different players. These coaches did not go back to the sidelines until the next play started. At this point I did yell to the field, but I was yelling for La Marque's coaches to get off the field. Last year, the first or second game of the season, several penalties were called for coaches being on the field. And these coaches were just doing their jobs from a few feet inside the playing area. They were not on the field talking to the players. Where was that penalty tonight? And what happened to the player who made sure Justin Battle will need a good chiropractor? Absolutely nothing. As you can probably tell, I am still upset over that. The officials jobs are to make sure the game is played fair and safe. Not allowing WWE stuff to go unnoticed.
Okay, rant over, for now. Back to the game. If you know the Mustangs, you know that the players made sure than wasn't the end of it. Two plays later, Friendswood finds the end zone! With 11:46 left in the game, the score was Friendswood 41 - La Marque 27.
What happened on the kick off was something I'd never seen before. The kick went right into the chest of on of La Marque's front linemen. The lineman caught the ball, and the La Marque offense was able to start near midfield. A few minutes later, they were not so lucky. I'm not sure if Friendswood's defense did a great job here, or it La Marque's offense made a mistake. The quarterback went to fake a hand off, and there was no one there to fake to. Then, he went to hand it off to someone else, and again; no one was there. He had to scramble and didn't get very far. But that' okay, not long after Maetzold showed them what it looks like when a QB scrambles, and gets a first down in the process. Not sure if they were watching though.
With 6:48 left in the game, Friendswood scored again. Now the score's 48-34. High scoring game right? But it ain't over yet, folks.
La Marque was trying to drive toward the end zone, but threw a beautiful pass that was intercepted by Jordan Wood (his third of the night!). That, apparently was the cue for the La Marque fans to begin pouring out of the stadium. More than 1/2 their fans were leaving. I guess they thought that was it. They only missed 2 more touchdowns.
Of course, the next touchdown went to Friendswood. An exhausted Johnson got us close to the end zone and Maetzold was able to get in. This brought the score to 55-34 with 2:52 left in the game.
Still not over, as I said, there were 2 more touchdowns, and that's just one. So, who do you think got the last touchdown of the game?
If you said Friendswood, you'd be wrong. La Marque scored again. But by this time, so many of their fans were gone, there wasn't a loud celebration from their side of the stadium. So now, with 23 seconds left in the game, the score is 55-41.
La Marque went for the onsides kick and it almost worked. Pete Maetzold took a knee and that was the final play of the game. Final score Friendswood 55 - La Marque 41. That brings Friendswood to 7-0 for the season and 3-0 in district play and La Marque to 5-1 for the season and 2-1 in district play. I had told my dad earlier in the week that I thought Friendswood would win by 7. When the Galveston County Daily News came out with their predictions, my dad asked me if I wanted to revise my predictions. But I stood by the Mustangs. Turned out I made a good decision. And my point spread was only off by 3 points.
Next week, Friendswood will host Manvel for Friendwood's 2010 Homecoming game. If I remember correctly, we don't have that great of a record for homecoming games. I'd really like to see us put a stop to that. Manvel will come into this game after a win in Santa Fe (10-35). Manvel now has an over all record of 5-1 with district games being 1-1.
I've heard a few people ask, is this our year? I don't want to put the cart before the horse, but I sure hope so. I'd love to have a reason to go visit my friends who live in the metroplex this December.
So, now do you know why I'm happy? I just love it when my team is chosen to be the underdog and comes out on top.
http://galvestondailynews.com/story/181918
Also, something else of note. I find it sad that Maetzold is not being courted by college football scouts. Maetzold can pass, and run. Friendswood runs a no huddle offense, and very rarely does the offense not know what to do. Maetzold can see the whole field and once (not sure how he does it) and wait for someone to be open. Then he can deliver the ball straight into the hands of the open receiver. He has no problem holding on to the ball if a receiver can't get open and is not afraid to take a hit. Any team would benefit from having him in their uniform,
I haven't heard yet which, if any colleges are looking at Matt Kennemer and Zach Hardy. Both are worthy players who can make plays happen.
Tonight's game was played at Etheredge Stadium in La Marque. I haven't been down there since I was a senior in high school (many, many moons ago) so I decided to drive down there this morning and get the lay of the land. I knew that I would be arriving late to the game and it would be after dark when I got there, so I wanted to see where I was going.
And why did I get there late, well, tonight was my oldest daughter's first choir concert. Why did the junior high schedule a choir concert on a Friday night during football season? Well, the answer is - I don't know. Several people have asked the same question. In the audience, there were several people in their Friendswood Mustang best, and lots of parents were checking their cell phones often. As soon as the concert was over, the only thing you heard people ask was, "What's the score?" or "Who's winning?" or "How far into the game is it?" Several families made a bee line to the parking lot to head to La Marque. I was lucky enough to find a friend of my daughter's and her mom who were planning to drive to La Marque, just the two of them. So we rode together. It was great, I made a new friend and my daughter got to visit with her friend. Then, on the way back, my new friend's husband joined us, and I got to make another new friend. More people, who live close to us, and have at least 2 things in common with us. :)
Now, for the game. From what I heard, there were a few memorable moments in the first half. I was told that Jordan Wood made his first interception of the game (way to go Jordan!) and one of the officials needs a refresher course. From what I heard, penalties that should have been marked as 15 yard penalties were marked as 20 yards more than once (maybe he just needs a refresher on counting to 15 and 20). And some bad calls were made. However, I was also told that Coach Van Meter never threw his hat during the first half, so things couldn't have been too bad. We arrived at the game with less than two minutes in the half. The score was Friendswood 27 - La Marque 13. I'm not sure if La Marque missed the point after kick, or if it was blocked.
Friendswood, as always, had a great half time performance. Well, what I saw and heard of it anyway. Since we were the visitors, we saw the show from the back. Not great sound quality back there. I was very impressed by the color guard at one point. I saw at least 20 rifles spinning in the air. They went up together, all went the same height, and were all caught at the same time. Good job girls. La Marque, it appears, does not have a marching band this year, which is really sad. A marching band not only provides an awesome opportunity for students to learn music and discipline, it also adds to the atmosphere at the games. As Friendswood's band showed last week, a band can cause an opponent to make mistakes as well as pump up their own team. La Marque did have some people in the stands wearing La Marque's yellow shirts with jeans who played percussion. Unfortunately, they only seemed to know one cadence. They did not perform at half time. La Marque's portion of the half time show was to be twirlers who were to perform to a CD as well as their drill team (they had 10 - 15 members) who danced to a CD. Sadly, there were some technical difficulties and the twirlers never made it onto the field.
It didn't take long for me to see why everyone was talking about Tim Wright before the game. La Marque's running back is talented - he is fast as well as strong and is able to find or make openings. At the end of a later play, I saw him go several yards with every Mustang defender who was on the field trying to take this guy down. He is rather impressive.
During this same drive, I saw why La Marque relies so heavily on their run game as opposed to their passing game. During that same possession, Garrett Ward almost intercepted the ball (I think that would be his first of the year) and on the next play Jordan Wood came down with his second interception of the evening. A few plays later, Friendswood scored bringing the score to 34 - 13 with 9:15 left in the 3rd quarter.
It didn't take long for La Marque to answer back. And unfortunately, we helped them along the way. With 7:37 left in the 3rd quarter, La Marque scored. After a time out, La Marque's special teams lined up off to one side, leaving the kicker and the spotter standing alone in the center of the field. After a few seconds, everyone shifts to their normal positions. I've only seem one other team do this, and I think it was Lake Travis (though don't hold me to that). I still don't understand the point of that move.
When La Marque kicked the ball to us, our receivers attempted a trick play. The person who caught the ball turned to face backward and pretended to hand off to several runners. It was a neat play, but they did it on every single kick off. It worked sometimes. Other times it just seemed to eat away time and cost us yards. I would suggest that this be a "sometimes" play as opposed to an "every kick off" play.
On the next set of plays between touchdowns, we caused the only fumble I saw tonight. Unfortunately, the ball rolled out of bounds before we could scoop it up and run with it. So, La Marque remained in possession of the ball. Also during these plays, I saw Wright's one man show and his incredible strength and determination. With all the players trying to take him down, Mr. Kennemer was in the stands yelling "Strip! Strip!" Of course, I new immediately what he meant and didn't think anything of it. The next time he yelled it, he got some funny looks from the people in front of me and I realized why it was funny. The guy sitting behind me, between me and Mr. Kennemer pretended to take his shirt off and said, "Well, if you think it will help." After that, Mr. Kennemer changed his comments to "Strip the ball! Strip the ball!" During this drive, La Marque scored again. This is the closest I saw the score. Friendswood 34 - La Marque 27 with 2:43 left in the 3rd quarter.
After the catch of this kick off, our team began a series of unfortunate events. Matt Kennemer was running with the ball, the goal line was in his sights and there was only one yellow jersey that looked like he could catch him. But then, Kennemer's blocker got tangled up with the man he was blocking. Both players hit the ground, and Kennemer tripped over them. If it had happened a little farther in front of him, Kennemer probably could have jumped the players and kept going for the end zone. But as it was, they were just too close and Kennemer ended up tripping over the two. I don't blame the blocker. Like I said, unfortunate event. It was a one time thing. A few plays later, our ball carrier (didn't make a note of who it was, sorry) tripped over his blocker (different blocker) costing us yards (though probably not a touchdown this time.) This might have been a good time to take a time out. The team looked a little frustrated. But we ended up punting and giving the offense a breather and time to settle down.
The next time our offense had the ball, I saw another unusual play. Maetzold passed to Canada. There were two Cougar defenders there. The ball bobbles between a couple of players before landing in Canada's hands. However, the play was ruled an incomplete pass before he caught the ball. From where we were sitting, it didn't appear that he had gone out of bounds. Maybe this was that same ref who needs a refresher course? A few plays later, something happened that has the entire Friendswood side on it's feet booing the officials. I did not boo, because I try to teach my kids respect. But I wanted to do alot more than boo. Maetzold passed the ball to Justin Battle who made a wonderful catch as he was running across the field (in). But before his feet even touched the grass, a La Marque defender grabbed his face mask, jerked his head around and threw to the ground. It literally looked like he was trying to take his head off. Immediately a flag was thrown and Friendswood cheered. Then we heard what the official penalty was. Do you think it was a personal foul? Perhaps unnecessary roughness? Maybe he was about the be the second player of the night to be ejected from the game for personal fouls. If you guessed any of these, you would be wrong. Friendswood was given a 15 yard penalty for having an ineligible receiver down field. Are you serious?!?!? The La Marque defense just tried to decapitate Justin Battle and you're calling an ineligible receiver against us?!?! Then, as they are marking off the penalty, instead of moving the ball 15 yards, they move it 25!!! And all the while, Van Meter is arguing with the officials (and rightfully so - he didn't throw his hat, but he did throw his headset) and the La Marque coaches are using the distraction to sneak onto the field and talk to their players. There were 2 coaches on the field talking to 2 different players. These coaches did not go back to the sidelines until the next play started. At this point I did yell to the field, but I was yelling for La Marque's coaches to get off the field. Last year, the first or second game of the season, several penalties were called for coaches being on the field. And these coaches were just doing their jobs from a few feet inside the playing area. They were not on the field talking to the players. Where was that penalty tonight? And what happened to the player who made sure Justin Battle will need a good chiropractor? Absolutely nothing. As you can probably tell, I am still upset over that. The officials jobs are to make sure the game is played fair and safe. Not allowing WWE stuff to go unnoticed.
Okay, rant over, for now. Back to the game. If you know the Mustangs, you know that the players made sure than wasn't the end of it. Two plays later, Friendswood finds the end zone! With 11:46 left in the game, the score was Friendswood 41 - La Marque 27.
What happened on the kick off was something I'd never seen before. The kick went right into the chest of on of La Marque's front linemen. The lineman caught the ball, and the La Marque offense was able to start near midfield. A few minutes later, they were not so lucky. I'm not sure if Friendswood's defense did a great job here, or it La Marque's offense made a mistake. The quarterback went to fake a hand off, and there was no one there to fake to. Then, he went to hand it off to someone else, and again; no one was there. He had to scramble and didn't get very far. But that' okay, not long after Maetzold showed them what it looks like when a QB scrambles, and gets a first down in the process. Not sure if they were watching though.
With 6:48 left in the game, Friendswood scored again. Now the score's 48-34. High scoring game right? But it ain't over yet, folks.
La Marque was trying to drive toward the end zone, but threw a beautiful pass that was intercepted by Jordan Wood (his third of the night!). That, apparently was the cue for the La Marque fans to begin pouring out of the stadium. More than 1/2 their fans were leaving. I guess they thought that was it. They only missed 2 more touchdowns.
Of course, the next touchdown went to Friendswood. An exhausted Johnson got us close to the end zone and Maetzold was able to get in. This brought the score to 55-34 with 2:52 left in the game.
Still not over, as I said, there were 2 more touchdowns, and that's just one. So, who do you think got the last touchdown of the game?
If you said Friendswood, you'd be wrong. La Marque scored again. But by this time, so many of their fans were gone, there wasn't a loud celebration from their side of the stadium. So now, with 23 seconds left in the game, the score is 55-41.
La Marque went for the onsides kick and it almost worked. Pete Maetzold took a knee and that was the final play of the game. Final score Friendswood 55 - La Marque 41. That brings Friendswood to 7-0 for the season and 3-0 in district play and La Marque to 5-1 for the season and 2-1 in district play. I had told my dad earlier in the week that I thought Friendswood would win by 7. When the Galveston County Daily News came out with their predictions, my dad asked me if I wanted to revise my predictions. But I stood by the Mustangs. Turned out I made a good decision. And my point spread was only off by 3 points.
Next week, Friendswood will host Manvel for Friendwood's 2010 Homecoming game. If I remember correctly, we don't have that great of a record for homecoming games. I'd really like to see us put a stop to that. Manvel will come into this game after a win in Santa Fe (10-35). Manvel now has an over all record of 5-1 with district games being 1-1.
I've heard a few people ask, is this our year? I don't want to put the cart before the horse, but I sure hope so. I'd love to have a reason to go visit my friends who live in the metroplex this December.
So, now do you know why I'm happy? I just love it when my team is chosen to be the underdog and comes out on top.
http://galvestondailynews.com/story/181918
Also, something else of note. I find it sad that Maetzold is not being courted by college football scouts. Maetzold can pass, and run. Friendswood runs a no huddle offense, and very rarely does the offense not know what to do. Maetzold can see the whole field and once (not sure how he does it) and wait for someone to be open. Then he can deliver the ball straight into the hands of the open receiver. He has no problem holding on to the ball if a receiver can't get open and is not afraid to take a hit. Any team would benefit from having him in their uniform,
I haven't heard yet which, if any colleges are looking at Matt Kennemer and Zach Hardy. Both are worthy players who can make plays happen.
Friday, October 1, 2010
Friendswood Hosts Pearland Dawson October 1, 2010
Tonight was the first real test for Friendswood's Mustangs. It was a very exciting game. There was only 1 interception thrown, though there were a few other passes that came close. There were not one, not two, but three blocked extra point kicks, and a fumble or two.
This was a grudge match, and no one will deny it. The last time these two team met was in the Regional Finals in November 2009. That game was so poorly officiated that it was investigated by the officials' governing body. The Mustangs seemed to give up during the first half of that game because they knew they couldn't win while playing both the opposing team and the officials. Of course, I wanted a Mustang win tonight. But I wanted that win to come fairly. I would rather lose a fair game than win by cheating (whether we cheat or the officials cheat for us).
There still seemed to be some biased officiating tonight, but the Mustangs seemed to have decided that they were going to win. I was very impressed with our team's determination. Yes, there were several penalties against Friendswood; and no, not all of them were earned. But we overcame those obstacles.
If you read my posts during the game, you know that it was exciting. And the last three quarters were close. You also know that I ended up in twitter jail trying to keep everyone updated. I'm not sure what I'm going to do about that. I can't imagine trying to keep everyone updated using two twitter accounts all from my blackberry. And don't even get me started on the Galveston County Daily News live chats. I want to be in those so badly, but can't get there on my blackberry. I digress.
Back to the game. I've only seen one other blocked extra point kick. Don't ask me when or where it was, because I don't remember. But I'm pretty sure it was at a Friendswood game, and I'm pretty sure it was Friendswood who blocked the kick. But don't hold me to that. Tonight, there were three blocked extra point kicks. Friendswood had two and Dawson had one.
Both teams played very well. Dawson's #8 ran through our defense more times than I cared to see. And Dawson's defense covered our receivers so well that even though our offensive line gave Pete an eternity to throw the ball, he often had trouble finding an open receiver. After the game I heard he was 20 of 27. I'm going to have to go back and look at stats to see how that compares to previous games. I suspect that he was able to throw the ball more than he was tonight.
Dawson made an amazing play in the third quarter. Even if they were the opposing team, I have to give them credit for that one. Catching a pass with double coverage and making it to the endzone is an accomplishment.
Props also need to go out to Zach Hardy. It isn't often that a kicker is called on to tackle, but he did it tonight. After one of our touchdowns, the Dawson player who caught the kick off ran past all the Mustangs, except Hardy. Good job Zach.
The game wasn't sealed until we got the ball back with 46 seconds on the clock. 2 knees later and Friendswood had handed Dawson their first district loss of the season. The final score: Dawson 27 - Friendswood 34. Next week, Friendswood will travel to La Marque. Both teams come into this game undefeated, but one team will walk away with a district record of 2-1. I will not be able to make this game (my oldest daughter had a choir concert that night). So I will have to get my news from the Galveston County Daily News and twitter.
PS. Just a couple of notes for the officials. First, in order to have a first down, a team but move the ball all ten yards, not nine and a half yards. Second. If a play goes out of bounds, and a tackle takes place out of bounds, but before the whistle, it is not unnecessary roughness, unsportsmanlike conduct or a personal foul. It is called finishing the play. Third, if a player is listening to trash talk and being harassed by members of the opposing team. And after a quarter and a half of this, he tells the opposing team member to shut up, it's not a personal foul. If you want to call a personal foul, call it on the people who have been trash talking. Thank you.
This was Channel 2's game of the week. I saw the interview after the game, but I couldn't hear what Pete was saying. If I can, I'll post a link to the video on my facebook and twitter and hopefully here as well.
Here's the link to the Friday Night Frenzy from Henry Winston Stadium. http://www.click2houston.com/video/25249375/index.html
This was a grudge match, and no one will deny it. The last time these two team met was in the Regional Finals in November 2009. That game was so poorly officiated that it was investigated by the officials' governing body. The Mustangs seemed to give up during the first half of that game because they knew they couldn't win while playing both the opposing team and the officials. Of course, I wanted a Mustang win tonight. But I wanted that win to come fairly. I would rather lose a fair game than win by cheating (whether we cheat or the officials cheat for us).
There still seemed to be some biased officiating tonight, but the Mustangs seemed to have decided that they were going to win. I was very impressed with our team's determination. Yes, there were several penalties against Friendswood; and no, not all of them were earned. But we overcame those obstacles.
If you read my posts during the game, you know that it was exciting. And the last three quarters were close. You also know that I ended up in twitter jail trying to keep everyone updated. I'm not sure what I'm going to do about that. I can't imagine trying to keep everyone updated using two twitter accounts all from my blackberry. And don't even get me started on the Galveston County Daily News live chats. I want to be in those so badly, but can't get there on my blackberry. I digress.
Back to the game. I've only seen one other blocked extra point kick. Don't ask me when or where it was, because I don't remember. But I'm pretty sure it was at a Friendswood game, and I'm pretty sure it was Friendswood who blocked the kick. But don't hold me to that. Tonight, there were three blocked extra point kicks. Friendswood had two and Dawson had one.
Both teams played very well. Dawson's #8 ran through our defense more times than I cared to see. And Dawson's defense covered our receivers so well that even though our offensive line gave Pete an eternity to throw the ball, he often had trouble finding an open receiver. After the game I heard he was 20 of 27. I'm going to have to go back and look at stats to see how that compares to previous games. I suspect that he was able to throw the ball more than he was tonight.
Dawson made an amazing play in the third quarter. Even if they were the opposing team, I have to give them credit for that one. Catching a pass with double coverage and making it to the endzone is an accomplishment.
Props also need to go out to Zach Hardy. It isn't often that a kicker is called on to tackle, but he did it tonight. After one of our touchdowns, the Dawson player who caught the kick off ran past all the Mustangs, except Hardy. Good job Zach.
The game wasn't sealed until we got the ball back with 46 seconds on the clock. 2 knees later and Friendswood had handed Dawson their first district loss of the season. The final score: Dawson 27 - Friendswood 34. Next week, Friendswood will travel to La Marque. Both teams come into this game undefeated, but one team will walk away with a district record of 2-1. I will not be able to make this game (my oldest daughter had a choir concert that night). So I will have to get my news from the Galveston County Daily News and twitter.
PS. Just a couple of notes for the officials. First, in order to have a first down, a team but move the ball all ten yards, not nine and a half yards. Second. If a play goes out of bounds, and a tackle takes place out of bounds, but before the whistle, it is not unnecessary roughness, unsportsmanlike conduct or a personal foul. It is called finishing the play. Third, if a player is listening to trash talk and being harassed by members of the opposing team. And after a quarter and a half of this, he tells the opposing team member to shut up, it's not a personal foul. If you want to call a personal foul, call it on the people who have been trash talking. Thank you.
This was Channel 2's game of the week. I saw the interview after the game, but I couldn't hear what Pete was saying. If I can, I'll post a link to the video on my facebook and twitter and hopefully here as well.
Here's the link to the Friday Night Frenzy from Henry Winston Stadium. http://www.click2houston.com/video/25249375/index.html
Friday, September 17, 2010
Challenge for Friendswood Mustangs
I did a little research this evening and found a couple of interesting statistics.
First, the highest scoring high school football game in Texas was 102 - 0 When Raymondville played Edcouch-Elsa.
The highest scoreing high school football game in history was in 1926 when Haven High School defeated Sylvia 256 - 0.
The challenge - put Friendswood in the record books for the highest scoring high school football game. In Texas, or in the country.
First, the highest scoring high school football game in Texas was 102 - 0 When Raymondville played Edcouch-Elsa.
The highest scoreing high school football game in history was in 1926 when Haven High School defeated Sylvia 256 - 0.
The challenge - put Friendswood in the record books for the highest scoring high school football game. In Texas, or in the country.
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