Tonight the Galveston Ball Tornadoes traveled to Henry Winston Stadium in Friendswood to open district play. In preseason play, the Tors went 0-4 while Friendswood went 1-3. Galveston is still working to rebuild their program. I think their program's nose dive began with Hurricane Ike. I've read that Coach Valestro is working to instill discipline in that program. During the pregame warm up, I saw discipline. And on the field, I saw some players with good discipline. Some of the Tors worked hard, and showed good sportsmanship. Other players looked like they have some anger management issues.
Friendswood came into this game with high hopes. While Garnder, Battle, Scott, Dement are out for the season; Stock, Nunez and Crowder were wearing jerseys and shorts as well. It was good to see Hayden Gardner sitting in his lawn chair on the sidelines (and sitting in a wheelchair on the sidelines last week.) I think it is a great display of dedication to the team. Dement had surgery on his knee today. I know he was hoping to be at the game tonight, but if he was I never saw him. Hopefully he has a speedy recovery and will be on the sidelines again soon. With all the bad news on injuries, this week there was some good news. Lewis, Griffith and Chidester all returned from their injuries tonight.
I'm not sure if it was the physical or mental boost (or both) of having those starters back, but our defense played much better tonight than they did last week. Our defense showed too many times that they are still susceptible to the break away (note to coaches - never have both Taube and Camarillo on the sidelines at the same time. They can chase down alot of those break aways.). They also showed that when they get too excited, nervous, stressed, etc that they revert back to arm tackling. And they still like to dance with the ball carrier. Why try feinting, just take him down. The tackling has gotten much better this year. It's probably the best technique/fundamentals I've seen in a long time. And there are some new names that are making some great plays on defense. There were the names that we've already heard several times this season; Taube, Camarillo, Chidester, Lewis, Griffith, and Stevens. New names tonight were Maransky, Longbotham, Varner, Stuart, Smith and Wallace. I know, they're not all brand new, but new enough. I'm not sure what year Maransky is in school this year, but he started the season on the JV Blue team. And Sam Longbotham - he started the season on the Freshman A team. That's right, he's a freshman! With the exception of the break aways, the longer the defense played, the better they got. There were many, many tackles resulting in a loss of yardage. Galveston Ball didn't earn a first down until the 3rd quarter. I don't have the stats in front of me, but I bet I could count on my fingers the number of first downs they earned tonight.
Our offense is also looking better and better. Jordan Wood caught the kick off that started the game. After catching the ball, he ran 83 yards for a touchdown! Only 2 seconds had clicked off the play clock when we got on the score board. As usual for this season, Wood played more than just quarterback tonight. But I don't recall ever seeing him go in on defense. I'm sure he was glad to have more time to catch his breath. However, not like the previous weeks, the offense was not the Jordan and JJ show. During the first half, our offensive line gave Wood the time he needed to make the pass or opened the holes necessary for him to run or hand off. And our receivers were usually able to get open. Our offense was playing very quickly tonight. So quick, in fact, that I sometimes had a hard time keeping up with the plays and tweeting. As I've said before, I think our offense does better when they don't stop between plays.
I have not heard any official or unofficial word, yet; but JJ left the game during the second quarter and did not return. He spent the rest of the first half sitting on the sidelines with a wet towel on his head. When he came back to the field after halftime, he left his pads in the field house. Judging by his body language, I don't think it's anything serious. He spent the second half standing on the sidelines watching the game and talking to people. For most of the game, freshman Sam Longbotham took over at running back. He looked great! Unfortunately, I still haven't been able to acquire an updated roster. But tonight, my junior high daughter was able to identify Longbotham (my daughter is friends with his cousin.). Whether he was on offense or defense, he was everywhere. Of course, he made some mistakes; but judging from his reaction to his mistakes, I suspect he will be harder on himself than the coaches will be. As for the passing game, Gunner Holle was the go to guy tonight and he made few mistakes. Each week he improves. He wasn't the only receiver to make a great play, but he made most of the catches. Morris also played receiver tonight. He's great at getting open, but . . . Morris came in at quarterback during the last half of the last quarter. About the time Morris took over at QB, Rosales came in at running back.
There were still way too many penalties against Friendswood (and yes, we really did deserve them.). Most of the penalties were for holding, illegal blocking, etc. Things that the boys should know better than to do, but they get too involved in the game and forget. Galveston had 1 penalty for "encroachment" and a few personal fouls. There was a personal foul for throwing a punch. And one player appeared to be ejected from the game. I expected to see him sent to the locker room, but he spent the rest of the game on the sidelines. There were two late hits on that play. The play ended on the Friendswood sideline. I'm not sure if both hits were from the same Tor, but they were far enough apart that they could have been. Like I said, most of Galveston's players showed good discipline and sportsmanship. However there were a few hotheads who wanted to fight. I was proud of the players on both sides who stepped up to prevent the fights.
The final score for tonight's game was Galveston 21 - Friendswood 47. In my (and many other's) opinion, the score should have been 21-49. A play that many feel should have been ruled a safety was ruled a touch back. I hope that those 2 points don't come back to haunt us when it's decided who will be in the playoffs.
Next week will be a big challenge for Friendswood. The Mustangs travel to The Rig to take on the Pearland Dawson Eagles. The Eagles will go into this game 5-0 and have been decimating their opponents by 50+ points. This is always an intense game. Both teams want to win. The question is: With all the injuries, does Friendswood have what's necessary to upset Dawson on their home turf?
Disclaimer: Please keep in mind that I am watching the game and "taking notes" by twittering 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 us and 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.
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