Friday, September 14, 2012

Rosenberg Terry vs. Friendswood - September 14, 2012

  First, please allow me to act like my teenage daughter for a minute - OMG! OMG! OMG!

Okay, I think I might have gotten that out of my system.  Where do I even begin with tonight's game.  How about with my pregame research.  Since two of the best sports writers the Galveston County Daily News have ever had left Galveston County and now have a much larger audience, I haven't been able to find nearly as much good information on our opponents.  That is, unless our opponent is a team I already know about.  For example, I tried to research Rosenberg Terry this week.  I found a small amount of information on the Fort Bend Herald's website.  And a little more on the Houston Chronicle's website.  But I didn't find nearly as much information as I would have liked.  I was able to find out that, depending on which poll you read, Terry came into this game ranked as the #8 or #13 4A team in the state.  Although, I think I may have come across something that our coaches didn't see.  That little pitch play they ran that gained them yards every time and points sometimes - well, someone posted video of them running it against Clear Falls.  It worked against them, too.  Other than that video, I was able to deduce from the information on the Chronicle's website that the Rangers like to run the ball, run it well, and don't pass very often.  And we saw some of that tonight. 
Terry had obviously did their homework on Friendswood.  The first quarter was very rough for Friendswood.  It took Terry about two play to run right past Friendswood and find the end zone - 63 yards from where they started.  Friendswood spend most of the rest of the first quarter trying to get some points on the board.  After a lot of hard work, the boys had to settle for a field goal and three points.  A couple of snaps later, Makransky recovered a Terry fumble at the Terry 8 yard line.  1 minute 39 seconds after the first field goal Friendswood has to settle for a second field goal.  And 45 seconds later, Terry found the end zone; however, they had already had their only extra point success of the night.  So to end the first quarter, the score was Terry 13 - Friendswood 6.

During the second quarter, Terry continued to do what they'd been doing.  Why change what's working?  I can't pin point any real changes that Friendswood made, but I would say that the defense continued to learn the Terry offense.  Each team scored during the second quarter, but Terry scored twice and Friendswood scored once.

The third quarter was where Friendswood began to make their intentions known.  They intended to win.  The Mustangs were no longer just keeping things close - Friendswood scored 21 points during the third quarter, while Terry only scored 13.  This was now a 5 point game. 

I think most of the stadium spent the fourth quarter on their feet.  Friendswood took the lead for the first time with 7:06 left in the game and never gave it back.  With a score of 39-40, Friendswood decided to go for 2 after the touchdown.  The conversion was good, but there was a penalty on the play - never did find out the cause for that penalty.  On the second try, Friendswood was called for illegal motion.  Third attempt - I guess Wood's line of sight was blocked, because he had an open receiver near the 1 yard line.  However, by the time he threw the ball, the receiver was at the back of the end zone and under heavy coverage.  The pass was overthrown and incomplete.  Terry got the ball back, but wasn't able to do anything with it.  Thanks to the Friendswood defense, the ball went back to Friendswood on downs.  With 1 minute 49 second left in the game, Friendswood found the end zone again.  This time, Friendswood chose to kick; which I admit is not what I thought they would do.  The kick was good, and the score was Terry 39 - Friendswood 47.  Terry managed the clock well and made some good plays to get them back to the end zone with 14 seconds left on the clock.  The game came down to the two point conversion attempt.  After a delay of game penalty against Terry, the pass was incomplete.  The final score for the game was Rosenberg Terry Rangers 45 - Friendswood Mustangs 47.
Yes, you read that right, the non-ranked Friendswood Mustangs defeated the #13 ranked Terry Rangers.

Thoughts from the game:
This is my 6th season to watch the Friendswood Mustangs.  Friendswood has always done a good job of learning their opponent during the half and making the necessary adjustments at half time.  The Mustang's strength has always been the ability to find the end zone, over and over again.  And the place where the team has struggled has been the defense.  Our offense has had to run up the score to overcome all the points the defense allowed.  So far, this year is no exception.  Our defense has improved over the last week.  And they were facing an offense that averaged almost 400 yards/game over the first two games.  I was very worried coming into the game, and the first half of the first quarter seemed to validate my fears.

And. I don't know why, but the Mustang offense suffered from a severe case of slippery hands syndrome tonight.  What happened?  Did someone bring a jar of axle grease and tell everyone it was rubber cement?  I don't remember the last time I saw the Mustangs drop that many passes and fumble that many times.  Just before Terry's first turnover, I told my husband that if Terry mishandled the ball Friendswood would take advantage of it.  I never imagined that Terry would be taking advantage of so many of the Mustangs' mistakes. 

Our offensive line did a great job of protecting Wood tonight.  I don't recall any really hard hits he took tonight.  That is a good thing. 

Our defense improved throughout the game when it came to stopping the run, however, our pass protection seems to have gone backwards. 

Some of the players who made good things happen tonight were: Wood, Longbotham, Vandersypen, Williams, Holle, Hill, Varner, Makransky, Montalvo (I think he is the faster sprinter on our defense), Camarillo, & Langston.

Scoreboard        1st     2nd   3rd   4th  final
Terry                 13     13     13     6     45
Friendswood      6       7      21     13   47

Next week, the Friendswood Mustangs have a Bye Week.  The next game for the Mustangs will be against Galena Park at the Galena Park ISD stadium.  As of right now, I don't know if I'll be able to attend, due to my oldest daughter having something that night.  I'm trying to decide if I can leave Friendswood at 6:30 and be back before 11pm.  And if I do, how much of the game would I have to miss.

Something Fun:
Tonight was the annual Wranglerette Pre-game dinner.  I always love this dinner.  I was able to watch my daughter dance with the other Fall Clinic participants.  Hopefully, next year she'll be dancing in a Drill Trainers uniform.
Being the Wranglerette Pre-game Dinner night also means that it was the annual Daddy Daughter Dance during halftime.  This year, the dads dressed up as super heroes.  If you're my friend on facebook, I posted a video of the dance there.


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.

1 comment:

  1. So, what happens when an unranked team takes down a top 15 team? I guess we'll find out soon.

    ReplyDelete