Tonight, the Friendswood Mustangs traveled to Baytown to take on the Goose Creek Memorial Patriots. The rain stayed away for most of the game, which was nice. I had hoped that bringing in our umbrellas would be insurance against the rain. Unfortunately, that didn't work.
Tonight, the first half was very one sided. The third quarter was a little more evenly matched and most of the fourth quarter the Mustangs looked like they forgot what a football was.
To start the game, the Patriots won the toss and elected the receive. The Patriots had to punt the ball away on their first set of downs. Friendswood called for a fair catch at the Mustang 35 yard line. Longbotham got a 39 yard run before Vandersypen tried to run up the middle and went no where. In fact, all of the running backs tonight tried, unsuccessfully to run up the middle. It took a few plays, a dropped pass (bounced off the receiver's chest) and QB keeper and Friendswood gets into the end zone! With 7:08 left in the first quarter, the score was Friendswood 7 - Goose Creek Memorial 0.
A few plays later, the Patriots fumbled the ball at the 35 and the ball was recovered by Lowe. After a flag for off sides, Holle made a great catch in the end zone for another Mustang touchdown. With 5:16 left in the first quarter, the score is Mustangs 14 - Patriots 0.
During the next possession, Sargent threw his only interception of the night. The ball was caught at the Goose Creek 29 yard line and the ball carrier was immediately stopped by Bertelsman. Goose Creek wasn't able to do anything with the ball. After their QB was chased down by Langston, GCM punted the ball away again. Page called for a fair catch at the Friendswood 30. I was actually surprised that he called for that fair catch. He had plenty of room to run. But I guess when he had to make the decision, he thought the red jerseys were coming faster, or the coaches told him to do that ahead of time. As the buzzer sounded for the end of the first quarter, the ball went into the air for a long pass to Holle, which he caught and ran into the end zone. The score at the end of the first quarter was Mustangs 21 - Patriots 0.
Here is where the dynamic of the game began to change.
The Patriots were still unable to do anything with the ball and had to punt the ball away. The punt bounced near the 48, then crossed the 50 and rolled 13 yards to the 38. On the next set of downs, there were two incomplete passes, a lack of QB protection on the 3rd down and Friendswood found themselves punting on 4th & 10. The ball carrier made it out to the 18 yard line before being stopped by Faulk. Thankfully for the Mustangs, Langston recovered the GCM fumble. But on first down, Sargent was sacked for a loss of fifteen yards. On fourth down, Friendswood made the first field goal of the night.
Friendswood got the ball back quickly and found themselves in 4th & 9 position at the 25 yard line. After a time out, Friendswood decided to go for it, pass complete for a first down. But on the next set of downs, Friendswood found themselves in 4th & 15 (I believe that's the correct "to go" yards) and decided to attempt a 32 yard field goal. The kick was good, but a roughing the kicker penalty gave Friendswood a first down. Longbotham was able to find the end zone after that. With 1:01 left in the first half, the score was Mustangs 31 - Patriots 0.
On the Patriots first down after the touchdown, they passed the ball and it was intercepted by Dooley who ran the ball into the end zone. Sixteen seconds after Longbotham scored, Dooley and Stewart make the score Mustangs 38 - Patriots 0.
On their next possession, the Patriots fumble was recovered by the Mustangs. No one heard a whistle and the ball was run into the end zone. The ref declared that the play had been blown dead (must have used a dog whistle, because no one heard it). Friendswood took over possession. Unable to get back into the end zone, Friendswood settled for a field goal. At half time, the score was Mustangs 41 - Patriots 0.
With a 41 point lead, the Mustangs appeared to have decided to try some things during the second half. One of the changes was to bring in Blumrick at quarterback. His first pass was tipped but caught. Friendswood punted the ball away on 4th & 2. The Patriots were also forced to punt. Blumrick scrambled after mishandling the snap. There was a flag on the play for holding, but Goose Creek declined the penalty, which brought up 2nd & 17. On the next play, Friendswood's fumble (I think Blumrick was the ball carrier, but I'm not positive) was recovered by GCM on the Friendswood 27 yard line. GCM was able to earn a first down, but didn't make it to the end zone. They decided to go for a 41 yard field goal attempt, but the kick was blocked. I'm sorry, I didn't see who made that block, After a few more snaps for Blumrick, Faulk tried his hand at quarterback. He didn't take many snaps. Also at this point in the game, Richardson gave running back a try. Facing 4th & 10 at the 48 yard line, Friendswood had to punt the ball away again. The third quarter ended during this set of downs with a score of Friendswood 41 - GCM 0. Notice, after scoring 41 points in the first half, none were scored in the third quarter.
After a few completed passes for the Patriots, Makransky intercepted a pass and ran to the end zone. 10:24 left in the game and the score was Mustangs 48 - Patriots 0.
Patriots weren't able to do anything with that set of downs and punted the ball. Page called for a fair catch at the 14. Blumrick was back in at quarterback. And then the rains came . . . It rained before the game began, but the rain held off during the game until the fourth quarter. And it was a good rain for most of the fourth quarter. Friendswood ended up punting again. Faulk mishandled the snap in the rain, and was able to get the punt off under a lot of pressure. I honestly didn't think he'd get the kick off, or if he did that it would be blocked. He found the hole in the red jerseys running at him and got the ball to the 42 yard line. On the next possession, Friendswood got a penalty for horse collar and gave up a lot of yards. During this possession, Goose Creek Memorial finally got on the score board with 5:42 left in the game.
Friendswood actually had to turn the ball over on downs during the next possession. Before the game was over, one more player got to try his hand at running back. The defense looked like the rain washed all their football knowledge out of their brains. But the final score was a W for the Mustangs. 48-7.
Did you notice that the Mustangs scored 41 points in the first half and only 7 in the second. Did you notice that Longbotham's name wasn't mentioned at all during the second half. And I don't think Vandersypen played after the third quarter. Friendswood used four different quarterbacks tonight, but none of whom was the player Koopman said he thought would be the next quarterback when he was interviewed in August. There were also at least four different running backs.
There was some great defense played during part of the game tonight, but not for the whole game. And it wasn't always backup players making mistakes. I didn't really mention a lot of defense plays in my run down, but some great plays were made by White, Makransky, Dooley, Chidester, King, Bauer, Kirkland, Langston, Lockwood, Robinson, Maribella, Walker, Reagan, Lowe and Flores.
Other players deserving of "atta boys" tonight include: Sargent, Faulk (another energizer bunny), Faulk, Holle, Longbotham, Vandersypen, Bertelsman, Loll, and whoever blocked that field goal.
The Mustang defense started off the game strong, but the longer the game went, the less strong they looked (I know that's not proper grammer, but that's the phrase I want to use). There was one play in the third quarter where the Mustang defense was lucky that the ball carrier didn't see the huge hole that was open for him just a little to the right of where he tried to run. If he had seen that, he would've gone right through the D-line and the secondary would have had to have made the stop. And that play was too close to the end zone. Some offensive back ups were obviously in at the end of the game, but what about the defense. Some of the starters were out there. But with the way that defense looked, I seriously hope that wasn't all starters. If it was, then I don't know what to say, except that they looked like they decided to coast through most of the fourth quarter.
And offense, you've got to protect the quarterback. Your job is to give him the time he needs to make the decision and the pass. Or to protect the running back and open holes for him after the hand off. While Sargent didn't have to scramble as much as he did last week. And he wasn't sacked as many times, it still happened too often.
And I'm still waiting for someone to give me a logical reason for watching a punt bounce and roll. My dad and I had a discussion about that strategy earlier this week. He gave lots of "reasons" why a team might employ that option, but none of those reasons were logical reasons. It didn't happen much tonight, but I really would like to understand why that choice is ever made.
Next week, the Mustangs will host the Dawson Eagles for the Pink Out game. The FHS choir will be hosting the pregame dinner (spaghetti) and the entertainment during the dinner will be provided by the FHS choir, the FJH choir and the Cline choir. Tickets are $8 and can be purchased in advance from an FHS choir member or at the door. Barring any unforeseen circumstances, this game will be for second place in district 24-4A and will be for the top seed in D1 for the playoffs.
Come out to FHS and Henry Winston Stadium and wear pink to show your support for finding a cure for breast cancer. It's sure to be a great evening.
If you can't be there, be sure to follow me on twitter: momrod2000 I will be there most of the evening and will be updating throughout the game.
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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