Tonight, the Friendswood Mustangs celebrated Halloween by hosting the Clear Lake Falcons at Henry Winston Stadium for the last regular season game to be played this year in that stadium. This was also the annual Pink Out game.
I don't know if it was because it was Halloween, or if there was something else going on, but the stadium seemed awfully empty tonight. It could also be that many band parents stayed home since the band has roll call at 4am on Saturday, I don't know if the lower attendance affected the players much, but it did affect the atmosphere. Also affecting the atmosphere was most of the band leaving after half time - again due to 4am roll call.
Of course, you could also argue the the game's lack of drama affected the atmosphere. I'm not saying that the teams didn't play great. Both teams put forth a great effort and worked very hard tonight. There were some amazing catches, some great blocks and lots of flags. I don't know. I'm having trouble putting into words what it was like in the stands tonight.
When the game first began, everything seemed to be going to Mustang's way. It took the Mustangs less than 2 minutes to find the end zone - and the Mustangs kicked off to Clear Lake. Three minutes later, the Mustangs found the end zone again. Things began to slow down after that. It took the Mustangs almost 8 minutes to get back into the end zone. The penalties really got started here and seemed to increase in frequency as the night went on. By my count, there were 11 penalties tonight. Too many of them were unsportsmanlinke conduct and the Mustangs earned/received too many of them. I'm not saying they were undeserved - I'd have to see the video to be sure on most of those - but if they were deserved, then Friendswood needs to keep their cool better than they did this evening.
One good thing about tonight's game was that some of the players who don't get to play alot did get to play tonight. Some of those players are improving as the season goes on and tonight they got to show us a little of what they've learned. That makes me optimistic for the future of the Mustangs with so many of the starters being seniors. Also, tonight, some of the players got to play different positions than what they usually play - and saw success. They weren't players who are not starter material in their regular positions. They are starters. They just got to do something a little different and showed everyone that they are good at more than one thing.
Tonight, the defense seemed to do the opposite of what they normally do. Most games, the defense gets stronger and tougher as the night goes on. Today, they seemed to play worse the longer the game went. I'm not saying that each play was worse than the last. Just that the defense didn't dominate as much. Also, Clear Lake seemed the learn that while the Mustangs usually stop a receiver quickly, it's usually after the pass is caught that the stop is made. This is a problem that has plagued Friendswood for years and needs to be remedied. Those caught passes move the line of scrimmage, the chains and the numbers on the scoreboard.
Some of the Mustangs played great tonight. Those "attaboys" include: White, Longbotham, Crespo, Roher, Vandersypen, Robinson, Langston, King, Roenne, Swaney, and Toney.
Tonight's boxscore was
1Q 2Q 3Q 4Q Final
Clear Lake Falcons 0 3 0 8 11
Friendswood Mustangs 14 14 7 0 35
Next week the Mustangs will travel to League City on Thursday, November 6, 2014, to take on the Clear Brook Wolverines in the last regular season game of the year. Kick off will be at 6pm.
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