I love Homecoming. I enjoy seeing all the alumni who return for the game and visiting with people I haven't seen in a while. However, I am always nervous for the game itself. When I was in junior high and high school, I always thought that our football coaches chose a team they knew they could beat for Homecoming because they wanted to look good in front of the larger crowd. As an adult and parent of high school students, I think that whoever made that decision did so knowing that the students' focus would be divided during the week - and who wants to lose on Homecoming? Seeing everything going on during the week, I can see how it would be difficult for the coaches and teachers to keep the students focused on anything during the week of Homecoming. To those coaches and teacher who succeeded, congratulations.
Congratulations are also in order to the 2016 Football Sweetheart candidates and Homecoming Queen candidates. The 2016 Football Sweetheart is Natalie Crowder and the 2016 Homecoming Queen is Elaina Roher.
The game itself started with Friendswood receiving the kickoff and the offense needing only 3 plays to find the end zone. For the most part, during the first half, the Friendswood offense looked like they were not as effected by all the extra festivities of the game. There were some mistakes, but for the most part, they were without lasting consequences. During the first quarter, Page, Whitaker, and Roher found themselves with the ball in the end zone. Williamson accounted for 7 points (field goal and 4 extra point kicks). During that same time, the defense only gave up 7 points, but for the most part, they didn't look great. Throughout the game, Clear Lake was able to slip tackles and bounce off defenders. I am hopeful that that was just lack of focus and not the sign of things to come.
Karam was able to get into the game for the entire second half and played well despite the fact that the O-line didn't protect him as well as they have in the past. I admit, I missed most of the 3rd quarter due to Homecoming, but when I got back to my seat, I saw that the score hadn't changed much. One thing I did notice during the second half is that Karam is more in sync with the non-starting receivers than with the starters. Practice time?
The box score for the game was:
1Q 2Q 3Q 4Q TOTAL
Clear Lake Falcons 7 0 0 14 21
Friendswood Mustangs 17 14 3 7 41
I'm sorry I don't have more to say about the game itself. Now, I will say, if what I have heard about what goes on in practices in true, I sincerely hope that it doesn't come back to bite the team later. Everyone should be participating in practices. Every receiver should spend time catching passes from both quarterbacks and every O-line member should be spending time protecting the quarterbacks and opening holes for the run and everyone on the offense should be well versed in blocking. Every D-line member should practice plugging holes and every D-back and safety should spend time defending against the pass. No team member should ever be able to say that he didn't touch the ball or weren't running plays/shcemes during practice.
This week's atta-boys go to: Swaney, Blackburn, Page, Broddie, Peterson, Hermes, Karam, Lynch, Dobard, Roher, Whitaker, Williamson, Ford, Horman, Nickerson, Halata, Nemecek, Lucarelli, Riggs & Hurst.
Next week, the Mustangs (6-1, 4-1) will travel to the new CCISD Challenger Columbia Stadium to take on the Clear Springs Chargers (7-1, 5-0) in what will be the toughest game the Mustangs have faced in several weeks, maybe even the whole season to date. Up for grabs Friday night is the district title for Springs or a share in the district title for Friendswood. Clear Springs is the only undefeated team left in 24-6A. Springs beat Dickinson and Dickinson beat Friendswood. IF Springs wins, they will remain undefeated with only Clear Lake (3-5, 2-3) on their regular season schedule. IF Friendswood wins, there will be a 3-way tie for the district title with only Alvin (4-4, 2-3) left on their schedule. Dickinson, who will be the third team in this three-way tie scenario, is playing Clear Creek (3-5, 0-5) on Friday and will play Clear Falls (2-6, 0-5) next week. This scenario is why the tie breaker rule is important. After all that, I just have one thing left to say -
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