Go Friday Night

Sweet Homecoming Victory

What a game! It started out a little scary. Hawley looked unstoppable marching straight down field for the game's first score. Josh did his thing and caught us up 7-7, but Hawley quickly adjusted and shut him down the rest of the half.

I didn't know what to expect after the thrashing Coleman delivered the week before. My gut was telling me that we get better as the game goes on and if we could keep it close, we'd win. Turns out my gut was right.

The second half was all Hammers. The defense was phenomenal. Levi and Hunter made great plays that inspired the others to elevate their games. Hawley didn't know what hit them. Coach Lucas started putting pressure on the QB with stunts and pass rushes. Hawley abandoned their game plan, which was a mistake. The running game that had been so successful early on, wasn't even a factor in the last two quarters.

We backed them all the way into their own end zone, then took 'em down for a safety. Sean Lee had a fumble return for a touchdown called back due to an illegal block. We recovered another fumble on a bad snap but then turned it right back over with an interception. We should have had another two scores at least. But a win is a win.

I'm real impressed by the play of our younger players. The sophomore starters, Ryan, Hunter, Brandtly and Dylan are not scared anymore. They're starting to look like they belong on the field with those older guys and that's a good thing for Coach Lucas. Ryan was all over the place defensively but got sidelined with leg cramps before the half. Freshman Tyler Lucas stepped in at linebacker, and with Phillip limping around, Tyler did a good job of making stops. Phillip played through the pain well which is a good thing since there was no one else to fill in at linebacker.

Injuries are the only thing standing between the Yellowhammers and a playoff spot. We've played four games and three of them against Class 2A opponents . Haskell and Coleman are great teams to be sure, but we played both teams without all of our best players. We seem to be getting better but it's going to be our durability that determines whether or not we make it to the big dance.

I'm convinced without a doubt, that the third playoff spot is ours for the taking. Realisticaly, Albany may be destined for the third spot as Cisco showed us how vulnerable they can be. Cisco is probably the best team in Class 2A, but even Merkel managed to score on them. So I'm saying, without anything other than my intuition to go on, that Albany's loss to Cisco trumps our loss to Coleman. Our mutal opponent was Haskell, which Albany beat 34-28. If you didn't know our situation, you'd say that gives Albany the edge. There are plenty of folks around here who think we could've beaten that Haskell team. I hope Albany looks at that mutual opponent as evidence that they don't have to take us seriously.

Things are looking up.

• Cam Tovias
• September 25, 2007 6:02 PM

Hammer Update

Well here we are entering week 3 and the jury is still out on how good this team really is. On the one hand, the Hammers were pummeled by Haskell in the season opener. The game was so ugly in fact, that I didn't even cover it on this site. Turnovers and the absence of key players played a huge part in the loss, but I don't know if we could've beaten them that night anyway. In short, we just didn't show up.

Then Bronte came to town. The Longhorns were not a very good football team, or did we make them look bad? Either way we whooped 'em pretty good. Josh Reese showed the critics what he can do when he's healthy and focused. At times his speed looked similar to his cousin Jackie's, who shredded defenses just two years ago. If and when Josh realizes that he's special, this team is headed for greatness.

Hunter Kennedy had a great game on both sides of the ball. The kid is a monster. He can do just about anything he wants on the line of scrimmage. We'll see how well he does against the competition as the teams get better.

Coleman is no joke. We'll know just how good (or bad) we are after Friday's game.

• Cam Tovias
• September 12, 2007 8:16 AM