What I Saw and What I Heard

By
December 2, 2006

I fretted all week long about where I wo go on Friday night to watch Six-man football. I wanted to see all seven of the playoff games that were being played in both Division 1 and Division 2. I decided to go to Stanton and watch Garden City and Meadow in a highly anticipated game between two of the top teams in Division 1. These teams had been on a collision course ever since they scrimmaged each other back in the dog days of August.

I had seen Garden City play only one time this season. What a game that was. Garden City handed Throckmorton a loss in Week Zero in a game played in Hico. The score was 38-36 and that was in overtime. Even at that time, Garden City seem destined for great things. Great things were done by these BearKats as they went through the entire regular season undefeated and rolled into the playoffs where they received a first round bye and then dispatched of Wellman-Union in the second round to earn a shot at the young men from Meadow. With all the cherished wins came the pain of injuries of players over the course of the long season. Garden City was blessed with good numbers of players and with great talent and even greater heart. When their star player went down another would step in and become a star himself. The injury bug kept biting and biting and it finally took its toll against Meadow.

Meadow also was destined for greatness dating back to the scrimmages held at Grande Communications Stadium in Midland way back in August. I watched Meadow play a couple of times during the season. The first game I saw Meadow play this season was against Whitharral. Whitharral is a Division 2 team and a good one at that. Good enough to still be playing this week end themselves. Meadow won that game by the score of 99 to 60. That was the third week of the season. Meadow of course went on to run the table during the regular season and then beat Robert Lee and Fort Davis in rounds one and two. It was the Robert Lee game that I watched when I saw Meadow play for the second time during this season and they totally dominated that Bi-District game. The score was 72-24. Just as GC faced the battle of injuries, Meadow, had to deal with key injuries themselves. When a star player would go down, a Meadow player would step in and Meadow would continue to roll on its collision course with Garden City....... Meadow was indeed on a roll and it continued last night.

I remember talking with Garden City's Head Coach, Vance Jones after the OT win over Throckmorton. When I asked how he felt, beaming his infectious smile he said “It feels good, really good.” Last night when I got to the stadium at Stanton and had a chance to speak with Coach Jones before the game, he said, “I feel good, really good...right now anyway”. After the game he would say, “ we had too many turnovers. I don't even remember how many times we did turn it over but you been around long enough to know that you can't do that against a good team and Meadow has a good team”.

For certain, turnovers played a big part in Garden City's loss however, the Meadow “D” played huge as Garden City was fored to turnover the balls on downs several times besides the uncharacteristic miscues pf the night. Turnovers hurt. Especially when the other team scores after you make the mistake that gives them the ball. That is exactly what Meadow did last night. Two Garden City fumbles in the second quarter and one more in the 4th quarter all led to points by Meadow. Twenty points worth. Oh! I don't think I have mentioned that Meadow won the game by the score of 54 to 34. A twenty point victory. That margin of victory looks mysteriously like the twenty points that came as a result of the turnovers I have already listed.

When Garden City didn't turn the ball over, they put points on the board. They trailed 26 to 8 at the half and were able to score 26 points in the second half but Meadow would respond by scoring 14 points in the third and 14 more in the 4th quarter. Twice it appeared that Garden City would get back in the game. They scored on a beautiful 50 yard run by Bo Eggemeyer very early in the 3rd quarter. Mr. Eggemeyer finished the night with nearly 250 yards rushing. Any new found momentum for GC was lost when Meadow came right back and scored on a 40 yard pass. Garden City responded with another touchdown of their own in the third quarter but Adrian Sanchez returned the ensuing kickoff 70 yards for a touchdown and that took the air out of a Garden City come back. Sanchez opened the night's scoring by returning the game's opening kickoff 80 yards for a touchdown. Meadow missed their PAT and led 6-0. That would be the score at the end of the first quarter. Garden City scored early in the second quarter and made their kick to take the lead 8-6. It would be the only lead of the night for Garden City as the turnovers would kill any chance they had. As Coach Jones would say in the end, “it was just one of those nights”.

Meadow, now 13-0, advances to play Rule, 11-0 next week in the State Semifinals round. Rule eliminated the defending State Champions, Throckmorton by the score of 36-28. The game is to be played in Lubbock at Lowery Field either on Friday or Saturday.

The other semifinals round game will match two more undefeated teams. Richland Springs, 12-0 will take on Blum 13-0. That game is Friday night at 7:30 in Comanche. Blum is the home team and the ticket prices will be $8.00 for adults and $5.00 for students.

Sure hope Rule and Meadow play on Saturday as I want to see both games and I know many others will as well. The hold up at this point is when will Lowery Field be available and that won't be known most likely until the games are played there today.

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