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Class 4A poll
September 28, 2009Denton Guyer remained No. 2 and Denton Ryan moved up another spot to No. 8 in the latest AP poll. I guess we'll find out in November and December if the top of this district is really elite or the bottom of it is just so bad it made the playoff teams look better than they are.
Here's how I voted in Class 5A and Class 4A:
5A
1st Place: Cedar Hill
2nd Place: Round Rock Stony Point
3rd Place: Dallas Skyline
4th Place: Allen
5th Place: The Woodlands
6th Place: Tyler John Tyler
7th Place: Galena Park North Shore
8th Place: Mesquite Horn
9th Place: Fort Bend Hightower
10th Place: Lufkin
4A
1st Place: Lake Travis
2nd Place: Denton Guyer
3rd Place: Sulphur Springs
4th Place: Longview
5th Place: Waxahachie
6th Place: Denton Ryan
7th Place: Hewitt Midway
8th Place: Schertz Steele
9th Place: Angleton
10th Place: Big Spring
Posted by Andy Newberry at 4:44 PM | Permalink | Comments (2)
Ryan 52, Rider 7, FINAL
September 25, 2009Rider breaks the ice on a 25-yard touchdown pass from Malcolm Carter to Gary Broussard. The Raiders had previously made a first down on their opening possession of the third.
Ryan answers with TD for 45-7 lead.
Rider muffs a punt and Ryan recovers. Backup RB Will Clark scores from the 9 on next play, his second score of the quarter. 52-7.
I'm thinking Scotty Young is done for the night with 303 yards (He threw one pass in the 4th to finish at 306).
Rider's A.J. Scallion returned the last kickoff 84 yards to the Ryan 14-yard line. But Mason Deerinwater was stopped just short of the marker on third down and had no chance on fourth-and-1.
FIRST HALF:
Ryan had a good drive result in a missed field goal on its first try, but came back to score on a 6-play 48-yard drive for a 7-0 lead.
Scott Young has 215 yards passing less than a minute into the second quarter. Ryan has three touchdowns. Rider has one first down.
It's a runaway.
Star receiver Bud Sasser finally scores on a 12-yard fade rout. It's 35-love. A 45-yard field goal makes it 38-0 at halftime.
Posted by Andy Newberry at 7:17 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)
Another 5-4A opener
At Collins Stadium where I'm getting ready for the Ryan vs. Rider game. I'm hoping I'm wrong about this game and it turns into a close one as I get my first live look at the 2009 Raiders.
Across town, the Coyotes are thinking of ways to make up for losing Eddie Aboussie, broken left foot, over the few weeks.
Good news for WFHS is that The Colony struggled mightily in a 62-13 loss to Guyer last night. That could mean that Guyer is just too good.
Posted by Andy Newberry at 6:32 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)
35-12 Coyotes at Memorial
September 24, 2009Denton picked up four first downs, once after a Coyote penalty gave them a second chance, but the Broncos fumbled at the WFHS 25 to end a promising first possession.
The Coyotes have gained first downs on four consecutive plays with three rushes by Eddie Aboussie and one by QB T.J. Anderson.
The Coyotes' Daulton Davidson fumbles away a scoring chance trying to make extra yards after contact
A quick exchange of punts as defenses show up.
Denton makes a major mistake on a fake punt, giving the Coyotes the ball on the 36, but Old High misses a chance when on the fourth-down swinging gate play Davidson drops Anderson's sure TD pass.
0-0 after one.
The Coyotes scored on their first two offensive plays of the second quarter on a 39-yard run by Aboussie and a bomb down the sideline to Devontay Chaffin, who went up and took the ball away from the lone defender. Aboussie's covered 39 yards and Chaffin's was from the 23.
The Coyotes made it 21-0 just before the half with the swinging gate play. Anderson took the snap and rolled right to find Connor Bishop for a 13-yard TD pass.
Denton turned the ball over with a forced fumble by Montrail McNeely and a recovery by Felipe Silva.
Anderson made an impressive throw, rolling to his left against his body and leading Bishop to the flag on a 19-yard TD.
28-0 Coyotes.
B.A. Allen, subbing for the injured Eddie Aboussie, scored on a 10-yard run on the first possession of the third.
Dylan Sheffield came in for Anderson at QB on the next possession.
Denton scored 2 touchdowns late, but missed both PATs.
Posted by Andy Newberry at 6:45 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)
Hirschi's strategy
September 19, 2009You want to know how far Hirschi football has come this year. It's legit to ask about their coaching strategy.
That's progress. I'm not talking about whining and moaning about your kids' playing time. That's still off-limits.
But if you want to question whether or not they should have abandoned their run on Friday against Holliday, then that's a fair question.
It's not a question that was ever asked even once in the Bret Alexander era. It's not a question I would have asked Searcy during his 19-game losing streak.
When things seem almost hopeless, I'm glad to try and give the team any positive the coach can come up with. Simply not giving up is pretty good and will serve the athletes well later in life.
But Hirschi has gotten itself in the game this year. Them quitting isn't and shouldn't be a question. The Huskies will play hard to the final buzzer, mark that down.
I have to think after watching film that Searcy decided his running game couldn't succeed against Holliday, even as well as it did against 4A Springtown. A few early tries did nothing to change his mind.
What he wasn't going to do was run his backs against a brick wall and consider that an effort from his coaching staff. So he decided to do something else, even if it wasn't option No. 1 coming into the season, and give his kids a chance to suceed.
It was obvious his staff didn't take the easy way out and worked hard all week. Doesn't mean they were perfect, but it sure wasn't lack of effort.
Posted by Andy Newberry at 6:38 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)
Still taking my pen and paper
September 16, 2009A lot has changed since I first started going to high school press boxes in 1987 with Jeff Milam.
For one, his computer weighed about 1,000 pounds and the ones now are about as weighted down as my lunch plate at Grand Buffet.
The teams pass much more than the 22 times I have on my sheet. It's amazing how rare it was for me to need a new passing sheet in my first 10 years of going to games.
But what hasn't changed a bit is that I'm trusting my pen and paper to take down stats and notes. There are stat programs you can load on a laptop, but I've never been able to take that step. Neither have many of my fellow sportswriters for Friday night football. At college or pro games there are stat crews handing out official stats, but on Fridays we're on our own and the closest thing there is to an official statistican.
And for now, I'm sticking with my pen and paper system. When the laptop goes down, I'm still armed with the info to write a story with. When a pen goes out, I can just grab another one.
Posted by Andy Newberry at 10:49 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)
!25-24! How does that happen twice?
September 14, 200925-24 is a quarter score in the NBA a lot more often than it becomes a football final score.
Well, unless you're the Buffalo Bills on Monday night. The Bills lost by that score for the second time on Monday Night Football in the past three seasons.
Remember Tony Romo's 6-pack? Of turnovers that is. The Cowboys QB threw five interceptions and lost a fumble at Buffalo in Oct. 2007.
But the Cowboys rallied to score twice in the final 20 seconds as Nick Folk made a 53-yard field goal at the buzzer to steal a win.
When the Patriots scored late on Monday night to cut the lead to 24-19 and missed their 2-point try, I thought history was going to repeat itself.
But instead of an onside kick the Pats kicked the ball deep. Even better as the Bills fumbled and Tom Brady fired a quick TD pass to give the Pats a 25-24 win.
Next time the Bills play on Monday night. Bet the house on 49 total points and a 25-24 score.
Or can lightning strike three times.
Posted by Andy Newberry at 10:05 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)
Huskies will win this week
September 5, 2009Early prediction that the Hirschi losing streak will likely be history as of 10 p.m. Thursday night.
The Huskies are 0-2 and Friday's 35-14 loss to Springtown may look a lot like last year's 40-6 loss on the scoreboard, but it's not the same.
The Huskies ran the ball 52 times. They look explosive and several times appeared to be a block or missed tackle away from a big play.
There were no late-game 15-yard fouls that go along with losing teams and losing attitudes.
The Huskies may or may not make the playoffs this year. But I'll be shocked if they don't make a little noise at some point in 5-3A.
Posted by Andy Newberry at 4:21 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)
Eagles may have hard time moving up
September 2, 2009The Holliday Eagles couldn't have been more impressive on Friday night, opening with an explosive offensive performance in a win over tradition-rich Windthorst.
But the Eagles fell a slot to No. 8 in the AP Poll.
That's despite a No. 3 vote from yours truly, this area's representive in the poll, which has 25 voters from around the state.
My list had Arp No. 1 followed by Daingerfield, the No. 1 team in the poll. Arp hammered Omaha Paul Pewitt, which had entered the season at No. 9 in 2A. OPP may be down this year but it's still a shocker to see those boys get whipped.
With such strength at the top, it may take a while for Holliday to climb in the poll even if it stays undefeated.
My votes:
2A:
1st Place: Arp
2nd Place: Daingerfield
3rd Place: Holliday
4th Place: Kirbyville
5th Place: Refugio
6th Place: Muleshoe
7th Place: Bushland
8th Place: Newton
9th Place: Altair Rice
10th Place: Lone Oak
Posted by Andy Newberry at 9:12 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)
