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I have a new girlfriend
November 28, 2007Don't tell my wife, but I have a new girlfriend.
Her name is the high school football playoffs. I'm with her constantly.
We go away on the weekends, leaving my wife to look after the house and three crazy pets (who become even crazier now that we have our Christmas tree up. There's something about cats and not being able to stay away from Christmas trees. Does anyone else have this problem?)
She creeps into my life once a year, sticks around for a few weeks, and then leaves abruptly.
Anyway, this weekend I am hitting the road for the third time in a row (Amarillo, DFW-Stephenville were the first two trips), going to Abilene.
Actually, first I will be at Windthorst-Goldthwaite in Stephenville, before heading to Munday-Roscoe on Saturday night. I may drive out and watch Vernon-Seminole in Sweetwater, too.
I love this time of year, although it makes for some long weeks. But I am beginning to get the feeling my wife can't wait until the end of December comes and the high school football season is over.
Here are a couple of thoughts from last weekend (sorry they are so late), and on Thursday I will make my Week 3 playoff predictions.
* The most miserable weather I have ever covered a football game in was going on Saturday in Stephenville. The cold (35 degrees), plus the rain and gusting winds made me thankful I was in the pressbox for the Graham-Argyle game.
I thought that weather would play into Graham's hands (and Coach McCoy did too), but Argyle had no problems moving the ball. And Graham quarterback Case McCoy completed only one pass.
Graham was one of those teams I thought could go real far (and I was secretly hoping for a Graham-Vernon showdown in two weeks), but I think the Steers might have peaked too soon.
Their two most impressive performances I saw from them this season (Abilene Wylie, Bishop Lynch) occurred in the first half of the season.
After their bye, they barely beat IP, lost to Vernon, beat a tough Burk team but gave up lots of yards to them, struggled for 2 1/2 quarters vs. Dalhart and then lost this game to Argyle.
* Looks like 9-A is still going strong. All three teams are alive, and like last year, there was a 9-A sweep over 11-A at Memorial last Friday.
Munday crushed Collinsville 63-0, which was not all that surprising to me. I saw Windthorst beat Collinsville 63-7 last year in the playoffs. And Seymour took care of business, 29-13 against Valley View.
Windthorst was the biggest surprise, but I was not totally thrown off-guard by its upset of Gorman. Gorman had only beaten one winning team, and Windthorst had played a really tough schedule.
Plus, the fact that Gorman's strengths played into the Trojans' hands, coupled with playoff experience, and you had an upset waiting to happen.
* Rider needs to put away the next tough team it faces. And I am not talking about Lubbock Estacado, either.
Most likely, Rider will get Everman in the regional finals, the same round where the Raiders have lost in 2004 and 2006.
Both times (against Aledo and Frenship) they had chances to win those games. And against Stephenville on Friday, they had chances to put them away but didn't until the very end.
When up on a team by 19 points in the fourth quarter, you gotta go for the jugular. It sounded like Rider didn't, and they nearly paid the price.
Posted by Zach Duncan at 12:04 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)
