The only negative about working games in District 27-5A is the fact that the two football stadiums are in traffic congested areas of town and when I have a game on Thursdays and Fridays, it is stop and go traffic almost the entire drive to the stadium from where I work! And, for the icing on the cake, where I work is a HUGE construction zone also…1604 and 281!!
Despite the stupid fucking traffic, I made it to both games with plenty of time to lollygag and do my pregame routines!!! Now you’re probably imagining what the hell does Mark do before a football game? Well, the first thing I do is I find the ideal location for my stat board and I duct tape it to the wall. Then I proceed to enter the starters names on it. For radio games, I hang the radio and TSRN banner and if needed I may help in the setup of equipment. For TV and UTSA games, everything is setup and ready to go!!! When I am all done with my pregame, I watch the teams warm-up and chit-chat with broadcasters when they are not on the air!!!
Thursday night it was the Brandeis Broncos and the Stevens Falcons at Gustafson stadium. I saw Brandeis in Week 2 and they looked sharp on both sides of the ball despite all the stupid penalties they made; that particular game was also running back Trinton Ynclan’s first game after being injured in a scrimmage before the season started and he looked really good. This was my first time seeing the Stevens Falcons this season.
A few minutes after I arrived at the game, we got a nice 10 minute rain storm with a rainbow. You should’ve seen how fast I moved the laptop! I took some weather pictures and I will share them at the end of this article. I should probably start bringing my digital camera with me as it takes better photos than my Galaxy Tab. But with the Tab, I can so easily email em to myself; unlike the camera where I have take the memory card out and put in my memory card reader and then plug it into a usb port on my laptop…there is more, then I have to locate the files and save em to the desktop. Please tell me that there is a smart phone out there that takes really good photos? I will likely be getting my first smart phone in February. That will be a whole article of its own in a few months.
Back to the game…my stat board location was in a great place for me, but not for Ernie and Wane…there was a camera and camera man in between me and the talent! So, when I wanted to tell them something, I had to hold my little stat board really high so Ernie and Wane could see it.
At halftime, I met an intern from KABB Fox 29 and he is also the program director for KSYM 90.1. I think I found my way in to hang out with Richard Turner, he hosts a Beatles show on Sundays!!! He also gave me a suggestion on where to post my 2 40×60 Beatles posters that I am trying to sell.
Trinton Ynclan had almost as many yards as the entire Steven’s offense and that just shows how impressive Brandeis was on Thursday night. Ynclan had 12 carries for 180 yards and 2 touchdowns (that was only thru 2 ½ quarters). Two other Brandeis running backs, Chase Guillory and Dayden Wooster, handled the load quite adequately when Ynclan was not in the game. Combined, Guillory and Wooster had 15 carries for 128 yards and 3 touchdowns. The only blemish for Brandeis was penalties as they had 14 for 118 yards. I gotta mention Trevor Hernandez…dude blocked a punt and a field goal; awesome!!!!
Stevens ran a total of 59 plays for 190 yards of total offense. Being known primarily as a running team, they only gained 43 yards on the ground. I blame the Brandeis defense for the lousy offensive production, but that happens for every team that Brandeis plays!!!
On Friday morning, a co-worker came up to me cause she saw my name on the credits after the game ended last night. She wanted to know if that was me? I whispered YEP. I even showed her some pictures from the game!!! I am famous!! What a great way to start my Friday morning!
Thanks dad for the alternate word suggestions for SAID!!! Check out his BLOG @ http://65andalive.blogspot.com/.
Final score
Brandeis 43 (4-1, 3-0)
Stevens 7 (1-4, 1-2)
Farris stadium was my workplace on Friday night for the O’Connor Panthers and the Jay Mustangs. This game was broadcasted by two of my guest bloggers from Inside the Huddle: Mark Kusenberger and Virgil Peterson. Mark also hosted the Friday night scoreboard show since Bobby was on the road as the Judson Rockets traveled to Corpus Christi Carroll. Unless I have a day off, I don’t do Judson road trips. This season, Judson has 2 more road trips scheduled to San Marcos and New Braunfels Canyon. I will for sure be at the Canyon game as that Friday is a day off for me.
I saw O’Connor in Week 2 and I was really impressed with running back Tre Johnson…he had over 300 yards rushing; wow!!! This was my first time seeing Jay this season, but I do know they have a really really really talented wide receiver. About 6 or 7 years ago, I worked a Jay game with Mark Kusenberger and they didn’t attempt a single pass; all running plays with Myron Brew and Zach Young!!!
So, last night, it rained for the entire game. And, even before and after the game when I had to drive in it. On my drive to the stadium, I had to stop for gas and the station I stopped at, there computers and pumps were down! That sucked cause I was really low in fuel. Not to worry, I made it to another gas station and when I left it was a heavy downpour of rain for the rest of the drive to Farris and very slow driving.
Man, I felt bad for the fans who had to sit and take cover under umbrellas and ponchos. Plus, it was home coming for O’Connor and those kids were all dressed up; stupid rain. There were also no bands and cheerleaders. It was a very quiet and fast defensive game with a wet football which made snapping it a tough job all game long.
Jay had less than 200 of total offense. Josh Reynolds, the really really really talented wide receiver for the Jay Mustangs, had 7 receptions for 87 yards and a sweet 13 yard touchdown run on a fake field goal (funny thing is, during the commercial break, I said out loud let Reynolds run the ball). He is clutch!! He is tall!!! He is the kicker!!! He is so impressive to watch!! The running back for Jay, Adonis Hulbert, had 33 carries for 98 yards.
Tre Johnson, the running back for O’Connor, had 26 carries for 142 yards and 1 touchdown and a 7 yard reception. The O’Connor offense had 149 yards of total offense. Wait, Tre had 149 yards just by himself! Hmm, how did that happen? Three O’Connor players had negative yards running the ball; this was caused by sacks and fumbled punts.
The difference maker for O’Connor was the defensive back, Alan Wright. Wright had 3 huge interceptions all in the 2nd half to seal the win for the Panthers. Wright is also a wide receiver and kick returner. Last year, he was the quarterback.
Final score
Jay 7 (2-3, 2-1)
O’Connor 17 (3-2, 2-1)
I know we are only in Week 4, but I think Brandeis, O’Connor, and Warren are the top 3 teams in District 27-5A with Brandeis definitely the cream of the crop The top 4 teams make the playoffs and gosh, that fourth slot is probably gonna be a battle till the last game between the Holmes Huskies and Jay Mustangs.
Tonight, I am at Rutledge stadium as the Wagner Thunderbirds play Monterrey Tech from Mexico.
