On Friday night, I saw the number 4 team (Judson Rockets) play the number 8 team (East Central Hornets).
And, last night, I was at Farris stadium for what I am calling “the game of the year” as the number 7 team (Brandeis Broncos) played the number 6 team (O’Connor Panthers) in a District 27-5A battle.
This game should be renamed to the “battle of 1604”!! Dude, less than 4 miles separate these schools and of course Loop 1604. Farris stadium is in Brandeis’s backyard, but I will be quick to point out that O’Connor was built first way back in 1998.
Man, the weather couldn’t have been more perfect (I am glad this game was played last night and not Friday night).
Farris stadium was FULL (I would say about 10,000)…the Brandeis side wore orange shirts and the O’Connor side wore yellow shirts. That was a really cool site to see and I snapped a lot of pictures; I even snuck down to the field during halftime. I really wish every game I work would get this kind of attendance!!!
Coming into last nights game, both teams had identical records of (2-1, 1-0). But, in the game records don’t matter…these teams are neighborhood rivals and bragging rights are on the table. Brandeis and O’Connor are the top two teams in District 27-5A and I think the winner of this game will be the District champion. Last year, O’Connor lost in the state semifinals and Brandeis lost in the state quarterfinals. Yeah, they got winning traditions!!
The last :08 seconds of the game was by far the most unbelievable finish I have ever seen in a High School football game and I got 17 years of this so that says a lot!!! Even better than the Judson Rocket 2002 state championship against Midland Lee.
Let me tell you what happened…
The Brandeis Broncos had a 9 to 7 lead over the O’Connor Panthers with :08 remaining in the game. Everybody was standing and cheering!!
The Panthers kicked what I thought would be a game winning 29 yard field goal. All they had to to was kickoff and defend one play…sounds easy?
The Broncos got the ball with :06 seconds left and 74 yards of field in front of them. O’Connor was defending a pass and they had men 50 yards down the field. The Brandeis quarterback threw a short pass to a wide receiver who lateraled it to another player (at this time, the clock showed triple zeros and the O’Connor players ran on the field to celebrate a 10 to 9 win). I was up in the press-box and I also was giving O’Connor the win as I thought the Brandeis player got tackled out of bounds.
I then saw a Brandeis player running with the football (the O’Connor players who ran on the field had to quickly get back to the sideline). That Brandeis player was finally tackled at the 35 yards line and oh no, a yellow penalty flag is on the field. That penalty was on O’Connor for a sideline infraction which gave Brandeis one last play with no time on the clock. OMG!!!
Brandeis kicked a 30 yard field goal and nailed it and they won the game 12 to 10!!!
The O’Connor fans couldn’t believe what just happened and I was saying unbelievable!!! WOW!!! We sure got treated to an amazing finish!!!
So, what did I think of that penalty? Well, I was in the press-box and I thought the Brandeis player got tackled out of bounds (it happened on the far side of the field and there were a lot of players involved). The officials don’t have instant replay available and they are much closer to the action and they made the call. We can’t go back and do it over!!
I feel bad for O’Connor; I know they will bounce back from this devastating loss.
The Brandeis Broncos will use this win for motivation for the rest of season.
The O’Connor Panthers ran 66 plays for 268 yards. Quarterback, Zach Galindo, was 22 for 41 passing for 219 yards. Nate Phillips, a wide receiver, had 8 receptions for 74 yards. Billy Craft, Mr do it all any position, had 6 receptions for 70 yards and a 26 yard pass completion on a fake punt very early in the game.
The Brandeis Broncos ran 43 plays for 234 yards. Running back, Dayden Wooster, had 19 carries for 111 yards and 1 touchdown. Wooster fumbled in the 4th quarter with 1:20 remaining in the game and that is how O’Connor got the lead of 10 to 9. But, Wooster got redemption as he was the player who got that last lateral which setup the game winning field goal for Brandeis.
The kicker for Brandeis is Jonathan Robinson and had a punt that went 82 yards!!! Yes, 82 yards and that was a huge play cause it ended the first half and had it been any shorter, O’Connor could’ve had an opportunity to score and had that happened, the outcome and final score would’ve been different.
I know I have said this before, but I am so damn lucky that I get to do stats for High School football games and when something amazing happens like last night, I can say I was at that game!!!
This game will be in my football memory as one of the greatest games I have ever worked!!!
I used Hootsuite on my GS3 to share updates of the game to Twitter and Facebook and I am very pleased with the retweets and comments. It creates more awareness of my blog and that is what I want.
On Thursday night, I will be at the Spring Sports complex as the Highlands Owls play the Burbank Bulldogs.
I will be back home at D W Rutledge stadium on Friday as the Judson Rockets play Corpus Christi Carroll Tigers.