Well, I will tell you…
Cory Sears was a former Judson high school football player. His defensive line coach at Judson was Pete Gibbens, who was the head coach for Wagner up until last year! Sears played in the NFL for the Rams, the Cardinals, and the Texans. While with the Texans, Sears won the most improved player and he dedicated that award to Judson and Pete Gibbens!!! And, I can only assume that the award is shaped like a hammer, but to be honest, I couldn’t locate any pictures of it.
Judson leads the series with 5 wins 2 losses.
I missed the 2010 game cause I was getting Married.
In 2011, Judson was ranked Number 1 and Wagner was ranked Number 5 and the Wagner Thunderbirds stunned the Rockets and me.
Last year, Judson shut-out Wagner.
Coming into the game this year, Judson had 4 wins and 1 loss and Wagner was winless. But, for this game, records don’t matter as this is for bragging rights!!! Judson and Wagner are the only high schools in the Judson Independent School District and the players on both teams grew up together.
Going to a Judson game in Converse is always exiting, but going to a Hammer Bowl game is unbelievably awesome is it always attracts a full house. When the football schedule comes out, this game is one that I look forward to attending!
During halftime, I actually went down to the field because I knew this would be a great opportunity to get some great pictures of the crowd, the bands, and the massive press-box! I also finally got meet Joe Perez, Jr from the Judson Football Highlights facebook page. Dude, it was so awesome to see the bands up close and personal. My timing was almost perfect as I only missed 2 plays to start the 3rd quarter!!!
I know the Rockets, offensively and defensively, are rolling, but they have had the turnover and penalty bug.
I have yet to work a Wagner game this year, but I know they will play hard till the very end especially when the opponent on the other side is the Judson Rockets.
I was expecting a close game, but in the back of my mind, I wanted a Judson victory!!!
So, yeah, I was speechless and very surprised as Wagner jumped out to an early 12 to 3 lead with just over 5 and a half minutes left in first quarter. Judson, turned it around very quickly as they scored the next 47 points while Wagner managed just 6 more points. WOW!!!
Final score was Judson 47 and Wagner 18. Judson is (5-1, 1-0 district) and the Wagner Thunderbirds are (0-6, 0-1 district).
Okay, now for some strange stats from the game:
There were 31 penalties for 243 yards combined (this was actually not the most penalized game I have worked. Last year, I worked a Brandeis and Warren game in which there were 36 penalties for 224 yards).
There were 10 turnovers combined and also 31 incomplete passes combined.
And, there were several injury time-outs. The game finally finished at around 10:40 (so we had a very short Friday night scoreboard show). Man, last week, our Friday game ended an hour earlier!!!
The Wagner Thunderbirds ran 61 plays for 213 yards. Tekoa Bryant-McKinnies, the quarterback, was 10 for 25 for 86 yards and 1 inteception. Running back, Brandon Burr had 12 carries for 57 yards. Another running back, Eric Tilghman, had 10 carries for 34 yards and 1 touchdown.
Kevion Ramsey, a Judson defensive back, had 2 fumble recoveries and the interception.
The Judson Rockets ran 76 plays for 456 yards. Rayjohn Austin-Ramsey was 18 for 34 for 269 yards with 3 touchdowns and 2 interceptions. Andre Wilson had 3 receptions for 85 yards and 1 touchdown and Cedric Williams had 5 receptions for 113 yards and 1 touchdown. Yes, folks, Judson is a really good passing team!!!
The Rockets don’t have a dominating running back like in the past, but that doesn’t matter anymore as they spread the ball around. On Friday, they had 41 carries for 168 yards and 3 touchdowns. I was really impressed with Malik Pryor and Malik Taylor as running backs. Pryor had 3 carries for 41 and 1 touchdown. Taylor made his debut with 13 carries for 52 yards (he is only a Sophomore).
Tomorrow, I will debut something new called “ask the stat man a question?”
On Thursday, I will bet at Farris stadium for a pivotal District 27-5A game between the Clark Cougars and the Jay Mustangs.
On Friday, I will be at Ranger stadium as the Judson Rockets play the Smithson Valley Rangers. If the Rockets want to win, they better have zero penalties and turnovers. OMG, if Judson does win, they will have Number 1 spot for the most consecutive years of winning seasons with 37!!! That is pretty awesome and for the past several years, I have had a front-row seat to it!!!