Brandeis and Johnson
Last year, these teams played in the 2nd round of the playoffs and Johnson beat Brandeis by a score of 23 to 17…Johnson lost in the state semi-final to the Katy Tigers. Several of the Brandeis players were underclassmen and I know that Brandeis wanted revenge and gosh, they got it in a blow-out as they defeated Johnson by a score of 38 to 10. I for one, didn’t expect a blow-out…I mean, we are in the Playoffs.
The Johnson Jaguars ran 47 plays for 287 yards. The quarterback, Josh Theissen, had 14 carries for 72 yards, 39 passing yards, and 15 receiving yards with 1 touchdown…126 total yards and 1 touchdown. Vast difference from Week 11 when he had 297 total yards and 4 touchdowns. Josh is a junior and will be one of my players to watch for next year. I really think they need to get him the ball a lot more!! Another junior, Mike Morgan, had 10 carries for 89 yards.
The Brandeis Broncos ran 49 plays for 323 yards. Paul Lozano, the quarterback, was 10 of 17 for 160 yards and 1 touchdown. Lozano managed the game extremely well and several of his completions came on 3rd down. Derek Dennard had 6 receptions for 134 and that 1 touchdown. Jaylen Dukes had 14 carries for 96 yards and 3 touchdowns and Tommy Woods had 3 carries for 42 yards. Lozano, Dukes, and Woods are all juniors!!!
I really like the Brandeis Broncos…they got a great coach in John Campbell, they play smart football, they are solid in all facets of the game, and I must admit, I like watching them play.
The Brandeis Broncos will play the Brownsville Rivera Raiders on Friday at 7 pm at Texas A&M Kingsville.
Reagan and Stevens
This game was an absolute nail biter as it came down to the final play of the game!! Man, this could be my game of the year!!!
Combined, we had 69 points, 118 plays, and 665 yards. Oh, my stats may be a little off because I missed the first 6 minutes of the third quarter…the station we were broadcasting on went down and so did we; but we eventually got back on the air and thank god, cause as I mentioned the finish was awesome.
After 1 quarter, the Reagan Rattlers led the Stevens Falcons 24 to 21. And, Stevens trailed at one point 24 to 7.
At halftime, Stevens trailed 31 to 24. Yeah, a very close game.
Going into the final quarter, Reagan led 38 to 31. So, Stevens had the ball with :36 left and a 2nd and 3 from the 3 yard line…man, I was wondering silently if they score, do they tie or go for the win? They tried to run the ball and gained a yard. WOW!!! Now, we got :28 left and again they ran the ball, but the Reagan defense stuffed it for a 4 yard loss. One final play with :20 left!!! It’s amazing that it all comes down to one play…win or go home!!! The Stevens quarterback, Bobby Chacon, who has been awesome all season and even this game threw the ball to the corner of the end-zone and it was incomplete!!! Game Over!!
The Reagan Rattlers won 38 to 31 over the Stevens Falcons. After losing the first game of the season, the Rattlers have now won 11 in a row. I really got to give kudos to the Stevens Falcons as they never gave up and had a chance to tie or win on the last play.
The Stevens quarterback, Bobby Chacon, was 18 of 27 for 269 yards with 4 touchdowns and 1 interception. Chacon finishes a marvelous senior year with 3,209 passing yards with 31 touchdowns and 15 interceptions. He also led the Falcons with 405 rushing yards with 8 touchdowns. I really hope he gets picked up by a college. The leading receiver was Xavier Ortiz, who had 4 receptions for 73 yards and 3 touchdowns. Tyrek Allen had 3 receptions for 93 yards and 1 touchdown (that touchdown was the first play of the game for Stevens and it was for 70 yards).
The Reagan Rattlers were led by sophomore quarterback, Kellon Mond, who was 11 of 21 for 167 yards with 3 touchdowns and 1 interception. Last week, Mond had 223 rushing yards (he only had 19 in this game). Mond got hurt very late in the game and I hope he is OK, cause he is very valuable to the team. The leading rusher was Ian Leslie who had 9 carries for 50 yards. He also had a 44 yard touchdown reception. Skyler Wetzel had 9 carries for 33 yards and 1 touchdown and a 4 yard touchdown reception (that was all in the first half as he got hurt and didn’t return).
The Reagan Rattlers will play the Los Fresnos Falcons on Saturday at 2 pm at Javelina stadium in Kingsville.
Brennan and Steele
In my preview BLOG I wrote for this game, I was expecting a very close game and quite possibly, the team with the ball last would win. Folks, these 2 teams have been the top 2 teams in the San Antonio area this year and the past several years.
Even though I didn’t write it anywhere on my BLOG (trust me on that), I was verbally telling anybody who would listen to me rant about High School Football, that I think the Brennan Bears will win the game. I just thought that Brennan was more athletic and better at the running back position.
When the game kicked off at 8:20, you could see the excitement in the fans and dude, I must admit, I was psyched. This could end up being one of those games that is talked about in the future!!!
The 2nd play of the game for the Steele Knights was a 61 yard touchdown by Jaylen Harris…man, he showed me and everybody else that he is the fastest player on the football field!!! At the end of the 1st quarter, Steele led Brennan by a score of 14 to 6. Harris had 3 carries for 103 yards and both touchdowns (yeah, damn good fantasy numbers).
The Steele Knights added a field goal in the 2nd quarter and led 17 to 6. Da’Shawn Key, the Brennan quarterback, answered with a 5 yard touchdown run. Steele lead 17 to 12. Key, at that point, had 9 carries for 69 yards and both touchdowns. With less than :30 left in the 2nd quarter, the Steele quarterback, LG Williams, scored on a 2 yard rushing touchdown.
At Halftime, Steele led Brennan by a score of 24 to 12.
During Halftime, I finally got to meet Michael Deleon from TexasHSfootball.com and it was an absolute pleasure. They have been wonderful to me and have really helped promote my BLOG by publishing my High School Football BLOG articles. As I was talking to Michael, I noticed the score-boards went out. When I got back to our press-box, we had no power and Bobby Stautzenberger was switching to some equipment that had a battery (yeah, we always come prepared).
In the first game, the radio station lost their signal and in this game, The Alamodome lost power (let me rephrase that…parts of The Alamodome lost power like the score-boards, video-boards, and play clock, and some of the boxes in the press-box). When play resumed for the 2nd half, the officials kept time and in our booth, Mark Kusenberger also kept time. For me, I had to kill my time of possession stat…I was still able to keep track of everything else.
Steele and Brennan didn’t score in the 3rd quarter or the 4th quarter!!! I really thought I had the best Tweet when the game ended…Game is over or is it? Steele 24 Brennan 12 #txhsfb FINAL.
The Brennan Bears ran 40 plays for 193 yards. OK, when have I ever seen the Bears with under 200 yards? Never!!! And, I have worked a lot of Brennan games. The quarterback, Da’Shawn Key, had 17 carries for 88 yards and 2 touchdowns. Key was also 8 of 14 for 68 yards and 1 interception. Key has been the starter since his freshman year and I am looking forward to watching him continue his football career at the collegiate level (quite possibly at UTSA).
The Steele Knights ran 54 plays for 355 yards. LG Williams, the quarterback, had 23 carries for 133 yards and 1 touchdown and thru the air, he was 8 of 12 for 114 yards. Jaylen Harris had 3 carries for 103 yards and 2 touchdowns and 4 receptions for 60 yards.
The Knights looked faster and more prepared than the Brennan Bears.
The Steele Knights will play the Weslaco East Wildcats on Friday at 7 pm at Buccaneer stadium in Corpus Christi.
I will publish my Week 13 player of the week on Tuesday.
The BLOG is going to be quiet as I am taking some time off from the world to spend time with my wife and my parents. I am definitely expecting Judson, Brandeis, Reagan, and Steele to win their Week 14 games next week and if that does indeed happen, Brandeis would play Steele and Judson would play Reagan in Week 15. I will be back for Week 16.