OT: High School Football Game This Evening

[Go Coogs']

Tonight, our local HS was playing for all the marbles in district.

Atascocita 7-1 (3-1) vs Eisenhower 6-3 (4-1).

Atascocita's one loss was during a monsoon on a Friday night. Their FG kicker missed a chip shot to tie the game late in the 4th. Fucking terrible.

Two of Ike's losses came at the hands of the 7th and 8th ranked schools in the state. Their other loss was in district which was a huge upset.

The stage was set. Winner gets a banner and an easier opponent in the first round of the playoffs.

Both have pedestrian offenses, but their defenses is what they hang their hat on. Both play a 3-4 and a lot of zone scheme. Ike plays more man coverage and have a Shawn Merriman type outside LB who is committed to Iowa State. Atascocita depends heavily on it's LBs to stuff the run and put pressure on the QB on passing downs. Their secondary is weak in coverage, but they have capitalized on QB hurries in creating TOs all season long. That was the case tonight.

It was a defensive struggle late in the first half. Ike's star LB was in the backfield constantly applying pressure and stuffing the run. Atascocita was equal to the task until there was 3 minutes left in the first half. Ike started to move the ball, but had to settle for FG.

With a 1:20 left, Atascocita drove down 60 yards on a handful of plays and scored a TD with :03 on the clock. Huge momentum shift headed into the locker room.

Second half, Atascocita received the kick and drove down the field again and scored a TD to make it a 14-3 game. After a couple of posession changes, Ike finally put together a solid drive and scored a TD late in the third quarter. They went for two and got it. 14-11 headed into the 4th. Ike started getting a little momentum but Atascocita got a huge int and it set up a big field goal to put the Eagles up 17-11.

Back and forth again with the defensive play. Then Ike got the ball back with 3:30 to play. They are driving. They get deep into AHS territory and it looks as though they are going to punch it in. They have the ball on the 26 yardline. AHS calls a zone blitz and get immediate pressure on the QB. He is forced outside the pocket and makes a desperation throw towards the endzone and our CB picks it off with 1:07 to play. Fucking awesome.

Game over, right? Wrong. Ike has all three of their timeouts left. So this is where the Atascocita coaches shit the bed usually and they did it again tonight....almost. Ike puts 9 in the box and AHS runs it three times straight into the mouth of the defense. They get no yards. They take exactly 12 seconds off the clock and are forced to punt from their own endzone. This is my problem. Ike is sold out on the run and we have two of the biggest receivers in the Houston area. Quentin Parks - 6'3" 220 and Everette Pleasant - 6'5" 210. Both receivers have very good hands and Pleasant can jump out of a fucking building. The QB can throw, so that wasn't the issue. Okay. Why the fuck not take a shot downfield when you've got single coverage from CBs who are less than 5'10"? They have three timeouts and I get that you want them to burn all three of them, but you've got to take a chance and ice the game in that situation.

Okay, so you run the ball three times and get stuffed. Time to punt. Your up 6 with :55 left and are forced to punt from your own endzone. I'm thinking, don't take any chances by trying to punt the ball if they send 10. And defintely don't punt it if they drop back in coverage and risk them getting a good return out of it and possibly returning it for a TD. Go ahead and take the safety. Get the punter to run around in the endzone and kill about 5-6 seconds before running out of the back of the endzone. This way, he can punt it with no pressure on a free kick and they will be forced to field the free kick from their 20 or 30 rather than fielding a punt from AHS' 45. This makes sense, right? Not to the coaching staff, though. They punt it from their own endzone and it was a low line drive to midfield. Ike player catches it and takes it to the fucking house for a TD only to be nullified by an illegal block in the back. AHS held on to win, but they got lucky. BIG TIME.

Atrocious playcalling almost cost this team the game in the end. I don't get it. Why is it so hard to finish off football games? Players fucking it up is one thing, but coaches have no excuse for putting their players in a position to blow the game.

Okay, I'm done.

[.m2]

Okay, I'm done.

You were done after you lost to... El Paso, Mehico.