Still Standing
My high school alma mater has for the last three weeks been engaged in the 3A Texas High School playoffs, and it's kind of a big deal. I didn't pay attention to the regular season, or district play, while it was going on, but I did receive inconsistent updates from my mother who works in the school district. It seemed like we were doing well, we won games, we beat La Vega and Mexia, and this was a big deal I am now led to believe. Lorena has never been known as a High School football powerhouse, so my expectations of the varsity team are always reserved, and any success has been celebrated with enthusiasm. That said, when mother informed me that the Lorena Leopards would play for B-District (the first round of playoffs) I felt I had to attend.
We made it to the second found of playoffs last year, but we had entered the playoffs under what some (read Robinson HS) would term dubious circumstances. Evidently the La Vega Pirates had let us win, which eliminated Robinson from the playoffs, but let us in. The game didn't mean anything to La Vega, they were already district champs I believe, but this allowed in a lesser opponent, so it made sense for them. Still, the boys won the first game, but succumbed to the Carthage Bulldogs in Area play, who would go on to win the State Championship last year. This year was different, the Lorena Leopards made the playoffs of their own volition with a 4-1 district record.
Our first round game, bi-district, would be played in Corsicana, TX against the Brownsboro Bears and despite a lot of mental mistakes we managed to best them 37-14. The Bears made a valiant rally in the second half where they scored their two touch downs, but they never really challenged us. I was pleased, we had won the first round, and as I didn't know the caliber of our team I was excited by the safe victory, but figured I was safe in harboring my excitement. If we won or lost the next week was a moot point, I was extremely happy we had made it past this first game.
Second round was played in Huntsville at the Sam Houston stadium against the Center Bulldogs, who hail from East Texas I believe, near the Louisiana border. This was a defensive game from the get go, but at the half we were down 10-7. Early on I feared that this could turn ugly, but our defense stiffened, and Center made mistakes that kept them from getting more points. The Bulldogs were fast, but I think we out sized them and we wore them down, plus they had to have dropped the ball about a dozen times, and while they got most of those back we managed to get a few turnovers. The last one led to our second touchdown from their 35 or so. When the dust settled the Lorena Leopards had pulled it out 13-10, and we lived to play another round.
I was pretty sure we were going to start running up against some of the big boys now, and I wasn't wrong. The third round Regional playoff was played in College Station against the Coldspring-Oakhurst Trojans at the A&M Consolidated field. Thankfully not at Kyle field, where we lost the '89 State game to Groveton 20-13, a game we very nearly won. I didn't know what to expect from the Trojans, but the predictions were half-and-half. It was obvious from first view that Coldspring was big, and it became obvious as the game started that they were fast. And we had no answer for their offense, and the scored on every possession in the first half, but suprises never cease and we were able to move the ball against them. We didn't score every time we touched the ball, but enough to keep hanging around. By the middle of the third quarter we were down 29-13, and to be honest I thought we were done, the Trojans had just made it look so easy to score against us. Then it started, after an awesome double reverse pass play that set up a touchdown, and brought us within 10 points, 29-19, we finally got what we needed. A stop on defense. Now, Coldspring helped us by getting some bad penalties, but we forced them to punt and got another score to put us at 29-26. I think we were all going crazy at this point, we couldn't believe it, and here we were within striking distance, but the big question was could we stop them again.
As the Trojans took possession of the ball, man it didn't look good. They marched down the field, quickly!, getting into our territory way to easily, but then by god we stacked'em up at the 37, and before I could believe it they were on fourth down. Now, it seemed unimaginable that we would stop them, they only needed a yard, and we'd had trouble keeping them from getting yards all night. Even their shortest runs had gotten 4-5 yards most of the time, but then it happened, their quarterback got tied up at the line of scrimmage, then he made his mistake. Another thing to keep in mind is that we penetrated the back field most of the game, but we just couldn't bring these guys down, especially the quarterback #10 and when he dropped back to pass, if he couldn't find anyone open, he'd just run it from 5-10 yards in the backfield for first downs. So when he fell back a few yards after getting held up, I just knew he was going to make the play. He had all night. But not this time, we got him in the backfield and they ball was turned over on downs.
Could we do it? We had five minutes and change to work with, and I was starting to wonder. Could we take the ball down the field, eat up the clock and come out of this with a win? Just maybe we could. So we took the ball and went to work. We moved the ball onto their side of the field, but after a few blown plays we faced a 4th and 8, and I figured this was it, I think we all did. They went for it, of course, and the QB dropped back to pass, and while we can pass the ball pretty well, it isn't our speciality, but he lobbed that ball up and one of our receivers caught it at the Trojan 35 for a 13 yard gain, and a first down. Evan Ward, our HB, took it from there and we scored to take our first lead of the night 33-29, but we'd done it too quickly. Coldspring still had two minutes and change, and knowing how they'd played the whole game that was more than enough.
After a great run back to almost mid-field the Trojans got to work, and as they got closer to the end zone I started feeling that we wouldn't be able to stop them this third and last time. They were on our 35 when our stalwart defensive team, who didn't give up the whole night, finally held them again, and there they were with a fourth down, needing a touch down. Only handful of ticks left. Their QB takes the snap and rolled out to his left and chucked the ball up, and they had a guy in the end zone. Only problem is we had three guys on him, and one of them picked off the ball, and it was all over. We had managed to win 33-29, and I think we were all in shock as to what had just happened.
I'm not an expert on Texas High School football by any means, but the Lorena Leopards played their hearts out that night, they never gave up, and they pulled out an amazing win. I want to say that Coldspring was probably more talented, and should have won that game, but our guys earned it, and the earned it all night. While our defense bent so much they were close to snapping, they never did, and they never gave up any really big plays for scores. They made the Trojans work for everything they did, and I think in the end that's what wore them down. On top of that the Leopards played four solid quarters of football, and were going just as hard as when the game started. And we didn't make mistakes, no turn overs and minimal penalties. Coldspring didn't make many mistakes either, but their penalties hurt them in the end, and truth be told they got away with a lot of holding. Coldspring was a great team, maybe a better team on most nights, but not that night. There's no other way of saying it, on Friday, 27 2009 Lorena was the better team, they deserved that win, and the earned that win, and I don't think you can argue with that.
Now we face what is I believe the #2 3A team in the state, the Carthage Bulldogs, in Corsicana at 7:30 this Friday. This will be the quarter finals of the Texas High School playoffs, and a Lorena team hasn't been here since 1989, but the two times we've made it this far we've gone to state. I want to say we have more than our share of work cut out for us against Carthage, and that's true, but we've had our work cut out for us the whole way, so I think our boys are used to that. If we play like we did against Coldspring, then I think we could stand a chance against them, but we'll have to wait and see.
Go Lorena Leopards! Go Big Red!