Five Big Things in Texas High School Football

11/3/12

What are the Five Big Things this week? As usual, it is some pretty interesting stuff.

1. La Porte AGAIN puts it to Galena Park North Shore – Sure, they impressed a ton of people last season when the Bulldogs rolled Galena Park North Shore, but that was a down year for the Mustangs.  This year, most had counted them out because North Shore has been absolutely demolishing teams all year.  The team and fans of the La Porte Bulldogs however, were pumped for this game once again.  From the opening run out to the field, you could see that La Porte was taking this game serious.  When the final second ticked off the game clock, La Porte knocked off the undefeated Galena Park North Shore Mustangs 27-10.  Congrats to the Bulldogs!

2. Cy Ranch earns first playoff run –After failing to make it to the postseason last year with a final game loss to Langham Creek, the Mustangs set their sites on 2012.  A slow start to the season (0-2) didn't stop Cy Ranch.  They cinched a playoff spot with a 42-6 drubbing of Cy Springs Saturday.  Congratulations to the Cy Ranch Mustangs!

3. Lufkin downs Oak Ridge 24-0 – Big deal right?  I mean who hasn't beaten Oak Ridge?  Well, the big deal is that this game was shaping up to be a much bigger blowout until Mother Nature had her say.  Yes, that 24-0 lead was a FIRST QUARTER score.  No, Oak Ridge didn't suddenly discover defense and hold the Pack scoreless for the rest of the game.  Thunderstorms and lightning blew in causing the game to first be paused while waiting for the weather to pass and then finally, everyone just packed it in and went home.  With another game scheduled to follow this game, it was decided that 1- Oak Ridge was unlikely to come back and win, 2- even if they had, it wouldn't have made a difference in the district standings.

4. Hallettsville rolling under the radar– The Brahmas of Hallettsville are not getting the press that a lot of 9-0 teams receive.  While District 14 has not been all that tough for Hallettsville this season, there are some good teams - Edna, Hempstead (their final regular season opponent) & Rice Consolidated.  In addition, the Brahmas have knocked off some quality teams in Shiner and Ganado.

I expect they will finish out the regular season at 10-0 and should have a great playoff run... THEN some of the other media folks will start talking about them.

5. It is crazy to try and plot all the playoff possibilities – This is the time of year that everyone is breaking down all the "what if" scenarios and trying to lay out every possible outcome to the districts and playoff berths.  Let's make it simple..... IT'S NOT SIMPLE!  While determining a district champion is dead simple, determining playoff berths is not.  When it comes to  the district title... ties go to EVERYONE.  That is to say that regardless of how teams fared against each other, it just comes down to wins and losses in district play.  If two or more teams finish with the same district record, they will share the district title.

When it comes to playoffs, it gets downright schizophrenic.  Every district is allowed to make up their own rules and choose their own tiebreakers.  In most districts, the first tiebreaker is head to head and then some combination of points scored and given up.  There are some districts however who have complex formulas about point differential combined with a point system of wins and losses.  If that sounds confusing... it IS!

Sure, a lot of playoff spots have already been determined as you can see from our Playoff Picture posts

• Playoffs : Class 5A Teams
• Playoffs : Class 4A Teams
• Playoffs : Class 3A Teams
• Playoffs:  Class 2A Teams
• Playoffs:  Class 1A Teams

At the end of this weekend's matchups rest assured that each district will figure out who is going forward and by Sunday we should have all the postseason participants!

I want to take a second to thank everyone for a great regular season and I can't wait to get to the "second season!"

Chris Doelle