Texas High School Football Roundup for the Houston

Quarterfinal Playoffs

Stratford Ousts Dawson, Continues Unlikely Run: Yes, I have been all over Stratford since October. However, I won’t toot my own horn this whole post, because I could not have called this. The Spartans absolutely rolled Pearland Dawson 38-7 and now are two wins away from a state title. They are doing it with old-school values of offensive ground-and-pound and merciless defensive effort. They haven’t allowed double-digit points in over three months! Behind Rakeem Boyd and Terrance Peters, who combined for 230 yards and five touchdowns, this offense is wearing out the opposition while the defense suffocates it. They get Brennan this Friday.

Katy Takes Care of King, Manvel: Something had to give here, and it wasn’t going to be the Katy Tigers. Gary Joseph’s squad corralled explosive play-maker D’Eriq King, and rode his offensive line to an absolutely dominant rushing performance. Senior Rodney Anderson led the way with 247 yards and four touchdowns, while Kyle Porter added 123 and a score in relief. King managed 298 yards of offense, but could never get Manvel within the striking distance of the business-like Tiger attack. Luckily we get two more years of his spectacular talent. As for Katy, they are two wins away from defending its title, starting with a matchup against San Antonio Johnson.

Westfield Becomes Allen’s Latest Victim: Westfield is a really good football team. Definitely one of the best in 5A after an undefeated regular season. I guess 48-13 is the difference between Allen and a really good team. The Eagles racked up 487 yards of offense on just 45 plays, never giving the Mustangs a whiff of the lead in this one. My one complaint about this is that the splitting of 5A into two separate divisions robs us of what could be an all-time great final between Allen and Katy. Both are the class of their divisions, but we will never know how two of the top 10 teams in the country will stack up. I like that the format gives more teams a shot to make a run, but it’s hard to a team a champion when it hasn’t played the best competition at its level.

Refugio Overcomes Slow Start to Knock off East Bernard: I Looked forward to this game all week. East Bernard and Refugio are both powerhouses in 2A, consistently playing some of the most entertaining football at the high school level. The Brahmas looked like they had found the solution to record-shattering quarterback Travis Quintanilla, intercepting him four times in the second half. Unfortunately, they could not convert those turnovers into points and the Bobcats stormed back in the second half. Quintanilla recovered to throw for 375 yards and four touchdowns, adding a career-high 80 rushing yards and another score in the 40-34 win. The Brahmas are probably sick that they couldn’t convert those four turnovers into a bigger cushion, but this has just been Quintanilla’s year for Refugio. The Bobcats get Waskom in the first game of the Final Four.

Pearland Outlasts Cy-Fair to Advance: The Cypress-Fairbanks Bobcats looked like  they had it, but couldn’t take it. The Bobcats had a touchdown called back, had to settle for a field goal when a touchdown would have tied it and failed to convert two fourth-downs in the second half. JaColbie Butler led the way with 60 rushing yards in the defensive struggle, with Zachary Boegler punching in the only score on a 4^th-and-1 attempt. The Oilers advance to the semifinals for the fourth time since 2001, and will face San Antonio Madison to advance to the finals.