The Woodlands Sweeps State Champs Back to Back
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Updated: September 17, 2016
Highlanders Stake Claim to Being #1 in Houston Area
Rosenberg Traylor Stadium- In consecutive weekends The Woodlands Highlanders had two very big games. One cannot get much bigger a game when you are playing the previous year’s state champ, right??? But can The Woodlands get up for two huge games of this magnitude in back to back weekends?
Why yes they can.
They exceeded expectations winning both games with ease. Prior to this game, ranked #11 in LSG’s Super Teams with only four undefeated teams ahead of them (Allen, DeSoto, Converse Judson, and Euless Trinity), they should quickly climb in our 6A polls.
The Woodlands held defending 6A DII state champ Katy to 3 points last weekend. Friday, in one of the featured games in Week Four Extra Points where Chris, Mike and the Fans (72%) all agreed The Woodlands would come out out top, they stymied Richmond George Ranch Longhorns (2015 Division 5A Division I champs) and held its high octane speed option attack to only two touchdowns as they cruised to a 42-14 win.
The Woodlands quarterback Eric Schmid threw lasers all over the field. Rising junior Highlander receiver Kesean Carter was his muse. This dynamic duo connected for 4 receptions for 201 yards and all 4 went for touchdowns!!!
All Kesean Carter does is catch touchdowns - that’s 50.25 yards a reception!!!
Schmid went 11-17 for 277 yards and 6 touchdowns on the night. It was a passing attack that shone earlier in the year when The Woodlands won the state 7 on 7 state championship this summer in College Station. The precision and accuracy of Schmid from his junior to senior year is off the charts. That and he is healthy his final season quarterbacking the helm for his father, Coach Mark Schmid. This spells doom for the rest of District 12-6A and all of the whole Houston area come playoff time. Highlanders are on the war path
Eric Schmid said this about the wide open Kesean, “he was just getting open, I had to get the ball to him, running good routes, play-action and he got wide open.”
Coach Mark Schmid said this about their connection, “Kesean had to come on board last year as a sophomore because of an injury to Chris Stewart (broken leg),did a great job for us, summer 7 on 7 he was a big factor for us. Kesean just has some after burners that he can go get just about any ball.” Reiterating his wide openness, “He has the ability to close on balls, Kesean does an outstanding job.”
The Schmid-Carter duo was aided by a smashmouth Highlander run game that totaled 117 yards. The Woodlands ran right at a smaller Longhorn defense lead by Toby Ndukwe (SMU commit), Adam Beck (Texas Tech commit) and senior bandit Brent Ugo. The Highlanders found success running with seniors Jordan Talford and Carlos Ramos. And after success running the ball they turned to Schmid and Carter with play action touchdowns of 60, 62, 44 and 35 yards.
Schmid found Carter for the opening score on a play-action bomb to make the score 7-0. He then hit Grant Murphy for a wide open 10 yarder extending it to 14-0. Early in the 2nd quarter Schmid hooked up again with Carter, this time for 62 yards and the route was on, 21-0.
George Ranch has found the sledding tough in their first year up a classification in 6A. Last year they blew teams away in route to 16-0 state championship. The Longhorns also lost their second game of the season this year to the Dickinson Gators 28-14.
The teams are bigger and stronger up a classification with way more depth in the second and third strings. The Longhorns still have lots of state championship pride and fought back. Star tailback Alex Fontenot (Colorado commit) picked up a fumbled pitch and ran it in from 25 yards out, 21-7, 6:46 left in the half.
How is this for a first half stat line??? Eric Schmid went 4-6 for 145 yards and 3 touchdowns. He had a 75% touchdown to completion percentage. Not too shabby. Every other time he threw the ball in the half it was a touchdown (50% touchdown to pass percentage).
After their dominant defense forced two 3 and outs to start the second half. Schmid threw two more touchdown passes (22 yard screen to Chris Stewart and a 44 yarder to Carter), 35-7. Woodlands held George Ranch to 287 total yards on the night while piling up 394 yards of their own.
Fontenot added his second TD on a 8 yard score, 35-14. Schmid and Carter fittingly ended the night just as the scoring had begun, with a touchdown pass (35 yards), 42-14.
When asked if he ever envisioned his quarterback throwing six scoring strikes in a game, Coach Schmid said, “throwing six touchdowns is quite a game, I think tonight all things aligned in the right way and he did a great job of putting the ball were it needed to be. He showed lots of poise and some of those throws he was on the move, I’m proud of the way that he played.”
The Woodlands now has a bye before hosting their arch rival since 1994 the Lufkin Panthers (4-6 all time record).
George Ranch will face 0-4 Alief Hastings at Crump stadium
by Glenn McCarthy
Players of the Game
Offense- Eric Schmid and Kesean Carter
Defense- Zack La Canfora
Scoring- 1st 2nd 3rd 4th Final
The Woodlands 14 7 14 7 42
George Ranch 0 7 7 0 14
- photo: Glenn McCarthy
- video Glenn McCarthy
- editing Chris Doelle
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