Oh, boy. Where to start? This game wore me out, combined with my 60 hours I put in at work this week. It was a very intense and hard-hitting game.
This Bulldog defense is the best I've ever seen in the 13 years I've lived in La Porte. La Porte has had some great performances including the playoff game a couple years ago where they intercepted then Humble and now Texas A&M Quarterback Jerrod Johnson 5 times. This one may be the best ever. Despite only 131 total yards from the offense, the defense caused 7 turnovers (4int, 3 fumbles) in the game and created a short field for La Porte continuously on offense in the first half. They knocked starting Klein Forest QB Lewis Williams out of the QB position with bone jarring hits including Sophomore defensive lineman Corey Lee popping his helmet off and dislodging the ball as well. Senior Safety Ryan Moye picked it up and took it to the house. Video here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0OR6zjfI9eQ Courtesy of Dr Mark Redd.
The defense gave up a couple of late touchdowns after Klein Forest made some nice adjustments on offense. Klein Forest moved Lewis Williams to a hi-bred RB/WR position and brought in Senior QB/WR Germain Cornett to throw the ball. While the defense still forced many 3 and outs, the Golden Eagles got the ball in the end zone twice in the second half.
The offense did their job in the first half scoring three touchdowns with the short field despite only 50 total yards in the half. Sr RB Anthony Webb ran in 2 touchdowns and Sr QB Jeremy McNeal had the other just before the half. McNeal and Webb gave valiant efforts in this game. These young men set great examples as seniors on how to play football. Webb was visibly limping from the middle of the 2nd quarter until the end of the game and did not want to sit out one series. McNeal found some success running it himself in the second half. He also threw some nice passes, some did not get caught. Overall the offense had a tough time matching up with the BIG and FAST front 7 of Klein Forest.
I have never seen a young player quite like Klein Forest Sophomore (huh?) Middle Linebacker Tyree Gray (#45). This kid will be a major college recruit. 6'3" 245lbs and he could not be blocked. He was there on every running play it seemed... If he grows any more though, he will probably be a defensive end.
A couple of observations:
-La Porte brought in Jr. Wide Receiver Aaron Nance-Garrett on defense in the second half as a nickel back to cover a slot receiver. This kid LOVES to hit. He can really pop the pads.
-Senior Cornerbacks Ben Flores and Jon Wesby were glued to the Klein Forest receivers on deep balls every play. Covering man to man on the outside gives the defense so much flexibility for blitzing and making disruptive plays. These two have played great all year.
-The La Porte front 7 controlled the line of scrimmage. The defensive line and linebackers were in the backfield every play.
Here is the box score on chron.com: http://www.chron.com/sports/highschoolsports/results.html?site=default&mkt=&Season=2010&tpl=Boxscore&Sport=1&ID=78302&TeamID=70&SearchType=Teams
and the game story: http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/sports/hso/7195627.html
La Porte won this game despite being out-gained 224-131 in total yards. The Bulldogs had a huge problem with personal fouls and I'm sure the coaches will address that early this week. 10 penalties for 91 yards was a major problem.
This upcoming week La Porte is at home once again with another tough opponent Atascocita coming to La Porte Friday at 7.
I will have a preview out the middle of the week.
Yikes. Don't like the sound of a lot of personal fouls. I noticed in the last couple of games we had several penalties as well. I hope the team can keep their posture together come district.
ReplyDeleteThe first half of this game was very impressive defensively; the D just flew around the ball and absolutely suffocated the Eagles offense, forcing turnovers left and right and separating helmets from heads. The offense looked decent enough, but in the 2nd half they just imploded and looked impotent at best. But you're right, there were several guys on the KF defense that looks really good, but it seemed as if LaReau was content to keep calling the same run plays over and over despite losing yardage. They need to get a more diverse playbook if they expect to keep pace in whats turning out to be a brutal district
ReplyDeleteJohn- Yeah lots of late hits. They always have a problem with this against DP every year. They will have to nip this now to make noise in the district.
ReplyDeleteJP- LaReau did what I would have done. I think we could have had some plays over the top in the passing game, but up by 4 scores they wanted to grind the clock as much as possible. We had one TD pass dropped when we got behind the KF safety in the second half.