This week the La Porte Bulldogs (3-0) take on the Atascocita Eagles (2-1) at Bulldog Stadium in La Porte Friday at 7pm.
Atascocita is coming off a 34-0 loss to powerful Fort Bend Hightower after opening the season with wins over South Houston (38-18) and Galveston Ball (17-14). This is the third varsity season for the Eagles and they have made the playoffs the last two years.
Atascocita returns their starting Quarterback from last season, Senior Earnest Carrington, but mostly focus on the run. Their feature running back is Sophomore Elijah Merchant who has 315 yards on 44 carries through three games.
The Eagles top senior is Offensive Lineman Nathan Gutekunst (#78) who has committed to Texas A&M.
On defense they feature a good Cornerback in Senior Nick Brooks. They have a inexperienced front 7 and La Porte will surely go after them with the running game.
La Porte will try to get the offense back on track in this one after dominating Clements (37-7) and Baytown Lee (57-6) in their first two games. Klein Forest provided a better challenge in week 2 with the Bulldogs pulling out a 26-13 victory. The offense however sputtered in the second half after scoring 3 times in the first. Senior QB Jeremy McNeal has led the offense so far with 239yds and 5 tds through the air and 216yds and 4 tds on the ground. He also got into the game on defense vs Klein Forest and broke up a pass in the end-zone bringing flashbacks of his all-district performance on defense last season.
Senior RB Anthony Webb has started the season with 372yds and 5 tds on the ground. The University of Houston commit limped through the game against Klein Forest and I have not heard anything this week regarding his injury. He played through it last week and I expect more of the same this week.
La Porte's defense, led by Junior Linebacker Chad Sutherland and Seniors LB's Jamarcus Erskin and Cameron Whilley as well as CB's John Wesby and Ben Flores, has shut down their first three opponents. The defense as a whole has played as well as I've ever seen a La Porte defense.
Atascocita is going to have their hands full in this one trying to get points on the board.
Keys to the game:
-La Porte must get their offense back on track before they meet a good defense in Deer Park next week
-Force Atascocita to throw by stopping the running game on 1st and 2nd down.
La Porte is a big favorite this week and they have moved up to #11 in the Houston Chronicle top area teams. Link: http://blogs.chron.com/prepsports/2010/09/football_area_rankings_through.html
As long as I don't have any last minute work, I will be in the stadium for live updates at http://twitter.com/LPBulldogBlog.
The game will also be online at http://www.legacysportsnetwork.com/
Next week's Deer Park game will be on 1560 The Game on the AM dial.
What do you hope to see this week from the Bulldogs?
I won't be able to make it to this game, but I'll def be listening once I get off work. That said, I don't know much about Atascosita- they're a Humble ISD school aren't they?
ReplyDeleteWhat I hope to see is more diversity from the Bulldog's offense; the defense as you stated has just been awesome, but once they went up against an athletic front, they just looked stagnant. The bashing it up the middle is great against teams who can't defend it (Clements, Lee) but you can't get away with that any more at an elite 5A level- just look what happened the two times we faced Katy in the playoffs! We need to unleash McNeil more and let him make plays; roll out the pocket, and either find a receiver 6-14 yards downfield or take off a la Boogie Anagnostou
Yes, they are a Humble school. They have been a good team the last couple of years.
ReplyDeleteI think the La Porte coaches are definitely holding back on the play calling. They knew they could get away with being vanilla with a big lead. I think we may see some new things this week, depending on what happens early.
Next week vs Deer Park is where I think we could see more creativity and different setups. McNeal and Webb have the ability to do all kinds of things on offense and it really surprises me that Webb doesn't have a catch yet this season. I know he is a good receiver out of the backfield.
I've been waiting for this update all week!
ReplyDeleteI wasn't all that excited a couple weeks ago when I first heard we would be playing them. But after last week's poor offensive performance and reading through your analysis I gotta say, I'm Pumped!
If I had it my way, the Defense would continue to make powerful stops and the offense would put on a great show of mixed talent and QB efficiency.
But then again, a win is a win. And if LP can pull of another win against a moderately good team, I won't be disappointed.
John-
ReplyDeleteI think Atascocita is a good team. I don't think they are nearly as good as Klein Forest, especially on defense. They are no slouch though and I can see it being a tough game.
If LP can move into district at 5-0 they will be full of confidence. I'm excited to see the next two games.
They'll need confidence because with North Shore, Beaumont West Brook and PA Memorial in the same district, its going to be a dogfight to get to the playoffs. I really hope they do start mixing it up on offense, because we won't be able to win any 7-2 games once we start district. Go Bulldogs
ReplyDelete