La Porte and Deer Park week is here! This is considered by a wide number of people as the biggest rivalry in all of Houston.
La Porte comes into this game 4-0 with three out of the four games against preseason projected playoff teams. The Houston Chronicle has the Bulldogs rated #9 in Southeast Texas. The AP state poll has La Porte rated #17 in the state. 5atexasfootball.com has La Porte rated #24 in the statewide rankings. Texas is starting to take notice. The Bulldogs have outscored their opponents 155-26.
Deer Park comes into the big rivalry with a 3-1 record with wins over Dickinson (1-2), Aldine (1-3) and Houston Westside (0-3). Their one defeat was at the hands of Clear Creek (3-0), which ended with a score of 40-7.
La Porte on offense features dual-threat Senior QB Jeremy McNeal, who has impressed with his passing accuracy and running ability. He has thrown for 391 yards and 9 touchdowns and ran for 216 yards and 4 td's. McNeal's favorite targets through the air are Senior WR Karl Terrebone and Junior WR Aaron Nance-Garrett.
The Bulldogs running attack is led by elusive UH Commit Senior RB Anthony Webb who has ran for 481 yards and 5 touchdowns through 4 games. He splits carries with Sophomore RB Keith Whitely and Freshman RB Hoza Scott who have been impressive as well. The La Porte offensive line is overall a young group, but have had plenty of preparation time and are improving weekly. The Bulldogs have amassed 1,041 yards on the ground with a over 6 yard average per carry.
The Deer Park defense features a very experienced defensive line led by Seniors Taylor Freimuller and Brett Vaughn. They are tough against the run and tough to move off the line. The Deer feature a 3-4 setup on defense.
The Deer also feature some good Linebackers with Blake Littlejohn leading the way. Junior Casey Westmoreland and Sophomore Vincent Vega (awesome name) have also been standouts. This group looks to cause turnovers and caused 5 fumbles during the Westside game from which they could not recover any.
Deer Park's secondary features Senior DB Chandler Myers who was an all-district selection last season.
Deer Park's offense features Junior QB Austin Rainer who has thrown for 371 yards and 3td's. He is not much of a running threat so far this season, but showed big improvement last week against Westside with his arm. His favorite targets are Senior TE Payden McVey (9 catches for 128 yards) and Senior WR Darian Banks who is 6'7".
The Deer run four different running backs and mix up the run and pass well. Their leading runner is Junior RB Justin James (40 carries for 206 yards). They have run for 602 yards on the season with a 4.78 yard average.
Defense is La Porte's bread and butter so far this season. They have caused 15 turnovers in 4 games including 8 interceptions by a very good secondary. Senior Cornerbacks Ben Flores and John Wesby are tall (6'1"-6'2") and have played very well with 2 interceptions each.
I always feel like I am leaving players out when I talk about the Bulldog's defense. The truth is everyone has been playing great this season. The linebackers have been outstanding and the defensive line has eaten up blockers to free up room for the linebackers to run around and make plays.
La Porte defense as a whole has held opposing teams to 2.3 yards per carry and have only given up 243 yards on the ground in 4 games. This is really a unbelievable amount in High School football. They all love to hit and they have at least one hit every week that makes all the highlight reels.
The keys to the game for a Bulldog victory:
-Shut down the Deer Park running game and force them to pass. Rainer showed a little shakiness under pressure last week and if La Porte can force them to pass then they will be able to bring the heat on the pass rush.
-Do not turn the ball over. Deer Park likes to strip it. The Deer will have a good chance to win if La Porte turns the ball over.
-Do not take dumb person foul penalties. It happens every year against Deer Park. The emotions run very high between the two teams. Earlier in the season La Porte showed a little immaturity with some dumb penalties. Against Atascocita the Bulldogs showed great restraint as Atascocita was very frustrated and were letting La Porte know about it. I saw a La Porte player who was being taunted point at the scoreboard on one occasion. This is the right attitude to take. Beat them during the run of play and on the scoreboard.
I have been very impressed with the student turnout the last couple of weeks and the noise the student section has been making. This only gives La Porte more confidence and I hope they can keep this up.
You never know what's going to happen in a big rivalry game and anyone could win. I'm very excited for this game and this will be La Porte's last chance to gear up for district play after the bye week next week.
My advice is to get their early because both communities will be there early.
I will be providing Twitter updates as usual at : http://twitter.com/LPBulldogBlog
The game will be on 1560 the Game AM Radio in Houston or at 1560thegame.com
Who is ready for this?
Wow fantastic job with this review! Keep up the good work/research!
ReplyDeleteI'm always ready for this game, its such a long-standing rivalry (over 50 years?) in the area and its generational; my older brother played at La Porte, I have a cousin who was in the Escorts at dp, its ingrained in each generation it seems to "Fear no deer!" around football season, and I've noticed its intense in every other sport- not just football! It'll be a hard fought victory, and like you said, the 'Dogs really need to keep their emotions in check and not hand the deer any free first downs. And does anyone know if they'll bring the barbq pits to Ashbier Stadium?
Thank you for the compliment.
ReplyDeleteI have it written down at my desk at work, but I believe the all-time series is 28-24-2 in favor of La Porte. I will double check and add it into tomorrow's post.
It is very intense in every sport. Back when I was at La Porte (11 years ago...ugh) I went to baseball and basketball games against DP with much the same atmosphere as the football game, although not on the same scale crowd size.
Thanks for reading.
As a current player from La Porte I can honestly say with no doubt in my mind that LP will win and it will be evident when we dominate the deer from the first snap to the last.
ReplyDeleteI am glad you guys are confident. All I can say is keep your head up, because Deer Park will be gunning for you. Be the hitter and not the one getting hit. Good luck!
ReplyDelete