Whoa what an ugly game in round 2 of the playoffs for the Bulldogs. La Porte's season ended in the worst possible way on Saturday night in Galena Park, a 16-0 loss to Clear Creek. Things did not go the Bulldogs way at all.
The defense held up their end of the bargain shutting down all-area Clear Creek RB CJ McElroy (22 carries for 83 yards) and holding him under 4 yards per carry. The only real threat the Creek offense showed was through the air and on the fumbled pitch that bounced straight up into McElroy's hands in the 3rd quarter for a nice touchdown run. The D shut down the Wildcats high powered offense, which was exactly what the Bulldogs needed for victory.
The personal fouls at the end of the game were embarrassing and dampened the performance by the defense as a whole. Resorting to cheap and dirty play when you're down will never be a way to earn respect locally or state-wide in the future.
The Bulldogs out-gained the Wildcats in total yardage 288-203. However nobody was in sync on offense, with at least 10 false starts and 8 fumbles, 4 of which were recovered by Creek.
La Porte did not have many opportunities with the fumbling and penalties. With the Bulldogs down 3-0 and time running down in the first half (25 seconds left), La Porte decided to try for the field goal on 3rd down and I believe that mistake bit them as they finally had the Clear Creek defense on their heels and should have taken a shot at the end-zone instead of a rushed field goal attempt. The first half was not a good one for the offense and I did not think it could get any worse, but it got much worse.
In the second half the attitudes of the Bulldogs players were visibly bad watching from the stands. It didn't help that every other offensive snap was either a offside penalty or a fumble. On the first possession of the second half Senior QB Jeremy McNeal (109 yds passing, 107 yds rushing), who did put up a gutsy performance, was fighting for extra yards and the ball popped straight into a Wildcat defender's hands and he walked into the end zone. Any air that was left in the La Porte balloon was let out right there. The Bulldogs never had another good opportunity and frankly didn't show a lot of urgency in the fourth quarter down two scores. La Porte is not a good team when playing from behind, especially by two scores. Senior RB Anthony Webb had only 17 carries for 71 yards on the night. Clear Creek's defense was very scrappy and quick and made life very tough on the whole Bulldog offense.
La Porte has a very promising future with many underclassmen getting extensive playing time this season. It will be very interesting to see which way the offense goes in the off-season to replace McNeal and Webb. The defense will be a strength again next season, so I believe La Porte will still be a run first team. I will have a full season recap and a preview for next season in the coming days.
Overall I had a great time following the team this season and great things were there for the taking with the weak bracket La Porte was in. The players must learn from this experience and have more confidence and composure when things are going wrong on the field. An ugly loss like this takes away from how good this team really was this season. I believe this was the best La Porte team I've ever seen, but my experience only goes back to '98.
If anybody has any thoughts on the game or season as a whole, please share them.
I agree the way this game went down by no way showed what this team was capable. With quetions as to how this team would perform this year from offense to defense, they did awsome this year and were great to watch. I grew up in LP and graduated in the 80's. This year's defense is the best I have ever seen. On the offensive side LP has way too many weapons not being used, but if you have been around anytime at all you know that is par. Overall thanks to LP for another great year of high school football.
ReplyDeleteI also thought that this was a very uncharacteristic game for the Dawgs. I was embarrassed by the lack of discipline at the end of the game and felt that the LP coaching staff had lost control of their team. Don't take this wrong 'cause this staff has done an excellent job the past six years, but it seems that in all the tight games a lack of control shows thru. With that said I agree that we have good things to come in the next few years with the young O line and will be there to cheer them on.
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