The La Porte Bulldogs surpassed expectations and showed great heart and skill in the state 7 on 7 football tournament last weekend. The Bulldogs made it to the final 8 teams in the championship tournament, playing in the shadows of Kyle Field at Texas A&M. Despite qualifying for only the second time in school history La Porte battled with the state's big shots and annual 7 on 7 contenders.
Last Friday group play started with annual 5A power The Woodlands. The Bulldogs jumped all over the Highlanders taking a 20-7 lead at halftime. However in the second half The Woodlands came storming back and got the win 27-26. It was a tough loss, but the Bulldogs learned their lesson to not let up in this quick scoring environment.
Game two of group play pitted La Porte against Corpus Christi Flour Bluff. La Porte lead at the half 20-12 and turned up the offense in the second half with the Bulldogs winning 47-26. Senior Cornerback Ellis Hutchinson got the momentum really flowing to La Porte with a 45 yard interception return for a touchdown. Both Quarterbacks Junior Jordan Jackson and Sophomore Nick Brown were on target all game long.
Game three featured The Bulldogs against Mesquite Horn. The winner would move on to the championship bracket. After a back and forth first half including a Junior Linebacker Hoza Scott interception for a touchdown, La Porte lead 21-14. The teams continued to go back and forth in the second half with the Bulldogs finally taking the win 35-26 after a great throw and jumping catch from Jackson to Senior Receiver Jahvey Marks in the back of the end-zone. La Porte finished 2-1 in group play and qualified for the championship bracket on day 2. The Woodlands were 2-1 as well and took the number 1 seed from the group due to the head to head win over La Porte.
There was little rest for La Porte as the championship bracket began at 9 on Saturday morning. To start off the single elimination tournament the Bulldogs faced Whitehouse, an East Texas team that ran through their group the day before with a 3-0 record. Another back and forth first half had La Porte up 20-14. In the second half it was a defensive battle. La Porte scored with a Jackson to Sophomore Receiver David Terrebonne pass that Terrebonne snagged and touched his toes in the end-zone while falling out of bounds to give La Porte a 26-14 lead. With time running down Whitehouse would get a score to make it 26-20, but it was too little too late and the Bulldogs moved on to round two of the championship bracket.
Next up was Plano West, a huge enrollment high school from the North Dallas area that was 4-0 on the tournament and already had beaten fellow 21-5A school Port Arthur Memorial 46-26 on Friday. La Porte had a rough first half trailing 19-7, however stormed back in the second half. The Bulldogs were down 33-29 with five minutes remaining. A big defensive stop and La Porte had the ball back with about two minutes left. A huge pass over the top from Jackson to Sophomore Britt Grant, who had a great tournament put the Bulldogs on the goaline with less than a minute to go. Jackson would find Senior Running Back Keith Whitely over the middle for the score and the final horn would blow right after giving La Porte a huge 36-33 win over Plano West and a spot in the quarterfinals.
The only teams left in the tournament were state powers at this point and La Porte would match up with Abilene in the quarterfinals. Abilene would open up a 19-12 halftime lead and La Porte was on the ropes with Abilene receivers catching everything in sight with good coverage by the Bulldogs. La Porte would make a comeback and cut the lead to 33-28 Abilene with two minutes left, however Abilene had the ball and would score one last time to make it a 40-28 final.
That ended an impressive run for La Porte into the final 8 teams in the state tournament. The many media members in attendance definitely took notice and the Bulldogs exposure is through the roof around the state right now heading into the real football season starting in a couple of weeks with two a days. Everyone is ready for pads and the big boys up front to get involved to make a run at a state championship this season. Congratulations for a great run La Porte Bulldogs!
This is a GREAT sign for this season! A spot in the quarterfinals in a league where passing is greatly emphasized- and passing isn't exactly our strong suit! I think this is a true contender for the state title come Decemeber, if our boys can pull it together and focus there's no telling what they can achieve!
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