11/17/22

The Cooldown: Week 12

Week two of the playoffs is here and it brings the right to play in my favorite games of the year: The annual day-after-Thanksgiving slate.

Football and Thanksgiving have long gone hand-in-hand and there’s not many feelings like that early morning Thanksgiving Day practice. Best of luck to every team competing for the right to keep playing this weekend! Lets recap last week and preview this weekends’ action.

Ridge Point outlasts Tompkins in OT

There are tons of first round blow outs every year. That’s a product of a playoff system where half of the state’s teams are eligible. To be clear, I’m in favor of that system because a playoff berth is such a cool thing and it gives every school the opportunity to play for something. Anyways, Thursday night’s tilt between Ridge Point and Tompkins was anything but. Those two treated us to an absolutely thrilling first round showdown.

It was a sluggish first half, tied at six with four field goals tallying all the points. Things picked up in the second half of what was ultimately a defensive showcase. Ridge Point got it done through the air; Austin Carlisle finished 20-of-33 for 300 yards Carlisle also ran in a touchdown while Ezell Jolly finished off Ridge Point drives in the red zone, scoring three touchdowns on 15 carries for 52 yards. Ashton Bethel-Roman turned in the performance of the night, catching eight passes for 185 yards.

Tompkins accounted for nearly as many yards as a team, but in the opposite way. The Falcons ran 46 times as a team for 316 yards and four scores. Caleb Komolafe ran for 189 yards and two scores on 15 carries, while Caleb Blocker carried 22 times for 115 yards and a score.

Ultimately, it was Ridge Point coming out on top 35-33 in double overtime. The Panthers face Lamar on Friday, which put up a solid performance in a 55-24 win against a typically explosive Jersey Village squad. That is just one of several intriguing round two games.

Klein Cain survives Cy Ranch

This matchup featured a battle of two teams that had odd seasons. On the Cy Ranch end of things, the Mustangs finished tied for first (and last??) in 16-6A with a record of 5-2. Each of the top four teams finished 5-2. So there was no dominant team from that district, it was just a really weird, rare, round-robin. For Klein Cain, it lost to Klein Forest, who ultimately missed the playoffs and finished 3-4 in district, but didn’t lose another game.

The game went about how you might expect in a battle between two teams like that: Klein Cain squeezed out a 31-24 win. The Hurricanes amassed just 46 passing yards in the win. This has been a ground-centric team all season, but just 46 yards through the air is still pretty low. That means Cain needed a strong ground attack, and it got just that.

Jaelen Smith ran 18 times for 229 yards and a score while Yemi Adeleke carried 25 times for 184 yards and Cain’s three other touchdowns. Cain racked up 413 yards rushing as a team. They will face a high-powered offense at The Woodlands in round two, so the ground game will need to be just as sharp. The Woodlands scored 73 points last week. I’ll be at that game bringing live updates to our Twitter channel.

Lamar races past Jersey Village

As mentioned, Lamar pretty much boat-raced a high-flying Jersey Village offense in a 55-24 round one win.

Kenneth Rosenthal powered the Texans through the air and on the ground. The senior quarterback finished 5-of-11 passing for 102 yards and a score while adding eight carries for 74 yards and three more touchdowns. Kelton Weathers should test that Ridge Point defense next week after he racked up 132 yards and a score on just nine carries.

Lamar carried 33 times for 274 yards as a team. One theme among games from last week seems to be a high amount of rushing yards, which may be attributed to the rainy conditions that plagued most of the Houston area last weekend. That won’t be a problem this weekend, so we may see some of these teams open up the passing game a little more – though the high temps will still be in the 50s, and likely into the 40s once the sun goes down.

Player of the Week

Clear Falls plays in district 24-6A, which has the unenviable task of lining up with 23-6A for the bi-district round. The Knights drew a tough matchup against Dawson, but were able to advance with a 35-14 win.

That’s in large part due to the running game, which Clear Falls dominated. The 53 rushes for 222 yards and three touchdowns is fairly pedestrian from a yards-per-carry standpoint, but running back Marquis Tarver was dominant.

Tarver’s final line was 15 rushes for 119 yards and all three Knight rushing touchdowns. In a game where Landon vessel finished with just 89 passing yards, the Knights needed Tarver more than ever which is why he is my player-of-the-week! Next up for Clear Falls is a showdown at C.E. King.

What to look forward to

Every game is important at this point, so here is a look at the full area round playoff schedule for Houston-area teams. All games are on Friday now that Hightower-Heights was moved to Friday night due to weather. There are also no Thursday games.

Schedule for 6A-I

  • The Woodlands vs. Klein Cain (Region II)
  • Spring Westfield vs. Klein Collins (Region II)
  • Cy-Fair vs. Cinco Ranch
  • North Shore vs. Dickinson
  • Houston Lamar vs. Ridge Point
  • Atascocita vs. Clear Springs

Schedule for 6A-II

  • New Caney vs. Tomball (Region II)
  • Spring Dekaney vs. Cy Falls (Region II)
  • Houston Memorial vs. Katy
  • Summer Creek vs. Shadow Creek
  • Houston Heights vs. Hightower
  • C.E. King vs. Clear Falls

Schedule for 5A-I

  • Barbers Hill vs. Mansfield Timberview (Region II)
  • Magnolia West vs. Georgetown
  • Angleton vs. College Station
  • Fulshear vs. A&M Consolidated
  • Manvel vs. Smithson Valley

Schedule for 5A-II

  • Fort Bend Marshall vs. Waco University
  • Lake Creek vs. Leander Rouse

Schedule for 4A-I

  • Bay City vs. Tyler Chapel Hill
  • Staffird vs. Lumberton
  • Brazosport vs. Lindale
  • El Campo vs. Kilgore

Others

  • Bellville vs. Madisonville (4A-II)
  • Sealy vs. Cuero (4A-II)
  • Columbus vs. Diboll (3A-I)
  • Hitchcock vs. Woodville (3A-I)