09/06/22

The Cooldown: Week 2

As our friend and IHSS-DFW expert Professor Diggs always says, week two is a great week for calibration. Last week, we saw the effects of a good 6A team (CE King) play a great 5A team (Crosby) and then a great 6A team (Allen). The results? A blowout win against Crosy and a blowout loss against Allen. Here’s a recap and some other things we learned in week two.

Klein Oak is for real

Last week, the Klein Oak QB-WR duo of Lucas Scheerhorn and Kaleb Black won my co-player-of-the-week. They followed up that performance by putting up gaudy numbers in an impressive win over a solid Cinco Ranch squad that made it to round three last season.

It was a trio of Panthers getting the job done this week. Scheerhorn was outstanding once again with 259 yards, two scores and an INT on 21-of-34 passing and he added 116 yards and two more scores on the ground. Black racked up 142 yards and a touchdown on 11 catches. Keishaun Wooten impressed on the ground with 141 yards and a score on 19 carries.

All that resulted in a 40-35 win for Klein Oak against Cinco Ranch. As for the Cougars, a tough non-district loss to a good team is a good thing and should help them with what will be a tough district. By challenging themselves in non-district, Cinco Ranch will be better prepared for teams like Tompkins and Paetow.

One of the more impressive things of note about Oak’s start is about who isn’t there. PJ Hatter starred at quarterback the last two seasons for the Panthers, but he’s now lighting up the scoreboard for Spring Westfield. Scheerhorn is filling his shoes well so far.

It’s still early for predictions but Oak is looking good for a district title. Klein Collins is off to an impressive 2-0 start and so are Klein Cain and Klein Forest. Right now, those very well could be the four playoff teams in the usually chaotic 15-6A. I’ll be keeping an eye on those four each team they play one another.

Katy survives Atascocita in the game of the year so far

It’s always a good time when two traditional area powerhouses get together for a non-district game, and Katy-Atascocita did not disappoint.

Good things come to those who wait. After a lengthy lightning delay, fans who stayed to watch were treated to a back-and-forth thriller, packed with a mix of explosive offense and solid defense. Neither team led by more than a touchdown.

Seth Davis was the bell cow for Katy once again, finishing with 190 yards and two scores on 28 carries. Quarterback Caleb Koger matched that total, completing 11-of-20 passes for 200 yards and running for a touchdown as well. Koger’s performance was bested by Atascocita quarterback Zion Brown, who thre for 256 yards and two touchdowns on 20-of-35 passing.

Both of these teams figure to make deep runs into December. For Atascocita, it is encouraging to see the improvement Brown has made since he was thrown into the fire as an unexpected starter last season after Gavin Session’s knee injury. Budding star running back Tory Blalock gives the Eagles a solid one-two punch. Katy has the same in established stars Koger and Davis.

CE King falls at Allen

For the fourth year in a row, a Houston-area team traveled to DFW to take on Allen at Eagle Stadium. For the third time in four years, the Houston-area team lost.

There was serious buzz about the potential of CE King beating Allen. But Allen is Allen after all, there is a reaosn why the Eagles have lost at home just twice in 10 years: last season to Atascocita and this season to nationwide No. 1 St. John Bosco (CA).

The Panthers secondary held up pretty well against Allen star quarterback Mike Hawkins, who finished with just 97 yards on 11-of-16 passing. Hawkins did toss three touchdowns, but didn’t do significant damage on chunk plays through the air. Where King struggled was stopping the run.

Allen running back Kayvion Sibley finished with 228 yards and three scores on just 10 carries. Allen as a team ran 27 times for 264 yards, good for 9.8 yards-per-carry. King also struggled to take advantage of opportunties, failing to score in the red zone twice. King quarterback Denim Johnson finished with 230 yards, two touchowns and an INT on 9-of-15 passing. He also led the team in rushing with 54 yards on nine carries. Elias DeJean finished with 101 yards receiving and Duaine Harris racked up 110 yards; each had a touchdown.

It still might be hard to know how good CE King can be this year. The Panthers blew out a good Crosby team and got blown out by a great Allen team. It doesn’t get easier playing North Shore and Atascocita in district play. Next up is Pearland, which should be a good calibration game.

News and Notes

In this section each week, I’ll do some bullet points to highlight the other games that caught my eye but didn’t have time to discuss in full detail like the games mentioned above.

  • Northbrook took down Aldine, 27-14, for its first win since November 2017… congrats to Northbrook!
  • Manvel picked up its first win, 41-27, over West Brook
  • Westfield continued to impress with a 51-29 win over Hightower
  • Pearland pulled away in the fourth to beat Memorial, 40-14
  • Crosby took down Marshall in OT, 27-21
  • Shadow Creek pulled away from Clear Springs for a 37-26 win
  • Tompkins took down Bridgeland, 38-14
  • Dickinson shut out Ridge Point, 14-0
  • The Woodlands won its first game, 37-23 over Lamar
  • Summer Creek sprinted past Clear Falls, 56-28
  • Klein Collins took down a struggling Dawson squad, 38-14
  • Magnolia rallied for a 34-29 win over Tomball
  • Cy Creek won a 56-54 thriller over Tomball Memorial

Player of the Week

After losing to 6A CE King, Crosby needed to bounce back and prove it is still a force to reckoned with in 5A. So, the Cougars took on some top 5A competition and came out with a huge win.

My player-of-the-week, Cyrin Myles, guided Crosby to a 27-21 overtime win against No. 4 Fort Bend Marshall, a typical mainstay in the later rounds of the playoffs. Myles finished with 79 yards and two scores on 7-of-13 passing and he was also the leading rusher for the Cougars, finishing with 119 yards and another score on 19 carries.

The rest of the regular season schedule sets up nicely for the Cougars, who should be able to make a deep playoff run this year with Myles guiding them.

What to look forward to

Here are some of the games I’m looking forward to this week. It’s the last chance for many teams to work out any problems so-to-speak before district play begins and the games really start mattering.

  • Klein Collins takes on high-powered Summer Creek (TH)
  • Northside looks to follow up a huge win at Austin (TH)
  • The Woodlands kicks off district play with Oak Ridge (TH)
  • North Shore and Westfield clash in a battle of two top teams in the state (F)
  • Clear Falls travels to take on Lamar (F)
  • Katy Jordan makes its district debut against Mayde Creek (F)
  • New Caney and Willis face off in a battle of high-powered offenses (F)
  • Dawson and Tomball each look at get a big win facing each other (F)
  • El Campo looks to get in track, taking on Veterans Memorial (F)
  • Terry looks to stay hot against Foster (F)
  • Marshall faces a 6A challenge from Alief Taylor (F)
  • Katy kicks off district play with a challenge from Tompkins (SAT)
  • Ridge Point looks to get back on track against Bush (SAT)
  • Cinco Ranch looks to bounce back against Taylor (SAT)