The Cooldown: Week 3
Week three saw more good matchups, some upsets and a few teams asserted early season dominance. Week four is typically a popular bye week, so check out who impressed last week before district play starts up.
Spring continues to dominate
It was just 261 days ago that Spring and Tomball Memorial had their respective seasons ended in Waco. DeSoto rallied from a halftime deficit to take down Spring while Tomball Memorial’s own second-half rally fell just short against Cedar Hill in round three of the playoffs. Since that day, these two programs have gone in different directions.
Tomball Memorial was led by QB Colton Marwill and Joseph Manjack, an offensive Swiss Army Knife who is now starting at wide receiver for USC. Memorial misses those two for sure, but still figured to be strong behind RB Richard Rodriguez. But a tough non-district schedule has the Wildcats at 1-2 with a showdown with Kingwood left before district play starts.
On the other hand, Spring is incinerating every defense it faces, averaging 52 points-per-game and outscoring opponents 156-38 in an undefeated start to the season. Quarterback Bishop Davenport threw for 388 yards and five touchdowns with carrying nine times for 114 yards and two additional scores on the ground in a 69-21 win against Tomball Memorial.
Travis Sims and Myron Carter have been highlight machines all season and Thursday night was no exception. Sims hauled in seven passes for 155 yards and two scores while Carter racked up four for 64 yards and a score. Richard Rodriguez finished with 18 carries for 107 yards for Memorial in the loss.
Spring gets a bye week before kicking off district play against winless DeKaney. That’s followed by what could be the game of the year in the Houston area as Spring takes on rival Westfield, who it beat last season on a Davenport Hail Mary at the buzzer. Go ahead and circle October 1 on your calendar now.
Bridgeland survives test at The Woodlands
Conner Weigman has already proved himself to be one of the best quarterbacks in the state, and he might be going for best wide receiver too.
Weigman caught his second touchdown pass of the season against The Woodlands which helps to show how easy Bridgeland makes it look on offense. The Texas A&M commit finished with 452 yards and four touchdowns through the air and added 103 yards on the ground – and, of course, the TD catch.
But for as much as Bridgeland scored, The Woodands kept pace. The Highlanders defense allowed just one Bridgeland touchdown in the second half after hemorrhaging yards and points in the first half. Sophomore signal caller Mabrey Mettauer might not have out-dueled Weigman, but he did put up a respectable 173 yards and two scores, while adding two more touchdowns on the ground.
Bridgeland was a trendy state pick last year, and for good reason. Somehow, the Bears look even better this year. For The Woodlands to have a chance to win it late in the game says something about how good The Highlanders could be this year. It doesn’t get any easier for them next week with a Friday night showdown at 6A No. 3 Katy.
Bridgeland opens district play against Langham Creek after a bye week.
Paetow continues blistering start
Paetow has sprinted past every opponent it has faced this season, and Jacob Brown is largely to thank for that.
Friday night was no exception, with Brown running for 282 yards and all four of Paetow’s touchdowns on just 17 carries in the Panthers’ 30-14 win against Foster. Two of those touchdown runs came from at least 74 yards out. Brown is one of the Houston-area breakout stars early in the season, with a total of 653 yards and eight scores in three games. Averaging over 200 yards-per-game is no easy feat.
The first test is out of the way. District 10-5A-I is one of the toughest in all of 5A, and Foster has typically been one of the better teams standing between Paetow and the top half of the playoff picture. With this win, Paetow has to worry about beating Hightower and Manvel in back-to-back weeks in late October if it wants to win a district title. Manvel may be a top five team in the state, but don’t put it past Brown to carry Paetow to the top.
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 detail like the game mentioned above.
- Memorial ended Klein’s impressive start to the season with a 31-17 win
- C.E. King beat Ridge Point 28-26 and has firmly established itself as a threat in the ever-talented 21-6A with a 3-0 start and a marquee win against a great Ridge Point program
- Alief Taylor survived a rally from Bush for a 28-20 win
- Cinco Ranch starts 3-0 with a big 48-14 win against Brazoswood; Cinco was 1-17 in the last two seasons combined
- Summer Creek continues to be a pleasant surprise, blowing out Conroe 63-7
- Pearland outlasted Oak Ridge 36-33 in a great back-and-forth game
- Katy survived a scare from Dickinson – who is far better than its 1-2 record – by a score of 28-21
- Westfield upset North Shore 27-21 to give the Mustangs their first regular season loss since their 2019 opener against Katy
- Willis beat Bellaire 50-27
- New Caney picked up a nice rivalry win against Porter, 41-14
- Crosby picked up its first win of the year, 41-26 over Port Arthur Memorial
- Lake Creek rallied from behind for a 41-34 win over Sealy
- Tomball impressed in a 42-25 win over Port Neches-Groves
- Bay City took down Wharton 21-9
- El Campo beat Calhoun 49-35 in a shootout
- Bellville raced past Stafford, 48-26
Player of the Week
My player-of-the-week has to go to Paetow running back Jacob Brown. The senior is averaging over 200 yards-per-game and had three runs of 60+ yards last week to lead Paetow to a win against Foster. The Panthers have long been the fourth-best team in a loaded district, but have shown this season – especially with how Brown is performing early on – that they could easily challenge for a district title and make a deep run in the playoffs.
It will be tough for Brown to hold his 200 YPG mark, but I’m excited to see how long he can keep it going. Though he got plenty of run last season behind starter Damon Bankston, this is his first year as a starter and is making the most of his chance. I wouldn’t be surprised to see his recruiting profile shoot up over the next few months after the kind of start he’s had to 2021.
Congrats to Jacob on a great game and player-of-the-week, keep it rolling!
What to look forward to:
Here are the games I’m looking forward to this week. Keep in mind this is the first wide-spread bye week of the season, so the slate might not be as deep as usual.
- Tomball battles Oak Ridge (TH)
- A hot Seven Lakes takes on a struggling, but talented Heights squad (TH)
- Morton Ranch looks to follow up a shutout win against Lake Creek (TH)
- Manvel opens district play with Terry (TH)
- Deer Park starts district play with a great measuring-stick game against West Brook (F)
- Conroe looks to bounce back against a good Lamar squad (F)
- Cinco Ranch looks to stay perfect against talented Clear Falls (F)
- Dobie faces a good test against Dickinson (F)
- Atascocita returns to DFW to face another team with state title pedigree in Denton Guyer (F)
- North Shore looks to get back on track against Klein Oak (F)
- C.E. King looks to stay hot against a great Huntsville squad (F)
- The Woodlands will look to unseat Katy as the best team in Houston (F)
- Bay City takes on Vidor (F)
- Huffman-Hargrave battles Navasota (F)
- Stafford looks to rebound against a good Sealy squad (F)
- Klein looks to rebound against College Park (SAT)