The Cooldown: Week 6
Week six was not necessarily full of surprises, was it? Katy handled business against Tompkins, the higher-ranked Westfield put on a dominant performance against Spring and Shadow Creek got back to its winning ways against Dawson. Check out the full week six recap and week seven preview below.
Travis survives back-and-forth affair with George Ranch
The second half of Travis and George Ranch felt like whoever had the ball last would win, and that just about rang true.
Travis quarterback Anthony Njoku opened the second half with a touchdown run to give Travis a 10-point lead, but George Ranch responded quickly. Cole Murphy threw a touchdown and Hymond Drinkard ran in a score to quickly turn the 10-point deficit into a four-point lead.
The teams continued to trade scores until Njoku threw another touchdown pass five with minutes left to put Travis up 30-29, and then it was the Tigers defense that came up big. Parker Reed nabbed an interception from Murphy that led to a Travis field goal. Then with George Ranch needing a touchdown to win it, Israel Akinlabi picked off Murphy in the end zone as time expired to give Travis the 33-29 win.
Those interceptions helped give Travis a rare win in a game which the Tigers were outgained by over 100 yards. Njoku completed 12-of-25 passes for 145 yards and three scores. Murphy also tossed three touchdowns, but also threw four interceptions.
Travis (3-2, 2-0) will take a road trip to Bush next week while George Ranch (3-2, 1-1) faces off against Austin at home.
Westfield gets rivalry revenge on Spring
Spring pulled off one of the best plays of the entire season in this game last year, a walk-off Hail Mary to beat its rivals. It doesn’t get better than that! And it certainly wasn’t getting better on Friday night.
Spring put together a nice opening drive before Demarion Stamps intercepted Spring quarterback Bishop Davenport and returned it for a touchdown to give Westfield an early lead. Davenport responded by driving Spring right back down the field for an answer, but Westfield was still able to jump out to a 28-7 lead at the half.
Spring made it interesting in the fourth after scoring two touchdowns to pull within seven points, but the comeback fell just short when Davenport tossed his second INT of the night. Davenport finished 360 yards and two touchdowns on 25-of-40 passing. He also ran for 61 yards and fumbled once.
The story of the game was Westfield’s Williams-to-Palomo connection. Quarterback Cardell Williams threw for 218 yards and three scores on 13-of-25. The majority of those yards and all three touchdowns were caught by Dajohn Palomo, who racked up 153 yards and those three scores on five catches. Dahmeir Scott also had a nice night from his running back spot, totaling 104 yards on 19 carries.
Shadow Creek uses big second half to beat Dawson
Speaking of district matchups where one team avenged its 2020 loss, Shadow Creek would like a word!
The Sharks lost last years’ matchup and Dawson won the district. But now it’s Shadow Creek in the district drivers seat after a big 45-31 win against the Eagles. Duke Butler had an efficient night, throwing two touchdowns and 165 yards on 11-of-17. Junior Joshua Best and senior Joqwan West caught those touchdown passes, going for for catches and 68 yards and three catches for 37 yards respectively. Butler also ran in a touchdown.
The Sharks used the ground attack to put Dawson away. Sophomore Tylik Burton ran for 142 yards on just 15 carries while junior Felix Buchanan ran 12 times for 110 yards and three scores. While those were impressive performances, it didn’t quite top Dawson sophomore running back Bryce Burgess, who racked up 209 yards and two scores on 18 carries – more than 11 yards-per-carry.
Shadow Creek scored 28 second half points to put the Eagles away. Burgess and Dawson (3-2, 1-1) will look to bounce back at Alief Taylor next week while Shadow Creek (3-2, 2-0) gets another big district matchup, this time Strake Jesuit at home.
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 games mentioned above.
- Oh, look! Another team that got rivalry revenge! Katy smoked Tompkins 56-21 to all but recapture the district title
- Dekaney outlasted Nimitz 35-21
- Clear Springs picked up a big district win against Clear Lake, 47-21
- Bush beat Elkins 10-3 in a low scoring affair, but important for playoff seeding
- Seven Lakes established itself as a playoff team with a 44-20 win over Katy Taylor
- Klein Cain stayed hot with a 63-14 win against Tomball Memorial
- Alief Taylor took down rival Alief Elsik 34-13
- Clear Falls got back on track with a 38-21 win over Clear Brook
- Cy-Fair picked up an important win over Cy Creek, 37-25
- Cy Ranch raced past Cy Falls, 31-14
- C.E. King picked up a big district win over Summer Creek, 35-10
- Tomball stayed undefeated with a 49-21 win over Klein Forest
- Friendswood took down Baytown Sterling 24-7
- Foster survived a scare from Terry, 17-10
- Langham Creek got back on track with a 36-13 win over Cy Springs
- Hightower survived a scare from Angleton. 18-16
Player of the Week
I typically give the player-of-the-week award to the player that puts up the most eye-popping stats, with bonus points if it’s against a tough opponent. Montgomery running back Jalen Washington checked both of those boxes big time last week.
The senior back ran for 299 yards and five (!!) touchdowns last week to lead Montgomery past Fulshear. The Bears are now 5-0, and 1-0 in a tough district. It doesn’t get any easier the next two weeks with games against the top two teams in the district, Bryan Rudder and A&M Consolidated.
According to Maxpreps, Washington has carried 87 times for 781 yards and nine touchdowns this season. That’s an average of nine yards-per-carry across nearly 100 carries! He’s going to need to keep it up these next two weeks and if he does, Montgomery could be bringing home a district title.
What to look forward to
Here are some of the games I’m looking forward to this week. For some reason, it’s another small Thursday and Saturday slate… keeping football on Friday night like it should be!
- Tomball looks to stay perfect against Klein Collins (TH)
- Willis travels to The Woodlands in a huge 13-6A showdown (TH)
- Elkins looks to get back in the playoff picture against Clements (TH)
- Strake Jesuit looks for a big road win against Shadow Creek (F)
- Dawson looks to get back on track at Alief Taylor (F)
- Clear Falls and Clear Springs battle in a game that will help define the 24-6A playoff picture (F)
- Oak Ridge and Conroe battle, each looking for a spot at the back end of the 13-6A playoff picture (F)
- Cy-Fair looks to keep momentum going against Jersey Village (F)
- Atascocita takes on a Summer Creek squad looking to rebound (F)
- Klein and Tomball Memorial each look to pick up a needed win (F)
- Hightower looks for a big win against Foster (F)
- Bay City takes on Brazosport (F)
- El Campo faces off against Stafford (F)
- Cy Ranch looks to knock off district-favorite Bridgeland (SAT)
- Travis looks to keep momentum going against Bush (SAT)
- Terry looks for a needed district win against Kempner (SAT)