The Cooldown: Week 8
The end of the regular season is just a few weeks away, and the final push for playoff spots and district championships is heating up.
Cy Woods, Katy and Willis all took big steps toward winning a district championship with wins in matchups of the top two teams in those respective districts. C.E. King also picked up a big win that will be important to its playoff chances. We’ll recap those games, name a POTW and take a look ahead to an absolutely loaded week nine slate.
Cy Woods dominates Cy Springs
This game was perceived to be one of the best of the schedule last week, between undefeated Cy Woods and 5-1 Cy Springs. Cy Woods proved perception isn’t always reality.
Though this was a one-score game at the half. Cy Woods dominated the second half to sprint away with a 44-14 win in its first real district test. Cy Woods had never started better than 3-0 in a season and yet, the Wildcats find themselves sitting at 7-0 with games left against 5-2 Cy Ranch, 0-7 Cy Park and 6-1 Bridgeland for the season finale. That game is looking like the de-facto district championship.
Last week’s player-of-the-week, Darien Rogers, continued his impressive season. Rogers finished 12-of-16 passing for a whopping 242 yards and three touchdowns – that’s 20.2 yards per attempt – and he was the Wildcats leading rusher with 86 yards and three more scores. Brandon Brown finished with 100 yards and two touchdowns on four catches, while Aiden Whitehead had the other touchdown catch.
Cy Woods is in control of its own destiny to win a district championship, but the Cy Ranch game will be challenging and Bridgeland is still probably the favorite to win the district. Even so, the Wildcats have a solid shot at the title and are enjoying their best season in school history.
Katy wins a slugfest against Jordan
Years have come and gone, new challengers have emerged again and again, and yet Katy is still inevitable.
Tompkins beat the Tigers in 2020 but Katy still won a state championship. Paetow won a title as a 5A school before moving up to 6A and the Panthers couldn’t beat Katy. Then, Jordan High opened and the Warriors have enjoyed a handful of D1 recruits and some good success in its first two seasons. Jordan entered the game unbeaten, but it didn’t leave that way.
Katy won what was a pretty ugly offensive game, 17-7. That’s a defensive statement against a team in Jordan that was averaging just above 40 points-per-game entering the contest. As a team, Jordan ran 22 times for just 65 yards. Zion Jones has had an incredible season so far, and the Tigers limited him to five yards on eight carries. That’s a statement.
For Katy, Gunner Nelson finished 4-of-11 for 58 passing yards, a touchdown and an interception. Tremayne Hill was the lone bright spot for either offense, running 21 times for 120 yards and a touchdown. Quarterback Beau Bryant accounted for most of Jordan’s offense, finishing 13-of-25 passing for 104 yards and an interception.
Katy has one more test against 6-1 Paetow this week before facing a pair of 4-3 teams in Tompkins and Mayde Creek. Meanwhile, Jordan will face the same challenge. The Warriors will likely bounce back big against 2-5 Katy Taylor before a bye week and a season finale against 6-1 Paetow. That game will likely determine who finishes second and third in the district.
Willis dismantles Conroe
Much like Cy Woods, Conroe is off to its best start… maybe not ever, but in a long time at the very least. The Tigers cruised to a 6-0 record entering last week’s game against Willis. That matches Conroe’s best season-long finish in at least the last six seasons: The Tigers finished 6-5 in each of the past two seasons.
Though Conroe’s start to the season has been great, the Tigers ran into a Willis team that might be one of the hottest teams in the entire state. Willis dismantled Conroe, 63-7.
Jack Emerson had another spectacular night, finishing 15-of-20 passing for 276 yards and five touchdowns. Romel Stevens was the leading receiver with 92 yards and a touchdown grab, while Jermaine Bishop had 79 yards and two touchdown catches.
Daylion Robinson and Terri Lawrence caught the other Emerson TD passes in addition to tag-teaming a productive night out of the backfield. Lawrence was the leading rusher, with 13 attempts for 131 yards, while Robinson ran for 34 yards and a touchdown on just three carries.
Because Willis is one of the few teams yet to have a bye week (the Wildkats bye week is the last week of the regular season), they’re now one of the only 8-0 teams in the entire state. Willis finishes out the season against 2-5 Oak Ridge and 5-3 Grand Oaks – and we saw what the Wildkats just did to previously undefeated Conroe. That means that last week bye is a dream scenario. Willis will likely finish 10-0 and have a week off heading into the playoffs.
Conroe will have to regroup heading into the final three games of the season. The Tigers get 2-5 Caney Creek and finish the season at 0-7 Cleveland. Sandwiched in between those games is a tilt with The Woodlands that will decide who finishes second and third in 13-6A. The Woodlands is 6-1 with the lone loss coming in a thriller against Willis back on Sept. 19.
Player of the Week
My player-of-the-week led his team to a key win that help clinch a playoff spot.
District 23-6A might very well be the toughest district in the state. North Shore, Atascocita and Summer Creek are all top 10 teams in the state. That leaves one playoff spot for three teams each having good seasons in C.E. King, Humble and Kingwood. Each team owns a record of 4-3, and only one will make the playoffs.
C.E. King beat Humble last week, 49-27, thanks to 21 points in the fourth quarter. That gives the Panthers a leg up on at least one of the two teams its competing with. That is in large part thanks to running back Dionne Sims, who simply became unstoppable in the second half. Sims finished with 28 carries for 244 yards and four touchdowns to power C.E. King to a pivotal win.
Dionne Sims is my player-of-the-week!
What to Watch for
North Shore (7-0, 4-0) at Atascocita (7-0, 4-0)
There isn’t much to say here except this has game-of-the-year potential. Atascocita already won a thriller against Summer Creek, and it survived a scare against Kingwood last week. North Shore has been largely untested this season. Tory Blaylock and Cardae Mack against that North Shore defense, including one of the best prep secondaries in the entire country, feels like “unstoppable force meets immovable object.” Something has to give, as it does in this game every year. This one will be a blast.
Pearland (7-1, 6-0) at Shadow Creek (6-1, 5-0)
While this should be a good game, there is a little bit of a damper on it. Shadow Creek quarterback Joseph Stewart suffered a fractured fibula last week and is out for the seasons, a big blow to Shadow Creek and an extremely unfortunate end to what was a prolific high school career for Stewart. Nevertheless, both of these teams are really good. Each are undefeated while every other team in 22-6A has at least two district losses. This is literally the district championship game. The stakes can’t get higher.
Dickinson (5-2, 4-0) at Clear Springs (6-1, 4-0)
District 24-6A – which gets the district unpleasant matchup with 23-6A for the first round of the playoffs – is a three team race at this point. Clear Springs, Dickinson and Deer Park are each 4-0 in district play. As discussed in the POTW segment, district 23-6A is comprised of three top 10 teams in the state. Though I’m not sure how these two districts will be spilt in terms of who goes 6A-I and 6A-II, I do know that it would behoove these teams to avoid having to face North Shore, Atascocita or Summer Creek in round one. More than likely, that means winning the district championship, which is the goal of every team anyway. Though Deer Park is 4-0, these two are likely the best teams in the district – no disrespect to the Deer. This game will be one to keep an eye on.
El Campo (6-1, 2-0) at Bay City (6-1, 2-0)
Each of these teams has a loss to a team in a different classification. Bay city played down to Edna, the No. 4 team in 3A-I, and lost 35-7. El Campo played up to Bryan Rudder in 5A-II and lost 21-17. As is the theme in games to watch this week, this is the de-facto district championship game. Each team is 6-1 and no other team in the district is above .500 – Port Lavaca Calhoun is the only other team with a district win (2-0) and the Sandcrabs are 3-4. So once again, this will be a game between two teams competing to achieve the same goal of becoming district champions and secure better playoff seeding. Buckle up!