Stepp's Ten Thoughts from Week 4 of the TXHSFB Season

Photo by Felipe Morales

Share or Save for Later

Share on Twitter Share on Facebook Save to Favorites

Weather wins third week in a row
For the third consecutive week, rain and stormy weather wreaked havoc on the Texas high school football slate and this time it wasn’t limited to just one area of the state. The North Texas region saw the most issues with rain as several dozen schools moved Friday kickoffs to Thursday night in efforts to beat the anticipated storms for Friday. That plan did work, despite multiple games being delayed and not kick off off until around 9 p.m., the games on Thursday all were completed and had no additional delays. Friday night was a different story. Games in the DFW area and Texoma were delayed in some cases, cancelled in other cases and for some district games, rescheduled to Saturday. There were some games out west in the Abilene area that saw delays and a couple of reschedules to Saturday as well and games as far south as the Austin area in Central Texas were impacted with multiple lightning delays and a few cancellations as well. I for one enjoy the rain and after our great state was ravaged by drought a couple of years ago, I won’t complain about it raining too much, but if we can just get the rain to move to Sunday-Wednesday that’d be great for the rest of the year!

Can Mesquite Horn recover?
It’s been a brutally tough start for the Mesquite Horn Jaguars who finished their non-district slate Thursday night with an 0-4 record. Mesquite Horn’s four opponents (Allen, Highland Park, Cedar Hill and Arlington) are a combined 15-0 on the year, so it’s not like Coach Mike Overton scheduled a bunch of softies, but Horn’s a bit beat up right now and their confidence has to have taken a dip. This is a team that is talented enough to bounce back, but there are some definite red flags and the ship will have to get righted in a hurry since Horn opens district play next week with a much improved Mesquite High squad.

South Houston 4-0 best start since 1975
First-year head coach Patrick Longstreet is turning some heads in the Houston area as his South Houston Trojans are off to a 4-0 start after an impressive 47-7 win over previously unbeaten Humble on Thursday night. South Houston, who is off to its best start since 1975, have won all four of its games by double-digit margins thus far. SHHS is now 2-0 in district play and put itself right in the thick of the playoff discussion.

Vandegrift naking noise in the Capital City
The Vandegrift Vipers are off to a quick 4-0 start and appear to be set on course for a district title and possible unbeaten regular season after an impressive 29-20 win over Pflugerville Hendrickson. The Vipers held off a furious Hawks comeback and multiple weather delays in the victory. After last week’s 17-14 win over Round Rock Cedar Ridge, the Vipers own wins over the district’s other two title contenders. The Vipers should be significant favorites in the remainder of their games in the regular season and could be a real factor in 6A Division II Region II.

Fort Bend Marshall’s massive win
After being dominated by Manvel the past two years, James Williams’ squad proved to themselves, the Houston area and the entire state that they are a bona fide state title contender after taking down Manvel 52-51 Friday night in an overtime classic. The Buffaloes had 210 yards rushing and five touchdowns from Devon Achane, but it was his two kickoff returns for touchdowns that squelched any momentum Manvel tried seizing in the game. The key sequence was in overtime when Coach Williams elected to go for two in overtime after scoring to cut the lead to 51-50. His faith in his team paid off as Achane, after a procedure penalty, converted an eight-yard two point conversion helping earn the program a massive victory.

Canyon off and running in the Panhandle
There was a lot of talk in the panhandle about a couple of Class 5A drop-downs in Dumas and Hereford, but it’s another 5A drop down that’s making major waves as the Canyon Eagles are off to a strong 4-0 start to the season. On Thursday night, the Eagles knocked off Class 5A Amarillo Caprock 36-26 as QB Lawton Rikel accounted for 236 yards of offense and three touchdowns to lead the Eagles' attack. Canyon’s big time offense is putting them right in the discussion as one of the contenders in a wide open Class 4A Region I Division I.

Liberty Hill rolls up 89 points
Liberty Hill’s Slot-T offense might be the most deadly and potent attack in the state despite being a throwback that doesn’t rely on spreading defenses out and slinging the ball all over the field. Instead, Liberty Hill gets it done with a deceptive rushing attack that rolled up nearly 500 yards of offense and an incredible point total in an 89-34 win over Pflugerville Connally. Liberty Hill returned the opening kickoff for a touchdown and never looked back putting up an incredible 61 points in the first half alone.

Giddings' ultimate icing of kicker
Giddings remained undefeated on the season Friday with a hard fought 22-21 win over a much-improved Cameron Yoe squad. The Buffaloes won the game on a short 24-yard field goal from Mark Orocio as time expired, but how the field goal was made is a story that will be told for years. With the storms across the state, the Giddings-Yoe game was relatively unaffected until Orocio lined up for his potential game winning kick. Lightning was detected in the area and both teams went to the locker room for 30 minutes. Orocio, instead of being iced for two or three minutes by the opposition’s timeouts, was iced by Mother Nature for an entire 30 minute. But Orocio showed plenty of poise and confidence by waiting the extra time and then drilling the game winning kick.

Two defensive touchdowns help Gladewater to huge win
I’ll take a minute to pat myself on the back. In the pre-season Hipster Picks I discussed Gladewater as a team to watch in Class 3A Division I. Thus far, the Bears have more than exceeded expectations and are off to a flying 4-0 start with no win bigger than Friday’s nights win over defending 4A Division II state champions Texarkana Pleasant Grove 44-37. Sophomore RB Eligia Carter for the fourth straight game topped 200 yards rushing but it was two second half fumble returns for touchdowns that proved to be key in Gladewater ending Pleasant Grove’s 19-game winning streak. Leading 23-20 in the third quarter, Gladewater’s Quavian Sheffield returned a PGHS fumble 11 yards for a touchdown to put the Bears up 30-20. Then with the game tied at 37 with 27 seconds left Zach Tyieske returned a fumble 25 yards for a touchdown to give the Bears the winning margin. With wins over 4A programs Longview Spring Hill, Center and Texarkana Pleasant Grove and a big win over fellow 3A Region II contender Atlanta, Gladewater’s resume looks as good as anyone’s at the moment in 3A Division I.

Seymour wins ugly
In a game that was played in some of the most difficult conditions in the state Class 2A Seymour and Windthorst battled to a scoreless tie in regulation. The Panthers finally managed to punch it in overtime as Cade Holden scored from a yard out to put Seymour up 6-0 and the Panther defense held Windthorst out of the end zone for the incredible six-point win. The vast majority of the game was played in an intense rain storm with winds gusting at times over forty miles per hour and was played in front of just a few hundred hearty fans.

This article is available to our Digital Subscribers.
Click "Subscribe Now" to see a list of subscription offers.
Already a Subscriber? Sign In to access this content.

Sign In
Don't Miss Any Exclusive Coverage!

We've been the Bible of Texas football fans for 64 years. By joining the DCTF family you'll gain access to all of our exclusive content and have our magazines mailed to you!