Midland Greenwood

Several area teams survived tough first round contests
by Oscar LeRoy
Midland Reporter-Telegram
Published: Tuesday, November 18, 2008 3:12 AM CST
Oscar LeRoy is a sports writer with the Reporter-Telegram. He can be reached at oscar@mrt.com.

The first week of the high school football playoffs saw some pretty good games and plenty of success for the Reporter-Telegram area teams.

Seven of the nine teams we mentioned last week are still alive, and some might be going for a while in the postseason.

First, let's recap last week with some of the best games of the bi-district round.

n Greenwood kicked off the playoffs last Thursday night with a 35-32 victory over Pecos in Class 3A Division II.

The Rangers were admittedly in a tougher-than-expected battle with the Eagles and really had fight and claw this one out as Pecos' running game did a good job of keeping the ball away from Greenwood. The Rangers (7-4), however, were able to come up with a few more plays, while Pecos' kicking game miscues in the first half were costly.

It only gets tougher for Greenwood, which faces Sweetwater (9-2) at 7:30 p.m. Thursday in Abilene in the area round. Originally the teams had agreed to play at Grande Communications Stadium, but for whatever reason, Sweetwater changed its mind and wanted to flip for the field. The Mustangs won and got Shotwell.

Either way, if the Rangers thought the Pecos running game was tough, Sweetwater is loaded with speed and has a stable of talented running backs. Three Mustangs have rushed for at least 400 yards, led by 6-foot-1, 194-pound senior running back Daniel Jackson with 1,224 yards. Sweetwater has also won nine of its last 10 games with the only loss being a 14-0 defeat to Abilene Wylie.

Greenwood will also look to pound the ball behind its stable of running backs and it will be imperative for the Rangers to hold on to the ball as much as possible.

This could be a quick game with each team grinding it out, so this might be decided on which defense makes the critical stops in the second half.

Little late posting this but you can listen to the Greenwood game on internet at following website:
http://www.audiosportsonline.net/LS/Midland/2008Football.htm. They will also have it available online after the game, if anyone is interested, as archived podcast.

I was able to listen just after the start of the third quarter and heard Greenwood score their second (and last) touchdown. The announcers were obviously Greenwood homies as they would point out penalties that didn't get called, etc. However, they were very impressed by the size of the holes that the offensive line was opening up and the hard running of the running backs.

They made one weird statement after the end of the game in which they implied that the reason the games was played on a Thursday rather than a Friday had to do with an event that would take place on Friday (today) at 3:30. They said that the Mustang offense wouldn't be the same. The only thing I could think of was he was believing that there would be players lost to grades but I don't know if the grading period ends today and he sure does not know our players. Unless he meant something else and did not come out and say it.

The Midland paper wrote up the game as follows:

Rangers' season ends with loss to Sweetwater
Sweetwater (10-2) advances to play either Liberty Hill or Vernon in the regional round.
By Oscar LeRoy
Sports Writer
Published: Friday, November 21, 2008 5:00 PM CST

ABILENE — The Sweetwater running back duo of Daniel Jackson and Steven Fields helped to end Greenwood’s Cinderella season on a cold and breezy Thursday night at Shotwell Stadium.

Jackson and Fields combined to rush for 326 yards and sparked Sweetwater to 21 unanswered points in the second half as the Mustangs ran to a 28-14 victory over Greenwood in a Class 3A Division II area round playoff game.

Jackson finished with 166 yards and two touchdowns on 25 carries, while Fields added the 160 yards and one score on 18 carries.

“We just did a better job of executing up front,” said Sweetwater coach Kent Jackson about the second half. “We challenged our kids to do a better job of staying low and coming off the ball. I thought our running backs did a tremendous job of taking advantage of those creases. Defensively, I think our kids played exceptionally well.”

Sweetwater (10-2) advances to play the winner of Saturday’s game between Liberty Hill and Vernon in the regional round at a time and place to be determined.

Greenwood ends its season at 7-5 and proved many skeptics wrong along the way. Sweetwater proved to be just a little too much to handle for the Rangers on this night.

“They’ve got a lot of good athletes and they went 9-1 (in the regular season) against a lot of good teams,” said Greenwood coach Steve Taylor about Sweetwater. “I’m real proud of our kids and how hard they played all year. We had an unbelievable season for what was expected of us. Our kids also did a good job of keeping their cool. Sweetwater wasn’t acting very good (late in the game) and they easily could have lost their cool.”

The first half proved to be a battle of defensive muscle as both teams lined up and dared the other to try and stop their running attack.

A mistake by Sweetwater gave Greenwood its best scoring opportunity of the first half and the Rangers cashed in in the miscue. After converting a fourth-and-1, the Mustangs fumbled the ball away at their own 25. A personal foul penalty by the Mustangs gave Greenwood the ball at the 12, and two plays later, Kinsey Williams (105 yards on 21 carries) scored on a 4-yard run. Greenwood, however, missed the extra point and only had a 6-0 lead.

Both teams continued to go for it on fourth down and both teams turned it over on downs in first half. Sweetwater was probably motivated to take more fourth down risks after a pair of 4-yard punts into the stiff south winds.

Sweetwater finally put together a nice drive going late in the second quarter when it marched 68 yards on 10 plays to take a 7-6 lead on a Jackson 10-yard run up the middle.

Greenwood retook the lead on its first possession of the second half when a 67-yard drive ended with a 4-yard touchdown run by Blake McColloch. A two-point conversion run by Williams gave the Rangers a 14-7 lead.

But Sweetwater came right back to answer on its next possession when Jackson scored his second touchdown of the game with a 15-yard run up the middle to tie the score at 14.

The Mustangs defense then got tougher and forced Greenwood to go three-and-out on the ensuing possession. One play later, the Mustangs were in the end zone again as Fields broke loose for a 53-yard touchdown run to give Sweetwater a 21-14 advantage.

“We took the opening kickoff and scored but then Sweetwater took it right back,” Taylor said. “The momentum we did have was short lived.”

Added Kent Jackson, “You can’t say enough about (Greenwood) coming out with a great drive to open the third quarter. For our defense, to be able to shut them down the rest of the way was a big deal.”

The Mustangs put the game away early in the fourth quarter when they capped off a 77-yard drive with a 5-yard TD run by Alex McCoy.

Greenwood’s best opportunity to cut into Sweetwater’s lead in the fourth ended midway through the period when it turned the ball over on downs at the Mustang 19.

“Greenwood’s got a great football team,” Kent Jackson said. “Those kids fight hard and play extremely hard and they’re cut out of the same cloth as far as philosophy and those kind of things. To be able to get a win against a group like that, we feel very fortunate and very blessed.”

Sweetwater 28, Greenwood 14

Greenwood 6 0 8 0 —14

Sweetwater 0 7 14 7 —28

First Quarter

GRE — Kinsey Williams 4 run (kick failed), 5:02

Second Quarter

SWE — Daniel Jackson 10 run (Cameron Studdard kick), 1:23

Third Quarter

GRE — Blake McColloch 4 run (Williams run), 8:56

SWE — Jackson 15 run (Studdard kick), 6:45

SWE — Steven Fields 53 run (Studdard kick), 4:23

Fourth Quarter

SWE — Alex McCoy 5 run (Studdard kick), 10:52

Greenwood Sweetwater

First downs 8 20

Rushes-yards 32-145 57-406

Passing 32 00

Comp.-Att.-Int. 3-9-1 0-2-1

Punts-Avg. 3-32.0 3-12.0

Fumbles-lost 1-0 1-1

Penalties-yards 4-40 6-38

INDIVIDUAL STATISTICS

RUSHING — Greenwood, Kinsey Williams 21-105, Blake McColloch 8-39, Stacey Smith 2-0, Cole Barton 1-1. Sweetwater, Daniel Jackson 25-166, Steven Fields 18-160, Zach Birdwell 6-50, Rufus McCann 1-2, Alex McCoy 6-28

PASSING — Greenwood, McColloch 2-8-1—0, Williams 1-1-0—32. Sweetwater, Jeremy Barnes 0-1-1—0

RECEIVING — Greenwood, Smith 2-35, Josh Cook 1-(-3)

INTERCEPTIONS — Greenwood, Blake McColloch 1-0. Sweetwater, McCoy 1-12