Coldspring goes 5 - 0 for the season

At The Goal Line

Hey Sports fans; you have heard the old expression "Deer in the Headlights”; I see this year's football season as "Playoffs in the Headlights”. District play is now up and in full swing. Everything that happens is for real. No more scrimmages or pre-district games, or what if questions. What you see is what you get. Coldspring was able to dominate Tarkington, from start to finish. This game gave Coach Brian Barbay, Head Coach of the Trojans, a chance to test out some fresh legs, under district play conditions, and it looked very good. Many of the Sophomores got to test their skills and abilities against a true game condition.

Once again; the opponent won the coin toss and elected to differ, and kick to the Coldspring-Trojans. I still cannot figure the "differ deal out”. But if that is what they want the Trojans will surely take the ball first. That is exactly what happened. Tarkington kicked to Coldspring and put them in fair field position. This gave Sherman Gilbert, all state running back, a chance to air out his speed. With just seconds off the clock Sherman shot off-tackle and up the sidelines with blazing speed for the first touchdown of the evening. Greg Dunham, defensive tackle and kicker for the Trojans wasted no time in putting the ball between the uprights to post the 7 to 0 score.

The Trojans held the Tarkington Longhorns to three downs and a punt. The first play from scrimmage that the Trojan made put Colton Monroe crashing the right side of the line and bulldozing over half dozen Longhorns for a first and ten. This set up a running attack with Sherman and Monroe that put the ball deep into the Longhorn territory.

Colton Monroe gets the call from Quarterback Alford Scott and again, crashes the right side of the line for the second score of the evening, followed by a Dunham PAT. The score is now 14 to zero. With 6:18 on the clock, Tarkington is still trying to figure what hit them.

Deep into the first quarter Scott handed the ball off to Gilbert which follows close behind Colt Wilson. Colt offers a perfect open field block which allows Gilbert to cross the goal line for a 21 – 0 score.

Casey Lillie, tight end for the Coldspring Trojans, pulls in a tremendous one arm catch setting up the first and ten. Monroe crashes the center of the line and drills his way to the five yard line. On the very next play he crosses the goal line, again. Kaleb Morrison, Sophomore quarterback and kicker had a little trouble with the kick sending it a little wide and leaving the score at 27-0.

With 7:43 on the clock the Trojans send Colton Monroe off tackle from a spread "T” formation and he sprints 48 yards for a 33 -0 score. The PAT (point after touchdown) is not good and the score stands at 33-0.

Colton Monroe and Greg Dunham go on and score another "TD” and "PAT” to make the score 40 to 0.

As the second half got started the Trojans kicked to the Longhorns. As the Longhorn quarterback was taking a shotgun snap, the ball went over his head, and none other then Chance Andries was standing looking at the ball, but he only looked a second and then grabbed it and stepped across the goal line for his second touchdown of his "lineman” carrier. This punches the score to 53-0.

As the fourth and final quarter started, things started to look a lot different. All State defensive lineman, Chance Andries, gets his long awaited rest. Von Cross, a Junior tackle takes his place. Starting Center, Jacob Mizell gets his long awaited rest, Sophomore, Brady Barbay takes over the center position. Coach Barbay called timeout and allowed the Trojan Fans to pay tribute to a job well done. At this time Barbay sends in Sophomore Kaleb Morrison as the Trojan quarterback. The stands offered Alfred Scott a nice standing ovation for a job well done.

The Longhorns managed to take advantage of the young at heart sophomores, and a few new personnel on the defense. They managed to score one and only one touchdown, with a good conversion two point score. The score setting at 60 to 8.

With a Morrison and Donte Scott combo, Scott finds an opening on the right side of the field and scoots for 75 yards for the final touch down, Dunham splits the uprights and the final score of the night rings 67 to 8.

Some Game Stats.

Sherman Gilbert had 6 attempts with 163 yards and 3 touchdowns.

Colton Monroe had 8 attempts with 129 yards and 3 touchdowns.

Donte Scott had 4 attempts with 83 yards and 1 touchdown.

Patrick Giddens had 2 attempts and 83 yards with 1 touchdown.

Jamel Bass had 4 attempts with 9 yards.

Alfred Scott had 1 attempt with 1 yard, and passed for 35 yards.

Casey Lillie had 1 completion for 22 yards, and 1 kickoff return for 4 yards.

Bryce Shepherd had 2 completion for 13 yards

Douglas Johnson had 3 put returns for 127 yards, and 1 touchdown.

Greg Dunham had 7 PAT and made 6.

Kaleb Morrison had 3 attempts at a PAT and made 1.

Kedrick Harrison had 1 tackle and 5 assists.

Patrick Giddens had 5 tackles and 6 assists.

Chance Andries had 1 tackle and 6 assists and 1 touchdown.

Greg Dunham had 4 assists.

Jerrell Sykes had 4 tackles and 3 assists.

Darrell White had 4 tackles.

The Trojans have scored a total of 275 points, which averages to 55 points per game.

The Trojans have a total of 2280 yards of offense.

Charlie Stats… For every 10 minutes that the Trojans were in the stands cheering the Team on the Coldspring Trojans were scoring 11.16 points.

For every 10 minutes of play the team was gaining 79.66 yards of turf.

What a game…..!

This closes the books on the first 22-AAA week of district play. So you ask who is next..? This is my favorite of all games that are played. It was named, "The Battle of San Jacinto County” so let get right to the fun and excitement.

The long awaited "Battle of San Jacinto County”, is finally here. You ask, what is the Battle of San Jacinto County? Just let me explain. When I first moved to San Jacinto County I knew that there were two school districts in the area. However; what I did not realize is how close they were to each other and how much of a rival the two schools were. The two schools, Coldspring-Oakhurst and Shepherd are both very fine schools and are true competitors. Both schools have a true top level sportsmanshipattitude.

The first time I photographed one of these game I did not quite know what to think. If I remember it was a game at Shepherd Stadium, and it was buzzing. It almost reminded me of the old Houston Oilier days, "Love You Blue”. If some of you folks have never heard that expression, then you're not from Texas. That is all I will say about that. There were many people tailgating with fantastic food. But What caught my eye the most was the T-shirts that were being sold. "Friends don't let friends wear blue”, was on one of the t-shirts. There was a Battle of San Jacinto shirt that had a big superman helmet on it with a Trojan helmet destroyed laying on its side. How genius was the artwork on the apparel….! What most of the folks did not realize, I lived in the shadow of the San Jacinto Monument before I moved to San Jacinto County . This is where the real Battle of San Jacinto took place. For those of you who do not know me, I love Texas history just about as much as I love football and photography. So to step into a place that had football, The Battle of San Jacinto and oh, yes photography was a great night for me. To this day, I still look forward to the district football game between the Trojans and Pirates.

I will not force a lot of Texas History on you this time but be prepared to read a little Texas History on any one of my sports articles in the future.

So what to expect. Well, Shepherd is in a rebuilding year and is working hard to get their personnel lined out and in a true working order. The Trojans are now 5 and 0 with the hopes of hitting the playoffs in full stride.

So sports fans bring your Trojan hat or your Pirate hat to the next game and root your team on to victory.

And that is the way I see it "At The Goal Line”