Coldspring Trojans go 8 and 0 during District Play

At the Goal Line

Coldspring Trojans go 8 and 0 during District Play

Ok where do I start this addition of "At the Goal Line”. First of all let me be the first to admit I was wrong. Cleveland did not muster up a couple of TD's like I said they could. Last Friday's game was a clean sweep of the Indians. The very dominating score of 61 to 0 was an exhibition of the true strength that the Coldspring Trojans have as a weapon against their opponents. Although the passing game is not the best in the league it is enough to make the opponents have to honor it. Last year many of the teams just forgot about covering the passing game and covered the running threat and was able to, not stop, but certainly slow the attack down. With, Bryce Shepherd and teammate Casey Lillie, both on the run, it makes the other team think twice about letting them run free. Both Trojans have managed to secure yardage when they needed it, and post the threat of additional yardage. Guess what, they are Juniors and will return next year to push the threat even more. Last years "rookie quarterback”, Alfred Scott, is no rookie this year. He has been working hard at adding the passing attack to his arsenal. Oh, and he is also a Junior. So look for this threat to continue for some time now.

One quick statement before "PBP” play by play. If; and I do mean if, the Trojans can play at the level that they played against Cleveland, you are looking at the new State Division II Champs. I see no reason in the world that this team could not be sitting in Cowboy stadium a couple of weeks before Christmas. The only difference this time is that, they will be focused on winning and not be in awe of the hype. They did a great job last year, but it is time to turn loose of those thoughts of last year and focus on winning the next few district games and powering through the playoffs.

Well this game was a special game for the Coldspring-Oakhurst school district. It was homecoming. So I knew that there would be a big crowd. Well little did I know that it was going to be a huge crowd? After I witnessed the "Battle of San Jacinto” crowd I did not think that it could get any bigger. I was wrong. First of all, there were 60 plus ex-cheerleaders, a part of the Coldspring Alumni that performed during the first half of the game. May I say they were great. At 6:30, one hour before kickoff, the stadium was posted as full, standing room only. I could not believe it. This is great community support for the Trojans. As I walked in the stadium I could see that people were standing all over and more standing in line to get in. At 7:15, fifteen minutes before kickoff, the school started adding seating along the sidelines to accommodate the Trojan fans. Just prior to the kickoff the school started seating people in the end-zone. I do not know how many people that watched this game, or do I now what the record crowd is for the Trojan Stadium. I can tell you if it was not a record it sure should be.

Ok; 7:30 rolls around and the team Captains face off in the center of the field. The Captains for Cleveland were Tyrell Franks(7), Kevin Strong(54), Kyle Prentiss(66) and Randall Richards(72). The Captains for the Coldspring Trojans are, Sherman Gilbert(1), Colton Monroe(8), Kedrick Harrison(44) and Chance Andries(52). The Cleveland Indians won the opening toss and elected to defer. Here we go again, if someone knows the strategy behind giving the ball to a team that scores on every possession of the ball could you please tell me. Well, the Trojans will happily oblige the Indians.

Cleveland kicks off to Coldspring and as luck would have it the Trojans were not able to hold on to the ball so Cleveland was able to recover the fumble. This sets up a first and 10 for Cleveland. The Trojan Defense went to work and held the Indians to 3 downs. The Indians had to punt the first set of downs. The Trojans got their hands on the ball this time and went to work. Bryce Shepherd receives a pass from Alfred Scott, quarterback for the Trojans, and scampers 28 yard for a 1^st and 10. Alfred calls on Colton Monroe to take the ball to the 5 yard line of Cleveland. This sets up the first of many touchdowns for the Trojans. Alfred takes a quarterback sneak and secures the 6 points. The Trojans post a 2 point conversion by Colton Monroe. With 7:36 on the game clock the score is 8 Coldspring 0 Cleveland.

Greg Dunham kicked a very nice kick deep into the Indians territory, to get the Cleveland offense back on the field. The Trojans manage to hold the Indians to a 4^th and 8 at the 15 yard line. Cleveland managed to secure 2 1^st and 10 during the drive but could not manage to secure the first down on their third attempt. The Indian thought that they were in field goal range, so they sent in the field goal team. The attempt was no good.

With the second quarter just under way Sherman Gilbert crashes the line just outside the left tackle and breaks into the secondary. The Cleveland defense could not keep up with the speed that Sherman was running. Sherman posted the 14-0 score with 11:54 on the clock. The Cleveland Indians took their next shot at scoring and came up short with a 4^th down punt. The ball goes over to the Trojans. They could not manage to post a 1^st and ten. As the Indians managed to receive the kick for Alfred they could not handle the ball. Jay Trapp managed to knock the ball from the Indian receiver and the Trojans recover the ball, with great field position.

Sherman Gilbert gets the call to put 6 more points on the score board. 20 – 0 rolls off the score board with 8:24 on the clock. Cleveland is hit with a roughing the kicker. Greg Dunham has is legs knocked out from under him and is down with a very, and I do mean very late hit.

Folks; I have to stop here for a second and get my soap box out for just a second. I normally leave the comments to the crowd and just report on the game. However for some reason the hit bothered me a lot. Greg had already secured the "PAT” Point after touchdown. The score was now 21 -0. The Cleveland Indian player saw a chance to take out our kicker and he did. If I could have been the ref for a few seconds he would not have been in the game for another second. That kind of action is not ok for sportsman like conduct. Yes, I know that there was a lot riding on the game but there is no reason for someone to take advantage of another player and try to hurt him. Football is a game of strength and speed and has enough injuries with out trying to promote more. "Cleveland; Play the Game not the Player”. Ok I am off my soap box now. I just had to get that off my chest.

The Coldspring Trojans went in at half time with a score of 37 to 0, and missing an extra point kicker and an offensive tackle. Toward the end of the game I did see Greg running on his knee again, but I do hope he will be back in the game soon.

Congratulations to Ashley Brown and Colton Monroe for being elected as the 2011 Coldspring-Oakhurst Homecoming Queen and King.

The second half continued very much like the first half. The intensity of the game elevated as the score increased. Tre Cooper punched in a score off the left tackle making it 45 – 0 and then returned to secure the conversion 2 point.

As I said, the level of intensity of the game was reaching a level that the ref had to call a time-out and talk to the players. Did they want to play a game of football or just fight…? The conference with the Ref seemed to help with the extra curricular activity and the game got back to a hard but workable level. The Coldspring Trojans secured their 8 straight win with a record of 8 -0. The final score was 61 to 0.

Game Stats:

Sherman Gilbert had 12 attempts with 245 yards rushing and 5 TD's and 1 two point conversion totaling 32 points.

Colton Monroe had 9 attempts with 88 yards rushing and 1 TD and 3 two point conversions totaling 12 points

Tre Cooper had 4 attempts with 39 yards rushing and 1 TD and 1 Two point conversion totaling 8 points.

Douglas Johnson had 3 attempts with 31 yards rushing.

Patrick Giddens had 1 attempt with 9 yards rushing.

Alfred Scott and Sherman Gilbert had 7 attempts with 4 completions totaling 93 yards.

Bryce Shepherd caught 2 passes totaling 53 yards.
Casey Lilley caught 1 pass totaling 25 yards.

Colt Wilson caught 1 pass totaling 15 yards.

Greg Dunham had 1 attempt with 1 PAT.

Final score 61 points with 397 yards rushing and 93 yards passing for a total of 490 total yards.

Kedrick Harrison had 3 Tackles and 3 Assists with a total of 8 hits.

Patrick Giddens had 2 Tackles and 6 Assists with a total of 8 hits.

Chance Andries had 3 tackles and 4 Assists with a total of 13 hits.

Tre Cooper had 4 tackles and 4 assists with a total of 9 hits

The team had 21 tackles and 37 assists with a total of 69 hits.

Charlie Stats:

For every 10 minutes that the Trojan fans were in the stand the Team was scoring 12.7 points and eating up 10.20 yards of turf.

Season Stats:

Mr. Sherman Gilbert is now at 1324 yards with 100 attempts and 156 points

Colton Monroe is now at 849 yards with 80 attempts and 100 points.

Tre Cooper is now at 298 yards with 22 points

Douglas Johnson is at 231 yards with 18 pints

The Trojans as a team have scored 462 pints and have a total yardage of 3666 for the year so far.

This puts the Trojans on an average of 57+ points per game and there opponents with 6.3.

"Offense wins GAMES Defense wins TITLES”, Curtis Barbay.

Who is next…..

Well the Trojans will have a chance to mend there wounds and get ready for the game of the season. The next week is a BYE for the Coldspring community. The week after is a travel to the Falcon nesting grounds? Yes, feathers should fly for that week. Although the Huffman Falcons are not the Falcons of last year they do have a tremendous passing attack. They well be coming at the Trojans with all they can to try to topple the record. This game will be the toughest of the season for the Trojans. Although it should be a win, and the record should go to 9-0, only time will tell.

Next week is a special addition of "At The Goal Line”

So with that said I guess that is just one more item to take care of. That is the way I see it "At The Goal Line.”