Baytown Lee 34 - Baytown Sterling 7

[gary-us-bonds]

I don't see this score posted as of yet. Lee took it to them in front of 12,000 last night at Stallworth. Can't wait for Moses to get back, and we might be able to really do something.

[KFDM COOP]

Congrats Ganders

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Ganders soar in 7th straight win

By Doyle Barlow

Baytown Sun

Published October 7, 2006

The Game wasn’t much of one.

In the 40th version of the annual crosstown rivalry between Lee and Sterling, the Ganders looked like a team poised to make a run for a district title, while the Rangers looked like a team that was, well, … 40.

The end result was a 34-7 REL win that kept the Ganders (4-1) undefeated in District 21-5A play at 2-0, while dropping the Rangers to 1-4 overall and 0-2 in the district. It was the fourth straight victory for the Ganders, while RSS lost its fourth straight — all at home. The victory also gives the Ganders a 24-14-2 edge in the all-time series.

REL will host West Brook next week, while RSS will travel to Channelview.

“Going into this, we talked about the fact that we wanted to make Sterling a hungry friend,†REL head coach Dick Olin said. “What we mean by that is that now Sterling has to come out and fight every week and by doing that, they’ll help us. We’ve got a lot of respect for them and their goal of making the playoffs is not out of the realm of possibility.â€

An REL defense that had received its share of criticism coming in held the Rangers to 93 yards and no touchdowns on the night, and only 34 yards of offense in the second half. In addition, the Gander defense got

a 20-yard fumble recovery for a touchdown from Fred St. Luce for a score, and the special teams added a touchdown when Luis Gonzales recovered a fumbled kickoff in the end zone.

“I really didn’t think we’d shut them down like we did,†said REL defensive coordinator Mark Crooms. “I thought they’d be able to run on us a little bit, but they never did.

“All week we worked on staying in our rush lanes so that (Jason) Tanner couldn’t get outside the pocket.

“We’re getting better and better. We’re getting there.â€

The Ganders limited Tanner to 22 yards rushing and only 21 yards passing. Sterling’s only touchdown came when Denzel Kennedy picked off an Octavio Torres and returned it 60 yards for a score late in the second quarter.

“It was another Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde scenario for us,†RSS head coach Herb Minyard said. “It was a situation where they made plays and we didn’t. We didn’t play well, but there’s nothing we can do about that now. We told the kids after the game that we have to move on.â€

Lee dominated without getting a big performance from Torres, who finished 9 of 20 for 96 yards with a pair of interceptions. He did have a 7-yard touchdown strike to Michael Mahan to cap the opening drive and give REL a 7-0 lead with less than two minutes elapsed.

But just like in last week’s win over Kingwood, it was the REL ground game that was the difference. The Ganders had 257 yards on the ground, with Jarvis Moore rushing for 145 yards on 27 carries. Moore, who had over 200 yards last week, did most of his damage after intermission, with 92 yards and a touchdown in the second half. Inside receiver Kevin Craft also had a big night rushing, with 70 yards on five carries, including a 24-yard touchdown run. Craft ran the ball three times on reverses as the Ganders tried to take advantage of Sterling’s aggressive, pursuing defense.

“We just wanted to put those (reverses) in to try to slow them down some,†Olin said.

Lee wasted no time in serving notice that they were going to pull out all the stops. On the opening drive of the night, REL ran a reverse to Craft on third-and-9 to keep the march alive. Craft also had a 30-yard reception on the drive, with Torres hooking up with mahan on the next play.

On their second drive, REL marched 86 yards on 14 plays, capped by Craft’s 24 yards run on a backward pass from Torres. The drive was kept alive by a 10-yard run by Craft on a fake punt on fourth-and-2.

Following Craft’s score which gave REL a 14-0 lead came the most bizarre play of the night. Ulises Arias’s kickoff was mishandled by Dawsel White and rolloed into the end zone. White never downed the ball and Lee’s Luis Gonzales jogged into the end Zone and picked it up with the officials signaling it was a touchdown. Minyard came onto the field and argued with the officials, but to no avail, making the score 21-0 with six seconds left in the first quarter.

Sterling got on the board with Kennedy’s interception return, as the score was 21-0 at halftime.

It looked like the Rangers might be able to build some momentum, but on their first play from scrimmage, Guillory ran into the line where the ball was stripped by St. Luce, as he raced the other direction for a TD and 28-7 lead.

Moore added a two-yard dive in the fourth quarter for the final points.

After that it was all up to the defense which never cracked.

“We just came out, played hard and executed,†said REL defensive tackle JT Cleveland. “They have some good athletes but we came out and did our jobs.â€

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The Game brings things into focus

By Doyle Barlow

Baytown Sun

Published October 8, 2006

The 40th anniversary of The Game is in the books, and as the sun rose Saturday morning on Lee’s 34-7 win, several things were just as clear in the light of day as they were following the carnage Friday night at Stallworth Stadium.

First and foremost, one fact is crystal clear: Lee is a pretty darn good football team, and they’re getting better every week. The offense is explosive, as it usually is at REL, but what you’d better not sleep on if you’re a Gander opponent is the running game.

REL held a 21-7 halftime lead on Sterling Friday night, which they increased to 28-7 on the first play of the second half when Fred St. Luce returned a fumble for a touchdown.

What ensued after that wasn’t typical REL football, it was a game of keep-away. And with junior running back Jarvis Moore, the Ganders have the ultimate weapon to play that game. Moore rushed for145 yards Friday night, with 92 of those coming on 15 second-half carries.

Meanwhile, REL attempted only six passes in the second half, and only four of those were by starting quarterback Octavio Torres. Kevin Craft threw a pass on a fake punt, and Moore threw the other on a halfback pass. Only having six attempts is unusual. There have been games when the Ganders have had that many attempts in their first drive.

Being able to run the ball like that is a luxury, and it does something else — it gives the defense time to rest.

Which brings us to what I think was the biggest storyline of the game, the Gander defense. REL defensive coordinator Mark Crooms was concerned all week about Sterling’s ability to run the football with Jason Tanner, Stephen Guillory and Manasah Davis behind their big offensive line. And when RSS ran for gains of 12, 10 and 8 yards on their first three plays, I’d be willing to bet that Crooms was sweating bullets.

But then, just when they needed it, the defense made a couple of big plays. On second-and-4 from the 42, Reggie Butler tattooed Davis on a sweep to the right side, and then on third down, St. Luce hit Davis for a four-yard loss on a completed pass.

Those two plays forced an RSS punt, which REL would turn into an 86-yard drive and a 14-0 lead, and they also established the defensive tone for the night. The Ganders would end up giving up less than 100 yards, with Sterling’s only points coming on an interception return.

Which brings me to another fact: the Ganders are legitimate contenders to win the District 21-5A title. Right now, Beaumont West Brook is probably still the favorite, but they’re hardly invincible. The Bruins defeated Kingwood, 30-14, Friday night, a week after REL defeated the Mustangs, 32-16.

The Ganders play West Brook this week, and will have the added benefit of having the game at Stallworth Stadium. I firmly believe that whoever wins that game will win the district.

What about Humble, you ask? Well, ever since losing quarterback Keith Baker a couple of weeks ago, the Wildcats have looked mediocre. They had 0 passing yards in and needed a defensive touchdown in a 17-7 win over Sterling last week, and this week, they trailed Channelview, 10-0, before rallying for a 21-0 victory.

As for the Rangers, I don’t know what to think.

Do I think they have the talent to win four of their next five games and get into the playoffs? Yes. Do I think they’ll do it? I don’t have a clue.

This is a team that had tremendous participation in their summer and offseason program, and it would be a shame to see all that hard work go to waste. But it’s also a team that had a handful of players sit behind the Lee bench during the Ganders preseason scrimmage with Galveston Ball and talk trash about how bad they were going to beat them.

As we know now, that didn’t happen. RSS still has time to salvage their season, but it’s time to let their actions on the field do the talking.