Playoff push
The Woodlands Christian leaves blowout loss to Legacy in the past, refocuses on berth bid
Luke Hudson and The Woodlands Christian Warriors need to win the next two weeks to secure at least second, and build momentum should they make the playoffs. They face Lutheran North at 7 p.m. Friday at home.
The Woodlands Christian’s players had a bad taste in their mouths.
Losses do that, and particularly those of the 40-point variety like they endured in a 75-35 loss to Beaumont Legacy. So the Warriors made sure to clear their palates with a rosy win last week.
They rallied from a late deficit to beat Rosehill Christian 28-20 on the road and move one step closer to clinching a playoff spot.
“Rosehill’s a good ballclub, and coach (Bruce) Lane, who’s in his first year over there, is doing an outstanding job of coaching those kids,” said Mike Crocker, who is in his first year with Woodlands Christian.
“We had to scratch and claw, and we knew going into it that Rosehill was going to give us everything they had. They were going to fight until the very end, and that is exactly what they did.”
Crocker isn’t surprised by how they responded to the Legacy loss.
They showed the same resiliency earlier in the season, bouncing back from a 1-2 start to go 3-0 in TAPPS 4-III play.
The Warriors beat Brazos Christian (44-35), Bryan St. Joseph (24-21) and Bay Area Christian (39-6).
“It was good for our club because we had a really tough non-district schedule, but that prepared us for our district, because our district’s really tough as well,” Crocker said. “For us to come out of the gate fast, and get three big wins in a row against some really solid teams, helped propel us into district.”
Their flight came to a crashing halt in Week 8.
The same team the Warriors beat 71-18 last season returned the favor, scoring at least 20 points in three quarters.
Legacy racked up 651 total yards and 28 first downs.
“Beaumont’s got a quarterback (Willie Jones) who is really good, and they’ve got some athletes on that team who area really special,” Crocker said. “We had a difficult time containing them and they did a good job of putting points on the board in a hurry.
“But, at the same time, our kids kept fighting and kept fighting and never quit.”
Woodlands Christian scored twice in the fourth and finished with nearly 400 yards, and they carried those positives over to Rosehill.
“We knew we had to work hard going into last week,” Crocker said. “Coming off a loss like that, especially a 40-point loss, is devastating for your kids because they have high hopes. Everybody goes into every game thinking it’s going to be a victory, and when you don’t achieve your goal everybody’s down.
“But we had a great week of practice last week and went into last Friday night pretty focused.”
They stayed focused throughout, even when they were trailing 20-18 going into the fourth quarter.
Luke Hudson’s 2-yard touchdown run early in the fourth put the Warriors on top 26-18, and a safety with 5:44 left helped seal the win.
Crocker credited the Warriors’ resiliency and their special teams, which came up big.
“Our punter did a great job pinning those kids deep multiple times,” he said.
The win moved them closer to returning to the postseason, but it didn’t quite clinch a top-four spot in district.
“If we lost our last two, we could still be out, and that’s if Brazos Christian beats Beaumont this week,” Crocker said.
So his message to his players this week is don’t let up.
The Warriors need to win the next two weeks to secure at least second, and build momentum should they make the playoffs.
They face Lutheran North at 7 p.m. Friday at home.
“We want to get better every week and our kids are doing a very good job of that,” Crocker said. “We are gaining a little momentum, and you want to be peaking right at playoff time, and our kids are getting there.
“But our focus is not going to change from now until the end of the season. We’re focused on winning the next game.”