Mavericks gain momentum in race
Morton Ranch earns advantage over Tompkins with win
Morton Ranch is in the playoff hunt.
The Mavericks are tied for fourth in District 16-6A with Tompkins, making last week’s 21-0 win over the Falcons particularly big. “It was big, but when you get into district play every game is big and they’re all pretty equal, and as you get down toward the end of the season, like we are now, they become a little bit bigger,” coach Dave Meadows said.
“So that was a big game for us and we were pleased that our kids did well.”
Meadows said they played one of their most complete games, with solid defense and special teams and no turnovers on offense.
“We felt like that was more the true Mavericks team that played the other night,” he said. “We’ve been doing stuff that made it very difficult for us to win. We’ve been helping people with turnovers and poor play defensively, and the other night we played really well in all phases.”
The Mavs’ defense was played very well.
The held Tompkins, which has shown the ability to score this season – they scored 42 points against Foster – scoreless and fared so well against the run that the Falcons finished with negative yards.
“It was a confidence builder for our guys,” Meadows said.
“We’ve added a little wrinkle here and there, and did some things that sometimes you have to play a while during the season for the coaches and the players to all figure out who we really are and what our strengths really are, and we felt like we played to our strengths better last week than we had been.”
Now they have to keep it up for two more weeks, and Meadows is confident they can.
Morton Ranch faces Katy Taylor and Seven Lakes in its last two district games, and both teams are right behind it at 1-4.
“We’re all pretty equal,” Meadows said. “We’re all in the same boat.
“If we win out we’re in the playoffs but if somebody else wins out, they might be in the playoffs.”
Morton Ranch lost 2521 last season to Taylor, which ended up grabbing the last playoff spot.
“It comes down to you can’t help somebody,” Meadows said. “You can’t make it easy for them.
“When we played them last year, we dropped a touchdown pass that would have won the game, we got a penalty on a play that looked like was going for a touchdown, and they made a great play right at the end of the game, where a guy went about 60 yards for a touchdown, and we had a man who was not even on the right side of the field there.
“So we can’t help them. We’ve got to take care of us and not make it easy for them.” Mustangs optimistic
The Houston Christian Mustangs are in the football postseason for the fourth straight year.
Houston Christian fell to Episcopal 34-3 to end the regular season, but the Mustangs still clinched the South Zone’s No. 2 seed in the Southwest Preparatory Conference’s small-school bracket when Episcopal School of Dallas knocked off Irving Cistercian 27-10.
As a result, Houston Christian (5-4) earned a road trip to face Fort Worth All Saints at noon Saturday, Oct. 31.
Head coach Max Bowman believes there’s no question that Houston Christian belongs in the SPC playoffs.
“According to Max-Preps, we had the toughest schedule of any private school team in the state,” said Bowman, alluding to a slate that included nonconference victories over Northland Christian and East Bernard and losses to SPC foes Episcopal School of Dallas, Kinkaid and Episcopal.
The rugged competition has taken its toll on Houston Christian with an ever-growing list of injuries.
“We’ve had as many as 11 starters out and six of them were playing both ways,” Bowman said. “I’m really proud of our kids. They are ‘Ironmen’ in every sense of the word. They keep fighting.”
— Jeff Jenkins
Jason McDaniel is a freelance writer who can be reached at jasonrmcdaniel@outlook.com.