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PLAYOFFS BLOG: Mart and China Spring
The La Vega pairing is the Pirates vs. Cuero, 7 p.m. Saturday at Round Rock ISD Stadium.
10:40 PM: Victory formation. Mart 27, Alto 20. Final. According to the radio, Mart will face Junction next Saturday night at 7 p.m. in Georgetown.
10:37 PM: Xavier Williams falls forward just beyond the marker for 1st down, and that should do it. — Jason Orts
10:36 PM: Jason Orts reports: Mart facing third-and-3 at own 45 with 1:36 left. Alto just called its second timeout.
10:32 PM: Mart get the ball back at its own 17 with 3:32 left.
10:24 PM: Xavier Williams puts Mart up 27-20 on a 4-yard TD run to cap an 11-play, 61-yard drive that consumed 5:43. The Panthers had a TD called back for a holding penalty, but the effective Mart offense punched it in anyway. 5:29 4Q.
10:14 PM: End of the 3rd. During the break, we’ll let you know that Cuero did indeed beat La Feria. The 11-1 Gobblers will face La Vega next week, probably somewhere around Austin or B/CS.
Also, Strawn ran away from Gordon in an 89-58 win. The 4th-ranked Greyhounds play Abbott next week — likely in Hico or Glen Rose.
10:08 PM: Mart drives to the 1, is called for a personal foul, loses nine yards on a sack and misses a 42-yard field goal wide left. 1:17 3Q
10:00 PM: All tied up: Marcuse Gasaway took a direct snap and ran a quarterback sweep into right corner of the end zone. Mart 20, Alto 20.
That blocked PAT is looming large for the Panthers right now, obviously.
9:58 PM: Mart can’t keep from shooting itself in the foot as Alto’s Marcuse Gasaway returns the kickoff 78 yards to Mart 15. 5:38 3Q.
9:56 PM: Mart goes up 20-13 on Alto with a 32-yard Scheafer field goal 13. Key play was a 31-yard pass from Xavier Williams to Nino Sharp on a third-and-10 to the Alto 10. 5:49 3Q.
9:40 PM: Turnovers kill for Mart: Alto’s Kyle Denum returns an interception 34 yards and then the Panthers block the kick. Jason Orts says: Xavier Williams overthrew Zach Matthys on a screen pass and hit Denum right in the chest. 17-13 Mart, 10:29 3Q.
9:39 PM: Abbott will get Strawn next week. The #4 team beat #2 Gordon, 89-58 tonight. Message board rumors say it’ll be at Hico or Glen Rose.
9:17 PM: CORSICANA — Xavier Williams threw for 70 yards and two touchdowns and added 57 yards on the ground to lead Mart to a 17-7 lead over Alto.
The Panthers completely dominated the first half, outgaining the Yellowjackets 178-16.
Alto fumbled four times, losing one, and punted five times but stayed in the game with an 85-yard kickoff return by Makio Houston after the Panthers’ second touchdown, a five-yard pass from Williams to Ryan Montgomery.
Mart opened the scoring with a 21-yard pass from Williams to Sean Farmer, capitalizing on an Alto fumble at its own 25. Matthew Scheafer’s 26-yard field goal with 1:16 left in the first half capped the scoring.
9:08 PM: 17-7 Mart at the half.
8:55 PM: Mart extends its lead to 10 with a 26-yard Scheafer field goal. 17-7 Panthers / 1:16 2Q. Jason Orts tell us that Alto has one first down and 3 yards of total offense in the game … nice!
8:46 PM: Wide left for Mart. Jason Orts reports: A 30-yard punt return by Xavier Williams set Mart up with first-and-10 at the Alto 19 but sacks on second and third downs force Mart into a 41-yard field goal, which was well short. 10:01 2Q, Mart 14-7
8:40 PM: Prosper is up 14-0 on Van at halftime. That’s who the Mart-Alto winner will play.
8:38 PM: Alto has yet to pick up a first down in four offensive series. Mart 14, Alto 7…End of 1 — Jason Orts
8:23 PM: That didn’t last long. Alto’s Makio Houston breaks off an 85-yard kickoff return to quickly cut things to 14-7 with Rhett Gresham’s kick. Houston and a teammate fought over the ball before Houston ended up with it and found a crease on the left side and outran everybody. 4:38 1Q
8:22 PM: Mart’s Xavier Williams keeps the scoring going with a 5-yard toss to Ryan Montgomery (Scheafer kick) to make it 14-0. Jason Orts: Alto fumbled on two of its three plays on its second drive. The third play was a minus-4 yard pass. Williams finds Montgomery on fourth and goal. 4:51 1Q.
8:09 PM: Mart takes advantage of the turnover! Sean Farmer gets into the end zone on a 21-yard scoring pass from Xavier Williams (Matthew Scheafer kick). 7-0 Mart: Panthers go 25 yards in three plays. Farmer caught a wide receiver screen with nothing but a convoy of white jerseys in front of him and ran untouched into the end zone.
8:04 PM: Mart gets first break of the game. Marcuse Gasaway fumbles and Mart recovers at the Alto 25. 11:20 1st. — Jason Orts, bringing us updates live this evening from Tiger Stadium in Corsicana
4:28 PM: In next-round news, Longview handled Dallas Carter, 35-20, to set up Midway’s pairing next week. That game will be 8 p.m. next Saturday at Texas Stadium in Irving.
La Vega’s opponent is the winner of La Feria and Cuero, which is tonight.
Junction narrowly advanced past Shiner, 21-14, so if Mart beats Alto tonight, they’ll get those boys.
The much-hyped “six-man game of the year” is tonight between Gordon and Strawn, who are ranked Nos. 2 and 4, respectively, by the sixmanfootball.com rankings. Abbott gets the winner of that one.
In TAPPS, Austin Regents is all over favored Carrollton Christian, 33-15, in the fourth quarter. That looks like it’s setting up a District 3 rematch for the TAPPS Division III crown with Reicher. (You might remember that QB Kenneth Cluley made his return from injury in the district opener vs. Regents and led the Cougars to an easy 54-31 win.)
And just because we want to say “way to go” to some another Centex squad, Killeen demolished Gregory-Portland today, 42-21. Its reward? The Kangaroos get No. 1 Lake Travis next week in the region IV final.
3:41 PM: FINAL: Abilene Wylie 24, China Spring 21
Come back to the 5th Quarter tonight for Jason Orts’ updates from Mart-Alto.
3:39 PM: Wylie recovers the onside kick, and that should be about it.
Great run for China Spring. The Cougars are going to finish 12-1 and fall in the quarterfinals a year after reaching the state championship game.
3:36 PM: The Cougars aren’t dead yet. Brian Bell sneaks in from a yard out to cut the Wylie lead to 24-21. Only 1:03 to play. China Spring has to get the onside kick.
3:26 PM: Looks like curtains for the Cougars. Wylie’s Kris Gilmore bowls into the end zone from four yards out to take a 24-14 lead with only 2:15 to play.
3:21 PM: Wylie makes an interception in China Spring territory. The Cougars need an immediate stop to have a chance to get the tying score. Less than five minutes to play.
3:19 PM: After trading possessions, China Spring has the ball back with under six minutes to play. This could be the Cougars’ last shot.
3:06 PM: Abilene Wylie’s Matt Preston just gets in on fourth-and-goal from inside the 1. Wylie retakes the lead, 17-14, with 10:02 to play.
2:46 PM: Boston Blake makes a big 20-yard touchdown catch. The 1010 AM announcers called it the play of the season. China Spring takes its first lead, 14-10, with 7:49 left in the third quarter.
2:11 PM: We’re at halftime now, still 10-7. China Spring dodged a bullet just before halftime when a Wylie touchdown pass was wiped out by a holding penalty.
1:56 PM: A China Spring field goal attempt falls short. Still 10-7 Wylie, about four minutes left in the second quarter.
1:40 PM: The Cougars strike back. Mike Hicks’ six-yard TD run cuts the Wylie lead to 10-7 with 9:57 remaining until halftime.
1:26 PM: China Spring has dug itself an early 10-0 hole.
Abilene Wylie got a 26-yard field goal from Austin Gray on its first drive.
Then minutes ago, Jesse Jennings returned an interception 70 yards for a touchdown after the Cougars went for it on fourth-and-2.
10-0 Wylie, 2:17 left in the first quarter.
1:25 PM: We’re back for today’s two Central Texas playoff games.
China Spring and Abilene Wylie are under way in Aledo (updates from Chad Conine to come).
Mart and two-time defending state champ Alto meet at 7:30 tonight in Corsicana (Jason Orts on the scene).
Permalink | Comments (7) | Post your comment | Categories: The 5th Quarter
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By gail watkins
November 29, 2008 4:11 PM | Link to this | Report comment abuse
SORRY YA’LL LOST BECAUSE THE PIRATES WERE READY FOR YA’LL THIS YEAR!!!!!!
By Senior @ CS
November 29, 2008 11:26 PM | Link to this | Report comment abuse
Hahaha. Sucks that La Vega cheated to get to where they’re at. Nice game throwing against Lorena to be able to go the easier bracket to State. That’s definitely a team to feel accomplished about. Right?
Go Cougars<3 Love you guys!
By Pirate
November 30, 2008 9:26 PM | Link to this | Report comment abuse
LOL. La Vega cheated to get where they’re at? Typical CS envy. You guys are so p** that we made it further than you, it’s not even funny.
You guys thought you had state won. Well, you can’t beat the Abilene Wylie’s of the world if you play the Whitney JV’s of the world in pre-district.
Oh well, whatever it takes to keep that perfect record…LOL, look what that got you. Untested. And it showed.
Actually, since your coach was too scared to schedule us in the pre-district (remember…perfect pre-district record), we took the Division I road for the rematch we deserved. Too bad you guys couldn’t hold up your end of the deal and got knocked out so early. Or maybe you threw the game so you didn’t have to lose to us?
I hope you feel like you had your heart ripped out when the final buzzer sounded. Ha ha ha, i was so happy when I heard about you guys losing. Some idiot CS fans even made fun of LV because we lost to Abilene Wylie.
Oh well, you reap what you sew. We’re moving on and China Spring isn’t. Air up them basketballs.
Thump, thump, thump………………..
By China Spring Fan
December 1, 2008 12:42 AM | Link to this | Report comment abuse
Didn’t Abilene Wiley give LaVega their 1st lost too? If LaVega hates China Spring so much, why was your quarterback and 2 of your linemen there cheering for us, sitting in the stands with all of the other China Spring fans? I wish you could be a fly on the wall in your field house and really find out how everyone feels about the decision to let Chris Parr play. That man that La Vega calls a head coach is telling all the fans and the newspaper how there’s no hard feelings among the team, when in fact you have coaches that are ready to quit along with players. Does everyone think that this man is really trying to turn this boy around and help him? He’s going to use him and forget about him like he did his brother. Everyone in Waco knows that it’s Coleman’s coaching taking this team to the top, not Williams. As far as Bell not wanting to play in a pre-district game, it was Williams that said no; He agreed to only a scrimmage. Not everyone in China Spring and LaVega hate each other, some of us have been best friends for years!
By WE'RE # 1
December 1, 2008 9:01 AM | Link to this | Report comment abuse
HOW ABOUT THEM COUGARS? SORRY AS THEY WANNA BE FINALLY PLAY A TEAM THAT YOU COULDN’T HANDLE AND NOW YOU WANNA CRY AND MAKE EXCUSES.YA’LL SUCK BIG TIME!!!GET OVER IT AND WATCH THOSE PIRATES WIN STATE!!!
By Cougar Fan
December 1, 2008 1:35 PM | Link to this | Report comment abuse
I am so proud to call myself a China Spring fan. I love the pride and dignity that our football team brings to our community, year after year. We consider each member of the team and coaching staff family members, and hate to see the season end. You have given us such wonderful memories. Thank you, and God bless you in your futures as you go out in the world and continue to do China Spring proud!
By Cougar Fan
December 1, 2008 6:42 PM | Link to this | Report comment abuse
Hey “We’re #1” Who’s crying, we accept our defeat by a real good team. Where in my message did I say it was someone else’s fault? Now what was LaVega’s excuse for losing to Abilene Wiley? Hope LaVega does win state, but everyone in Waco and surrounding communities will know that they didn’t win state honestly!!! The one thing your team will never know is if they could have hung with Liberty Hill, Celina and the other teams in that district…..