mac77
10-25-2011, 08:29 PM
Kinda quiet about this match-up. It's strange to think that it could come down to Sweeny needing a week 10 win over Needville to get into the playoffs unless they can pull off the upset of Columbia. How about this scenario; Columbia over Sweeny, Palacios over Needville and Wharton, and Needville pulls the upset of Sweeny in week 10? Sweeny stays home and Palacios is in! Not likely but you never know!
:eek::eek::eek:
Necked
10-25-2011, 08:38 PM
Seems appropriate to post this article on its 10 year anniversary, I'll never forget that game...
Rivalry between Sweeny, Columbia stretches across half a century
BETTY L. MARTIN, Houston Chronicle
Published 05:30 a.m., Thursday, September 20, 2001
Two Brazoria County towns weren't big enough to hold the Columbia Roughnecks and the Sweeny Bulldogs and fans of their annual showdown, the "Battle of the San Bernard."
So when Sweeny High School's football team upset arch rival Columbia 23-13 on Friday, it was at a site that could accommodate the estimated 8,000 to 10,000 fans from both sides:
The Reliant Astrodome.
Spaced four miles apart on opposites sides of the San Bernard River, West Columbia and Sweeny have less than 9,000 residents between them and might seem unlikely to fill the lower level of the Dome with screaming fans who mark their cars with such slogans as "Break the `Necks!" and "Beat the Sweeny Weenies!"
But this is a rivalry that has been running hot since the teams first played in 1947, and this year's contest was the tie-breaking game in a series that had been even at 24-24, said Pat Ellis, 73, who has attended all but one of the games and serves as the match's unofficial historian.
A lifelong Sweeny resident and a Sweeny graduate the year before the school fielded its first football team, Ellis may have been the only fan at Friday's game who was disappointed to be watching the game inside the Dome.
"The field is a lot closer in our stadium," he remarked.
At the first game in the contest in 1947, Columbia, then called West Columbia High School, also had been favored to win. That contest ended in a 50-6 Sweeny victory.
The annual battles aren't the only reason the schools' fans know each other.
Many of the residents are friends who work together at area plants, said Brian Lane, Columbia's athletic director and former offensive coordinator.
"People at the plants are definitely for Columbia or definitely for Sweeny," he said. "There's no gray area in there."
Before last week's game, crowds stood quietly as the bands took turns playing their school songs and as Sweeny's choir director, Donna Winebrenner, sang The Star Spangled Banner.
But as each team ran onto the field, cheers from stands on one side was countered by loud booing from the other. As the game progressed, cheers and jeers increased in volume as fans found a welcome outlet for days of worry after the terrorist attacks.
On either side, no one sat for long.
'Necks reminisce
At previous games at either West Columbia or Sweeny stadiums, "the stands were always filled because this game is always a sellout," Lane said.
Adults seem to take the rivalry more seriously than the students, he said. Sometimes, the Roughnecks are referred to as "West Columbia" instead of "Columbia," a sign that the rivalry encompasses more than the schools.
"The catch phrase around here is, `Who won your senior year?,' " Lane said.
The game with Sweeny has always been the one that mattered, said Jerrial Crutcher, 52, who played offensive end for Columbia before graduating in 1967.
"It was always friendly, but it was known that if you beat Sweeny, you had done something," he said. "In my senior year, they had (future Oiler) Elmo Wright and they beat us 40-0."
Moving the competition to the Dome was the chance of a lifetime for the players and the fans, he said.
The Dome didn't exist when Cecil Taylor, 77, graduated Columbia in 1944. He attends many of his former school's games and clearly remembers last year's match with Sweeny.
"Last year, the score was 60-14, West Columbia over Sweeny, the first time in several years we won," he said.
Doris Thomas, 48, Class of '71 graduate, has come to the Columbia-Sweeny games since her high school years.
"After you graduate, it becomes even more fun year after year," said Thomas, a Columbia alternative education counselor and coach for girls softball, volleyball and basketball.
Her daughter, Dawn Thomas, 16, a sophomore at Columbia and pitcher for the varsity softball team, has come to the Columbia-Sweeny game since she was a toddler.
"I know all of them on the team," the younger Thomas said, but then added, "Just Columbia's."
Over the years, Columbia has grown to become a District 4A school. Sweeny is 3A. No matter, said West Columbia Mayor David Foster.
"Even though they are not in the same district anymore, it is still really a competition to see who is going to win," he said. "This year, someone has ripped off the mascot over at Sweeny, and they think West Columbia did it ... But I don't think our boys would do that."
Bulldogs bark
To hear Michael Reid, 16, talk, the contest is between musicians from the two schools.
"We have a rivalry and we want to beat Columbia's band," said Reid, a baritone horn player in the Sweeny band. "We always show them up."
Jessie Anderson, 48, brought a video recorder to capture her son David Anderson's performance as defensive back.
"It's always a big thing, this game, even when they are normally playing," she said. "But tonight, playing the Dome, he and other guys on the team are so excited."
Michelle Eubanks, a 7-year-old member of the Sweeny All-Stars Softball League who plans to go to Sweeny High, watched the tension build for at least a week before the game.
"I pass through West Columbia every day to get to softball practice," she said on Friday. "All the signs are up, saying things like, `West Columbia: Number One.' Then, I see the signs that say `Sweeny: Number One,' and it means I'm home again."
Sweeny Mayor Larry Piper, a 1945 Sweeny graduate, noted that his school has been the most frequent victor in recent years.
Sweeny's head football coach, Mike Treybig, said businesses in both towns decorate their windows.
"The whole community gets into this," he said.
Head cheerleader Lisa Russell's father, James Russell, was on the Sweeny team, as were several of the school's teachers, she said.
This year, the cheerleaders chartered a bus and sold T-shirts designed by Pam Lewis, a varsity cheerleader and a girls' national power-lifting champion, featuring a drawing of clashing Sweeny-Columbia helmets.
Profits will help provide transportation for the cheerleaders to the Citrus Bowl football game Jan. 2 in Orlando, Fla., Granger said.
Returning the snub
Ellis, who played football for Sweeny team and served as the team's unpaid assistant coach after graduation, traces the competitiveness between the schools to the economic histories of Sweeny and West Columbia.
Sweeny was a small farming community that merged several small, one- and two-room schools to open a two-year high school in 1913. Then the Great Depression sent several local farmers into bankruptcy.
"The farmers went broke and the school got smaller and smaller and almost went completely out of business," Ellis said.
Sweeny officials wanted to merge the school with their neighboring town's more solvent school system, "but West Columbia didn't want a bunch of poor kids to educate," he said. "So, high school kids went elsewhere after two years to finish their education. Most went to Columbia."
In 1934, oil was discovered in Ocean Field, and the new petrochemical industry pumped money into the Sweeny school district.
"Sweeny opened its new four-year high school in 1939 and was well on its way financially," he said.
Oil also was discovered in West Columbia in 1918, "but that well was a shallow one and it eventually played out," Ellis said.
Then it was West Columbia school officials who suggested merger, but the offer was rebuffed, Ellis said.
"These are just some of the things that brought this rivalry about," Ellis said.
The rivalry went over the line in the early '50s, when fights erupted at games.
"Between 1947 and 1950, Sweeny won. The fourth game was a scoreless tie, and they really had a fight then," Ellis said. "Townspeople used to bet lots of money -- hundreds of dollars. Then the game has a scoreless tie, and they really had a good gang fight then."
Police protection was sometimes required in the late 1950s and early 1960s, he said.
"I've been to games where they had both the police departments and both fire departments -- and departments of other little towns they called in," Ellis said.
The University Interscholastic League forbid the two schools to play each another between 1951 and 55, Ellis said, "because of the fights and the animosity, doing things like pouring gasoline on the other one's football field and burning letters into it."
In the 1970s and 1980s, both schools sought to stop the violence, leading to safe, spirited games, he said.
This year, Ellis viewed the game from the center of the Sweeny side.
"People aren't as fired up as they used to be," he said, "but it's still a big game. It's a spirit thing now."
ExScoop
10-25-2011, 10:07 PM
What years did Bobby Pyssen coach at Sweeny
I remember when he was an assistant coach under James Stafford at Boling and won state in 1972-
Pyssen was the head coach for Boling about 10 years ago
Pyssen also coached at Del Valle and Rockport
Saggy Aggie
10-26-2011, 08:28 AM
I'll be in attendance.
Sweeny should give the Necks all they want. Looking forward to a good game. Measuring stick game for both teams.
I'm Interested to see how Columbia's offense will look with Johnican taking the snaps. Get to see it first hand on friday.
roughneck_2008
10-26-2011, 08:44 AM
will be a good game, had planned on coming down since my birthday is this weekend, but between work and school there not enough time. will miss this game for just the 2nd time in like 10 years.
Roughnecks are gonna whip the pups
Roughneck93
10-26-2011, 09:02 AM
Yeah you can pretty much throw won/loss records out the window when these two meet. Huge rivalry game and I expect an atmosphere nothing short of what we had last year.
It's going to be fun. Necks looking to wrap up the district championship and head into their bye week/playoffs with an unblemished record.
Sweeny still very much alive in the playoff hunt and with a win they have a chance of laying claim to a share of the district championship.
Looking forward to this one, it will be a great game. Get there early, it's going to be packed.
yellaseeker
10-26-2011, 11:46 AM
Necks take this one. Would be a somewhat easy win comparing the talent but, there's a lot of pride involved and both teams always seem to bring their best to the battle of the bernard. Look for ince to be pacing back and forth on the side lines and helping his team any way he can til he is able to return. If the defense has their way, it will be a long night for sweeny.
yellaseeker
10-26-2011, 01:03 PM
Necks take this one. Would be a somewhat easy win comparing the talent but, there's a lot of pride involved and both teams always seem to bring their best to the battle of the bernard. Look for ince to be pacing back and forth on the side lines and helping his team any way he can til he is able to return. If the defense has their way, it will be a long night for sweeny.
Roughneck93
10-27-2011, 05:31 AM
Courtesy of The Facts
PLAYING FOR MORE THAN ’Necks put perfect season on line against Bulldogs
Posted: Thursday, October 27, 2011 2:00 am
By Joel Luna
WEST COLUMBIA — Through the 59-year history of Columbia and Sweeny, there have been some interesting contests for the friendly neighbors that are less than 10 miles apart.
Whether they are one-point games or blowouts, things always are going to be somewhat different whenever the Roughnecks and Bulldogs tangle.
"It seems like every time we've played Sweeny, it is a crazy night," Columbia coach Leland Surovik said. "For some reason, some strange things happen and not always the better team wins on that night. I think the team that handles the emotion best is the one that comes out on top."
Columbia and Sweeny kick off at 7:30 p.m. Friday at Griggs Field on a night filled with activity.
The 2011 Columbia-Brazoria ISD Athletic Booster Club Hall of Honor will presents new inductees at halftime of a game in which the Roughnecks are trying to become the fourth team in school history to finish unbeaten during the regular season.
Columbia (3-0 in District
29-3A play, 9-0 overall) has a bye during the final week before the playoffs.
The other teams to finish unbeaten during the regular season were the 1956, 1969 and 1987 squads.
"I didn't realize it had been that long, but it is a great honor and it has been a great season so far," Surovik said. "But it is like I've been telling the kids, we take it one game at a time. But this one is for bragging rights and also winning the district title outright. I know it has been a few years since that accomplishment of finishing unbeaten has been done, and it could be another big accomplishment for us."
The Roughnecks did suffer a setback when they lost starting quarterback Tyler Ince to a torn knee during the Wharton game. In stepped punter, kicker, wide receiver and defender Treylon Johnican under center, and he got through his first game against Palacios last week.
Johnican ran for 69 yards and threw one pass for 12 yards in the win against the Sharks. But could more be expected of him this week?
"We are going to do a little throwing and a little running," Surovik said. "Last week we tried not to put too much pressure on him, but we are going to do whatever is necessary to win, whether it is running or throwing."
Johnican will rely heavily on leading rusher Sean Flannel (1,092 yards) and junior Floyd Bess (777 yards).
Sweeny comes into the rival matchup with a 1-1 district mark and 5-3 overall. After their disappointing loss to Wharton (34-28) on Oct. 7, the Bulldogs bounced back by beating Palacios at home.
"What worries me the most about Sweeny is the uncertainty," Surovik said. "They were supposed to be one of the top teams in this district, but unfortunate injuries hurt them. But they are getting some of those players back and not knowing what to prepare for has me wondering, but we just have to play our game."
The Bulldogs bring the No. 2 offense in district into the game at 321.8 yards a game and the No. 3 defense at 323.6 yards.
Craig Bell (686 rushing yards) and Darius Bell (408 yards) are the one-two punch in the backfield for Sweeny, with sophomore quarterback Dorland Fields (38 receptions for 543 yards, seven touchdowns) leading the passing game.
Senior Gary Woodard leads the Bulldog receivers with 11 catches for 181 yards and two scores.
Sweey's Brett Sawyer did not return a phone call.
http://thefacts.com/sports/article_d8c51062-0052-11e1-bb7c-001cc4c002e0.html
yellaseeker
10-29-2011, 05:03 AM
Roughnecks fumbled the ball twice and lost both possessions but still managed to breeze by to a 31-12 win. Roughnecks looked very good defensively except for a few passing attacks. The back-up Qback treylon johnican and RB shawn flannell proved to be too much for the dogs to handle. DB/DE/TE ricky wilson had a stellar game on both sides of the ball as well. Cassius davidson, jerry cotten, justin hussey, bradley swanks and willis johnson all played well defensively to keep the bulldogs offense off the field. Roughnecks clinch the district title two years in a row and end regular season with a perfect record of 10-0. They'll enjoy a bye next week while preparing for playoffs. Congradulations roughnecks. Cant wait to hit the road for another good run to state championship.
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