Scoop27
10-10-2014, 11:19 AM
By JOEL LUNA
FREEPORT — The 61st meeting between Brazosport and Columbia will be a lot more meaningful this year.
After realignment in February, the Exporters dropped down a classification, landing them in the same District 12-4A Division I as their county rivals, the Roughnecks.
At 7:30 tonight at Hopper Field, Brazosport (0-0, 1-4) and Columbia (0-0, 5-0) open district play. The game will be aired live on www.brazo
sportisd.net.
The last time these teams met in district play was in 2003 when the Ships took a 42-7 win. But so far this season, no other team in southern Brazoria County has played better than the Roughnecks.
With a No. 2 offense (375.8 yards per game) and a No. 1 defense (131.2 yards per game) in district, the Roughnecks have been opportunistic. Columbia has recovered 14 of 18 fumbles from opponents and has six interceptions as well.
“They have to be the best football team south of South Bend, Ind.,” Brazosport coach Ben Rudolph said.
Columbia coach Randy Lynch sees it a bit different, despite being unbeaten.
“I don’t know about all that, but the thing about this game is that it is the first district game and everyone is even,” he said. “Brazosport has played some tough opponents and they are a lot better than their 1-4 record. They have some big kids up front and this is going to be a typical matchup between these two schools. It might come down to an interception like last year. This will be a good football game.”
It was that interception that ended, the Ships’ hopes as the Necks’ pulled out a 35-33 win.
The Roughneck defense has allowed 417 rushing yards and 239 passing in those five wins so far. Coming into the season Columbia had seven returners coming back.
“We’ve been fortunate because our defense really has stepped up and I do hope that continues,” Lynch said. “Offensively, we didn’t have one offensive lineman return so that is still a work in progress. But one thing we do have is more running backs than we thought we were going to have.”
One of those producing from the backfield is junior Dakarius Bell (119 carries, 820 yards, 6.89 per carry, seven TDs).
“We are going to continue to feed him the football,” Lynch said of Bell.
With quarterback Jarius Kesee (36-143 rushing yards, two TDs) getting a few carries, the Roughnecks also landed former Brazoswood Buccaneer running back Maleek Goins (93-579, 6.2 yards per carry, three TDs).
“His first game was against Edna and he played different roles for us, returned a punt, caught a touchdown pass and ran for one,” Lynch said. “But we like with what we have with Dakarius, and Maleek only had four or five carries because he played quite a bit of defense. But he is not going to come off the field much for us, he is an addition to our offense and we are going to try to find ways to get him the ball.”
The Exporters were outscored in nondistrict play, 171-95, with the Ship defense giving up 325.4 yards a game. But it was a defense that spent a lot of time on the field because of the inconsistencies of the offense.
Brazosport’s offense gained 204.6 yards a game, but the Exporters have some explosive runners. One of those is junior quarterback Navontae Darthard (68-293 rushing yards, 4.31 per carry, three TDs), who is starting his fourth contest under center after taking over for Jody Virgil. He leads Brazosport in rushing.
“We have no more changes. We just polished some things up and are trying to make it easier for the offense,” Rudolph said.
Nathan Lewis (50-252 rushing, 5.04 per carry, three TDs) and Jeremiah Credit (33-213 yards, 6.45 per carry, two TDs) are a couple of other Brazosport running backs who can take it to the house. Credit is also averaging 33.29 yards per return on kickoffs, with two touchdowns.
“We have to stay away from fumbling the ball and just do our assignments,” Rudolph said.
The Exporters have fumbled the ball 26 times this season, losing 11 of those.
Brazosport leads the all time series 40-19-1.
FREEPORT — The 61st meeting between Brazosport and Columbia will be a lot more meaningful this year.
After realignment in February, the Exporters dropped down a classification, landing them in the same District 12-4A Division I as their county rivals, the Roughnecks.
At 7:30 tonight at Hopper Field, Brazosport (0-0, 1-4) and Columbia (0-0, 5-0) open district play. The game will be aired live on www.brazo
sportisd.net.
The last time these teams met in district play was in 2003 when the Ships took a 42-7 win. But so far this season, no other team in southern Brazoria County has played better than the Roughnecks.
With a No. 2 offense (375.8 yards per game) and a No. 1 defense (131.2 yards per game) in district, the Roughnecks have been opportunistic. Columbia has recovered 14 of 18 fumbles from opponents and has six interceptions as well.
“They have to be the best football team south of South Bend, Ind.,” Brazosport coach Ben Rudolph said.
Columbia coach Randy Lynch sees it a bit different, despite being unbeaten.
“I don’t know about all that, but the thing about this game is that it is the first district game and everyone is even,” he said. “Brazosport has played some tough opponents and they are a lot better than their 1-4 record. They have some big kids up front and this is going to be a typical matchup between these two schools. It might come down to an interception like last year. This will be a good football game.”
It was that interception that ended, the Ships’ hopes as the Necks’ pulled out a 35-33 win.
The Roughneck defense has allowed 417 rushing yards and 239 passing in those five wins so far. Coming into the season Columbia had seven returners coming back.
“We’ve been fortunate because our defense really has stepped up and I do hope that continues,” Lynch said. “Offensively, we didn’t have one offensive lineman return so that is still a work in progress. But one thing we do have is more running backs than we thought we were going to have.”
One of those producing from the backfield is junior Dakarius Bell (119 carries, 820 yards, 6.89 per carry, seven TDs).
“We are going to continue to feed him the football,” Lynch said of Bell.
With quarterback Jarius Kesee (36-143 rushing yards, two TDs) getting a few carries, the Roughnecks also landed former Brazoswood Buccaneer running back Maleek Goins (93-579, 6.2 yards per carry, three TDs).
“His first game was against Edna and he played different roles for us, returned a punt, caught a touchdown pass and ran for one,” Lynch said. “But we like with what we have with Dakarius, and Maleek only had four or five carries because he played quite a bit of defense. But he is not going to come off the field much for us, he is an addition to our offense and we are going to try to find ways to get him the ball.”
The Exporters were outscored in nondistrict play, 171-95, with the Ship defense giving up 325.4 yards a game. But it was a defense that spent a lot of time on the field because of the inconsistencies of the offense.
Brazosport’s offense gained 204.6 yards a game, but the Exporters have some explosive runners. One of those is junior quarterback Navontae Darthard (68-293 rushing yards, 4.31 per carry, three TDs), who is starting his fourth contest under center after taking over for Jody Virgil. He leads Brazosport in rushing.
“We have no more changes. We just polished some things up and are trying to make it easier for the offense,” Rudolph said.
Nathan Lewis (50-252 rushing, 5.04 per carry, three TDs) and Jeremiah Credit (33-213 yards, 6.45 per carry, two TDs) are a couple of other Brazosport running backs who can take it to the house. Credit is also averaging 33.29 yards per return on kickoffs, with two touchdowns.
“We have to stay away from fumbling the ball and just do our assignments,” Rudolph said.
The Exporters have fumbled the ball 26 times this season, losing 11 of those.
Brazosport leads the all time series 40-19-1.