Phantom Stang
12-03-2004, 03:46 PM
Sports
Mustangs, Tigers to fight for survival
By RON HOWELL/The Reporter Sports Editor
Only a small number of high school football teams in the Big Country are still playing. Three of them are from District 4-3A, but at least one of them will be through playing after tonight.
Sweetwater and Snyder -- who shared the 4-3A title with Wylie, the other playoff repre-sentative -- face each other at 7:30 p.m. in a Division II state quarterfinal at Big Spring.
The winner plays either Gil-mer or Tatum in the state semi-finals -- those two teams play at 2 p.m. Saturday. The loser will have to be satisfied with having a great season.
Tonight's game, of course, is a rematch. Sweetwater defeated Snyder, 35-25, when the teams met in district play earlier this season. But since then, the Ti-gers (11-2) have five straight victories, including last week's 21-7 win over Iowa Park.
Sweetwater hasn't been beaten since that first matchup, ei-ther. The Mustangs (11-2) have recorded six straight wins, the latest a 58-20 whipping of Glen Rose in last week's regional semifinal at Brownwood.
When it comes to playoff his-tory, Sweetwater has a big ad-vantage over Snyder. This is the first time the Tigers have ever played a game in December, although Snyder did make it to the Division I quarterfinals this past season where they lost to -- you guessed it -- Wylie.
The Mustangs' playoff tradi-tion stretches back a lot further. It includes a state championshp in 1985, and this is the seventh time since 1984 that Sweetwa-ter has made it to at least the quarterfinals. In fact, this is the second time in three years the Mustangs have gotten this far under head coach Kent Jack-son. But a victory tonight would put Sweetwater in the state semifinals for the first time since 1991.
This is not the first time ei-ther Sweetwater or Snyder has faced a team in the playoffs that it met during the regular season. Two weeks ago, the Mus-tangs avenged a season-opening loss to Lubbock Cooper by winning 35-14 in the area play-offs, while Snyder knocked off Greenwood -- a team it defeat-ed 29-24 in the regular season -- 19-7 in bi-district.
Jackson isn't worrying about any revenge motive for Snyder tonight. "Every game is different," he said. "There will be different factors this time. It will come down to the team that takes the best chance of their opportunities.
"Looking at the bracket, we knew the potential was there (for a rematch). But we knew we had a lot of work to do. It's a great honor for our district. I don't know how you could ask for more. It says a lot for all the teams and all the programs."
Jackson downplayed the ri-valry aspect of this game.
"All that stuff is secondary," he said. "It's a different level now. Anyone who's here now deserves respect. We don't treat this any different than we have any of the other games. We've been in sudden death mode for several weeks now."
Both squads have relied on a strong running attack for most of their offensive success.
Snyder does it primarily with one player, senior Dee Walker, who has rushed for 2,133 yards and 27 touchdowns. He had 119 yards against Iowa Park. But he also got considerable help from Chad Brown, who gained 103 yards on 19 carries.
Sweetwater relies heavily on the talents of quarterback Jere-my Thompson, who has rushed for a team-high 1,157 yards, but is by no means totally depend-ent on him. Four other players -- Kendal Carrillo, Alan Cope-land, Joseph Banyard and Skye Green -- have at least 588 yards and each of them has scored between six and 13 touchdowns this season. Those four have also seen extensive duty on the other side of the ball and have been among the team's best defensive players as well.
Sweetwater rushes for an average of 328 yards per game, while Snyder is averaging 259. But both teams have been able to throw the ball when they are forced to. Thompson has com-pleted 26 of 56 passes for 422 yards and four TDs; Snyder QB Matt Reigh has 834 yards in the air with nine scores. His favor-ite receiver is Lico Castillo, who has 26 catches for 567 yards.
Jackson said that the Tigers appear to be getting more play-ers involved in the offense than when they first played Sweet-water. "But it's the same philo-sophy," he said. "Defensively, they've shown some different looks since the time they played us. But they're still very aggres-sive. It's just an example of a team that has matured and progressed since we played them."
Mustangs, Tigers to fight for survival
By RON HOWELL/The Reporter Sports Editor
Only a small number of high school football teams in the Big Country are still playing. Three of them are from District 4-3A, but at least one of them will be through playing after tonight.
Sweetwater and Snyder -- who shared the 4-3A title with Wylie, the other playoff repre-sentative -- face each other at 7:30 p.m. in a Division II state quarterfinal at Big Spring.
The winner plays either Gil-mer or Tatum in the state semi-finals -- those two teams play at 2 p.m. Saturday. The loser will have to be satisfied with having a great season.
Tonight's game, of course, is a rematch. Sweetwater defeated Snyder, 35-25, when the teams met in district play earlier this season. But since then, the Ti-gers (11-2) have five straight victories, including last week's 21-7 win over Iowa Park.
Sweetwater hasn't been beaten since that first matchup, ei-ther. The Mustangs (11-2) have recorded six straight wins, the latest a 58-20 whipping of Glen Rose in last week's regional semifinal at Brownwood.
When it comes to playoff his-tory, Sweetwater has a big ad-vantage over Snyder. This is the first time the Tigers have ever played a game in December, although Snyder did make it to the Division I quarterfinals this past season where they lost to -- you guessed it -- Wylie.
The Mustangs' playoff tradi-tion stretches back a lot further. It includes a state championshp in 1985, and this is the seventh time since 1984 that Sweetwa-ter has made it to at least the quarterfinals. In fact, this is the second time in three years the Mustangs have gotten this far under head coach Kent Jack-son. But a victory tonight would put Sweetwater in the state semifinals for the first time since 1991.
This is not the first time ei-ther Sweetwater or Snyder has faced a team in the playoffs that it met during the regular season. Two weeks ago, the Mus-tangs avenged a season-opening loss to Lubbock Cooper by winning 35-14 in the area play-offs, while Snyder knocked off Greenwood -- a team it defeat-ed 29-24 in the regular season -- 19-7 in bi-district.
Jackson isn't worrying about any revenge motive for Snyder tonight. "Every game is different," he said. "There will be different factors this time. It will come down to the team that takes the best chance of their opportunities.
"Looking at the bracket, we knew the potential was there (for a rematch). But we knew we had a lot of work to do. It's a great honor for our district. I don't know how you could ask for more. It says a lot for all the teams and all the programs."
Jackson downplayed the ri-valry aspect of this game.
"All that stuff is secondary," he said. "It's a different level now. Anyone who's here now deserves respect. We don't treat this any different than we have any of the other games. We've been in sudden death mode for several weeks now."
Both squads have relied on a strong running attack for most of their offensive success.
Snyder does it primarily with one player, senior Dee Walker, who has rushed for 2,133 yards and 27 touchdowns. He had 119 yards against Iowa Park. But he also got considerable help from Chad Brown, who gained 103 yards on 19 carries.
Sweetwater relies heavily on the talents of quarterback Jere-my Thompson, who has rushed for a team-high 1,157 yards, but is by no means totally depend-ent on him. Four other players -- Kendal Carrillo, Alan Cope-land, Joseph Banyard and Skye Green -- have at least 588 yards and each of them has scored between six and 13 touchdowns this season. Those four have also seen extensive duty on the other side of the ball and have been among the team's best defensive players as well.
Sweetwater rushes for an average of 328 yards per game, while Snyder is averaging 259. But both teams have been able to throw the ball when they are forced to. Thompson has com-pleted 26 of 56 passes for 422 yards and four TDs; Snyder QB Matt Reigh has 834 yards in the air with nine scores. His favor-ite receiver is Lico Castillo, who has 26 catches for 567 yards.
Jackson said that the Tigers appear to be getting more play-ers involved in the offense than when they first played Sweet-water. "But it's the same philo-sophy," he said. "Defensively, they've shown some different looks since the time they played us. But they're still very aggres-sive. It's just an example of a team that has matured and progressed since we played them."