CUBS DROP WALLER, 37-21
The Brenham Cubs held Waller’s vaunted running game to over 200 yards below their season average, en route to a 37-21 win at Waller ISD Stadium, Friday night.
The Bulldogs’ had rushed for over 2800 yards in 8 games, averaging 352 yards per game, but only managed 148 yards against a swarming Cubs’ defense.
“A lot of times I judge a game by who’s winning at the line of scrimmage,” said Brenham coach Glen West. “I thought we dominated at the line. They caught us on a couple slant routes that they made a great play on, and we made too many mistakes, but what we did do is show a lot of character—we kept fighting .”
(Courtesy: Larry Urquhart)
“We could’ve gotten snake bitten on the bad snap on the field goal, but kids kept fighting and kept fighting and made a couple of great goal-line stands.”
Waller (7-2/4-2) actually got on the board first with two long third down conversions and a six-yard TD run by quarterback Tyron Taylor. But the Cubs struck back in just over three-minutes on an Ernest Patterson 3-yard run.
After a 40-yard pass from Taylor to Derrick Wright, Brenham (7-3/5-1) responded with a 10-yard Patterson touchdown run.
(Courtesy: Larry Urquhart)
Waller appeared to be headed for another go-ahead touchdown when Al’Fondrick Bennett pounced on a fumble by Taylor on the Cubs’ 20-yard line.
With time running down and facing a 20-to-25 mile per hour wind, Caleb Hill fired a pair of strikes to Jaquay Cross, covering 21 and 45 yards. With just :45 left before half, Patterson picked up his third touchdown from six yards out, giving the Cubs a 21-14 advantage headed into the lockerroom.
(Courtesy: Larry Urquhart)
Brenham extended their lead when Hill hit Cross on a 27-yard touchdown pass.
Waller responded with a 20-yard pass from Taylor to William Wagner to cut the lead to 28-21, but that was as close at the Bulldogs will get.
Tien Pham added a 22-yard field goal and Patterson closed the door on the Bulldogs with a 13-yard run with 1:08 left—his fourth touchdown of the game.
“It was a great win,” said West. “It’s a learning experience. You have to learn how to win those kinds of game. It was very cool.”
(Courtesy: Larry Urquhart)
With the win, the Cubs clinch the #1 seed in Division II headed into the playoffs that begin in two weeks.
The game also saw some history being made. With his four touchdowns, Ernest Patterson passed Roosevelt Leaks and Matt Murski for the Cubs’ record for career touchdowns with 57. The old record had been 55.
Ernest Patterson’s 203 yards rushing brings his season total to 1,611 yards and his career mark to 4,355 yards, over 660 yards more than any other back in Cubs’ history.
Quarterback Caleb Hill also hit a milestone with 190 passing yards to bring his season total to 1,562 yards and his career total to 4,085 yards. Hill is just the third quarterback in Cubs’ history to break the 4000-yard career mark, trailing just Jarrett Lee (6,182 yards) and Ty Schlottmann (4,958 yards).
Jaquay Cross caught eight passes for 149 yards and a touchdown. Cross now has 14 touchdown receptions on the season, just one shy of second on the single-season list (Brandon Collins and Terrell Reese tied with 15) and four shy of the single-season record of 18 (Tremund Moore in 2011).
The Cubs will close out the regular season Friday night at home to Spring Woods (2-7/0-6). Kickoff is set for 7:00 with the pre-game show at 6:30 on KWHI and www.kwhi.com.
OTHER 19/5A SCORES:
TOMBALL (3-6/1-5) 55 SPRING WOODS (2-7/0-6) 28
MAGNOLIA (3-6/3-3) 21 TOMBALL MEMORIAL (3-6/2-4) 10
STRATFORD (6-3/6-0) 45 MAGNOLIA WEST (4-5/3-3) 31
NEXT FRIDAY:
SPRING WOODS @ BRENHAM CUBS
WALLER @ STRATFORD
MAGNOLIA WEST @ MAGNOLIA
TOMBALL MEMORIAL @ TOMBALL
19/5A STANDINGS:
1-STRATFORD, 6-0
2-BRENHAM CUBS, 5-1
3-WALLER, 4-2
4T-MAGNOLIA WEST, 3-3
4T-MAGNOLIA, 3-3
6-TOMBALL MEMORIAL, 2-4
7-TOMBALL, 1-5
8-SPRING WOODS, 0-6