Friday night football wrapup: Nelson, Crouch among winning coaches

This week's final scores, boxes/Next week's schedule

Three weeks into the high school football season, and seven of the nine schools that opened the season with new head football coaches have at least one victory to their team’s credit.

Two of those coaches picked up their first victory Friday, when Little Cypress-Mauriceville’s Randy Crouch and Ozen’s Jeff Nelson both put their heads on a pillow as winners. LC-M topped Bridge City 16-0 and Ozen beat Houston Worthing 30-19.

Only one first-year coach, Port Neches-Groves’ Brandon Faircloth, has an undefeated team at 3-0. Memorial’s Kenny Harrison and Orangefield’s Brian Huckabay are 2-1. Other coaches with a victory to their credit are Jasper’s Mike Bickham and Central’s Andrew Washington.

But for all the attention placed on new coaches this season, each of them would point to their players as the reason for success. After all, the players are the ones doing the work on the field.

Legacy’s Eric Holton and Kountze’s Mike Stewart are still without a victory at their new schools, but we’re sure they’ll soon earn a notch in the “W” column.

Among Friday night’s more intriguing events were the overtime contests won by West Orange-Stark and Port Neches-Groves.

WO-S ended the game when it stuffed a two-point conversion run to preserve a 21-20 victory over former district mate Kirbyville.

As for PN-G, it sealed a 22-16 victory over Texas City with a 13-yard TD run by Caleb Harmon. Texas City fumbled away its only overtime possession, and PN-G enters District 20-4A play undefeated.

Other 20-4A teams to finish non-district play with undefeated records are Vidor and Lumberton. How non-district success translates to district play is tough to gauge, as some of those victories came against schools in smaller enrollment classes.

Only PN-G earned each of its three non-district victories against schools in Class 4A or above. PN-G’s three victories were 21-20 agianst Barbers Hill, 37-7 against Crosby and 22-16 against Texas City.

Keep in mind, however, that none of those victories came on the road.

Among Friday’s more notable performances were that of Nederland quarterback Tyler Smith, a junior who engineered a John Elway-like drive in the fourth quarter of his first varsity start, a 27-23 victory over Waller.

Smith landed in the starter’s role when third-year varsity starter Kirby Bellow suffered a partially torn knee ligament in Nederland’s season-opening loss to West Orange-Stark.

Smith showed moxie during an 83-yard game-winning drive that ended with a pass to a wide-open Ryan Brady on a fly pattern for a 38-yard score with 5:14 left that ended a frantic 20-point Nederland rally.

Let’s chalk up Memorial as a much-improved team this season. The Titans have won two of three games, and they appear to have found the reliable rushing attack they’ve needed for the past few seasons. Ronzell King rushed 27 times for 176 yards and two touchdowns in Memorial’s 28-14 victory over Houston Nimitz. For the season, King has 371 rushing yards and five touchdowns.

We’re not making predictions, but Memorial may finally get a chance to steal one against West Brook when they meet later this season. Watch out.

There’s no mystery as to how Vidor figures to win games this season. The Pirates have averaged 416.3 yards through its three season-opening victories. Vidor runs a Slot-T offense that coach Jeff Mathews and his staff borrowed from coaches at Liberty Hill, winner of Class 3A state titls in 2006 and 2007.

"We begged, borrowed and stole information from everybody that was willing to listen," Mathews said in an Enterprise story published last season.

The offense is designed to methodically work the ball down the field, slowly melting time off the clock and keeping the other team’s offense off the field. Vidor did it well last season. How well the Pirates can run that offense this season will be determined in a district-opener against a strong Central team in two weeks.

Lumberton looks to have a slightly different look this season than it did during its two district championship seasons in 2007 and 2008. That much appeared evident in a 20-14 victory over Hardin County rival Silsbee. A portion of Lumberton's newly-stamped identity comes through the confidence and experience shown by junior quarterback Ryan Hughes, a second-year starter who looks to give his team a more balanced offensive look. Lumberton won those two district titles with a heavy run-based game. So far, the Raiders -- from Hughes to a strong defense backed by linebacker Anthony Beard -- are looking good.

An indicator that the likely District 22-2A title game between Kirbyville and Newton at the end of the regular season will be a tight one come with this fact: Both school hung 62 points on Diboll this season. Newton routed Diboll 62-21 on Friday, two weeks after Kirbyville beat Diboll 62-20.

A look at Friday’s top performers, based on statistics reported Friday night to The Beaumont Enterprise:
Rushers
Ronzell King, Memorial 27 rushes, 176 yards, 2 touchdowns
Caleb Harmon, PN-G 24-160-1
Nick Cardenas, Nederland 24-142-2
Dewan Childress, Anahuac 16-138-1
Kevin Tate, Vidor 12-129-3
Kelvin Bennett, Newton 9-119-2
Corey Huckabay, Orangefield 12-109-4
Percy Johnson, West Brook 7-108-2
Tye LeBlanc, East Chambers 21-107-0
Jacob Peevy, Vidor 17-107-1
Tevvin Jones, LC-M 22-107-1

Passers
Bruce Reyes, West Brook 20 completions, 35 attempts, 279 yards, 0 touchdowns, 0 interceptions
Jeremy Johnson, Silsbee 23-36-263-2-2
Cody Johnson, Anahuac 10-11-185-2-0
Tyler Smith, Nederland 15-30-167-2-1
Brennan Doty, PN-G 10-20-156-2-1

Receiving
Braxton Mayes, Anahuac 5 catches, 107 yards, 1 touchdown
Ryan Brady, Nederland 9-100-2
James Morrison, H-J 2-89-1
Pheal Hill, Silsbee 7-85-1
Prentice Lane, Silsbee 7-84-0

Click here to view most recent blog entry.