Falcons now target of district foes

By: CHUCK HLAVA , Citizen Staff

9/29/2004

Big win over Pearland puts Lake in favorites' role

Usually, after a big win the coaching staff tries to guard against a letdown for the next game.
More than one team has fallen the very next game right after winning a big game.
That shouldn't happen to Clear Lake after its 35-27 win over Pearland in the District 24-5A football opener. From now on, they're all big games anyway.
The Lake-Pearland contest was a classic encounter of Goliath vs. Goliath. The Falcons and Oilers were picked by all pundits as the two best teams in 24-5A. They certainly showed it during pre-district by coming into the contest at 4-0 each.
Now they go their separate ways as the Falcons travel Friday to Brazoswood while Pearland has its homecoming and hosts Clear Brook (3-2, 1-0), which surprised Galveston Ball on Thursday. Ball has an open date this week.
Brazoswood lost a tough district opener 13-6 in overtime to Alvin. Overall the Bucs are 1-4. This game against Lake is Brazoswood's homecoming.
With the big win over Pearland behind them, there won't be any letdown for the Falcons, according to Lake coach Troy Aduddell.
"We talked about that after (win over Baytown Lee)," said Aduddell. "We hadn't beaten Lee in a while and we didn't want a letdown (in the next game against Katy Taylor). We came out strong against Taylor and even though the game turned out closer than it should have been, I thought we were in control of the game."
After defeating Pearland, Aduddell said that he talked with the team against a letdown at Brazoswood.
"We wanted to make sure they were aware of that," he said.
Despite Brazoswood's 1-4 mark, Aduddell said the Falcons won't take anything for granted.
"They're struggling," he said about the Bucs, "but at the same time they're throwing a lot of things against their opponents and causing havoc," he said. "They're showing multiple sets.
"Our job will be to make sure we line up correctly and adjust to what they do."
Junior Josh Felder is the Bucs' top ground gainer, with 301 yards this season.
Against Pearland, the Falcons stayed on the ground at District Stadium and unleashed their array of backs in another "Who's got the ball?" quiz. The Oilers never quite solved it, although they did unleash one of their own ground gainers.
Falcon quarterback Scott Oswald ran offensive coordinator Paul Lanier's various sets to perfection, as line and up-field blocking did their job in textbook style to spring the ball carriers loose.
Oswald's Houston area leading mileage isn't in any danger after the senior ran the ball 26 times for 238 yards and three touchdowns, including a marvelous 13-yard sprint with seconds remaining in the first half after the Oilers seemed to take the initiative with a tying touchdown and 2-point conversion. Closing in on a 1,000+yard season, he now has surpassed last year's regular season total with 882 yards.
Then you add the other sprinters such as Elrick Jones, who can turn those corners, and Geno Blow, who knows how to bulldoze ahead, and for good measure put in runners like Ronnie Feaster and Devin Williams, and the opposing defense doesn't know whom to zero in on. Senior halfback Daniel McCalib a stomach virus and didn't see action until the fourth period.
Oswald doesn't pass often (he was 0-3 against Pearland), but it's the threat of passing that is enough to keep opponents from keying solely against the run. All of Lake's 355 offensive yards against the Oilers came on the ground.
The game was tied twice. At 14 with less than a minute to play in the first half before Oswald's stunning run with seven seconds left in the second quarter, and then again at 21 halfway through the third period.
The fourth period was just about all Clear Lake as it built a 35-21 lead. The Oilers scored their final touchdown only 37 seconds from the end. Clear Lake went ahead for good at 28-21 at the start of the fourth quarter and extended that to 35-21 on an Oswald run only two and a half minutes from the end of the fourth.
"This might be the best overall game they've played so far," Aduddell said. "We had some injuries (defensive tackle Isiah Cameron fractured his foot at the beginning of the game) and we had two linemen having to play both ways. I can't say enough about our line.
"We're a little banged up right now, but most of them will be back (against Brazoswood)," Aduddell added.
Clear Lake began the game with another offensive showcase by touchdowns on its first two drives.
The Falcons scored their first touchdown going 51 yards in seven plays, with Oswald's 28-yard pickup to the Oiler three the big play. From there he went in for the six points. Kyle Chism then hit his first of five PAT's.
After an Oiler field goal, Lake came down the turf once again, this time on a76-yard drive in only six plays. Once again the blocking sprung Oswald loose and the speedster, on the first play on that drive, went 49 yards to the Pearland 27. Five plays later Jones swept wide right untouched for the touchdown from the three as the first period ended to make it 14-3. Jones had 71 yards for the night, bringing his total for the year to 285.
Pearland's Jake Moylan tacked a 39-yard field goal to go along with his earlier 36-yarder to make it 14-6 midway though the second period.
During the Oilers' two field goal drives they sprung loose tall and lanky Foswhitt Whittaker, who at first began moving through Lake's defense like had had grease all over him. He had 15-20 yard gains as the Oilers moved steadily into Lake territory but were their own worst enemies with untimely penalties resulting in missed touchdown opportunities and having to settle for the 3-pointers. Whittaker ran the ball 20 times in the game for 153 yards. Overall, Pearland had 260 rushing yards in the game and another 85 in passing. The Oilers' final score with seconds left in the game came on a 9-yard pass from Brandon Buckner to Brandon Boone.
The Falcons had no turnovers in the game, but that's not to say they didn't make mistakes.
After Pearland cut Lake's lead to 14-6 with that second field goal, the Falcons sputtered on their third offensive drive of the game. Having to punt, a bad snap went over Chism's head and the Oilers took over on Lake's 32-yard-line. Whittaker ran the ball three times to the six. A facemask penalty pushed the Oilers back to the 12 but Whittaker somehow wove his way through the Lake defense to the one. From there Michael Speciale dove into the end zone and then, on a reverse, went in for the two points to tie the game at 14.
But Oswald's TD run before the half ended restored Clear Lake's momentum heading into the locker rooms.
For a few seconds the upcoming touchdown scene opened up in slow motion before Oswald sidestepped an Oiler linebacker and went in.