BIG game
Friday: Creek vs. Lake
Falcon clip Bucs in
late FG
by Chuck Hlava, Clear Lake Citizen
When Clear Creek and Clear
Lake square off Friday night, it will be a test of one defense vs. the
rush and another defense vs. the pass.
Both teams are
coming off District 24-5A football wins last week. The unbeaten Wildcats
(2-0, 6-0) trounced Clear Brook 44-10 while the Falcons (1-1, 4-3) scored
in the final minute to edge Brazoswood 24-21.
In this match,
Clear Lake is the decided underdog, but Falcon coach Troy Aduddell looks
for an interesting and close game.
"We're going
to try to slow them down and make a game of it," Aduddell said of Creek,
the top rushing team in district.
The game, set
for 7:30 p.m. in District Stadium, will be one of contrasting styles.
Simply put,
Creek is a pure running team whose defense against the run has been very
dominant. In the six games the Cats have allowed 344 yards rushing, an
average of only 57 yards per game. In that same span the Cats have
averaged an awesome 340 yards per contest on the ground.
Against the
pass, the Wildcats have allowed 502 yards air time, which averages out to
83 yards a game. Overall, Creek's opponents have managed to air out and
ground out 141 yards each game. That's why the Cats are 6-0 and head 24-5A
in team defense.
Creek hasn't
been a threat in the air, at least it hasn't needed to be, since the Cats
average a mere 24 yards per game.
While Clear
Lake is more prone to the pass with Michael Fritz at the helm (144/78/7,
1,250 yards, 10 touchdowns), it is a more evenly balanced team offensively
than Creek.
The Falcons
average around 104 yards on the ground and 179 in the air.
The question is, can Creek's defense keep Clear Lake's receivers such as
Chris Hunter (29 catches, 430 yards, 5 touchdowns), Scott Oswald (18
catches, 251 yards, 1 TD) or Elrick Jones (9 catches, 183 yards, 2 TDs)
from getting into the end zone. Creek also leads the district in
interceptions, with eight.
Clear Lake
doesn't have the prolific runners that Creek has (Kevin Nail, 897 yards, 9
TDs; Brenton Bolden, 808 yards, 11 TDs). Can the Falcon defense stop that
1-2 offensive punch?
Clear Lake's
rushing leader is Chris Sportt, who has gained 351 yards this season.
Aduddell's
plan is simple: the Wildcats can gain all the yards they want, they just
must not score.
"The yardage
doesn't matter," Aduddell said. "We want to try to keep them out of the
end zone. If they get 400-500 yards, so be it."
Aduddell does
not want a repeat of the last two weeks, where the Falcons lost leads
against Alvin two weeks ago (they lost the game in fourth quarter) and
last week vs. Brazoswood.
"We have to
get down to basics and get our technique. We let them (Brazoswood) hang
around and we shouldn't have. We have to put them down," he added.
Against
Brazoswood, the Falcons squandered a 14-0 lead and had to rally for 10
points in the final six minutes of the game to pull it out. Tommy Duff's
37-yard field goal with 1:08 left gave Lake its first 24-5A win of the
campaign.
After opening
up with that 14-0 lead, Clear Lake found itself behind 21-14 in the fourth
period after the Bucs scored three unanswered touchdowns.
But Sprott's
short run tied the game and then came Duff's winning trey.
In that game
Fritz connected with Hunter on a 76-yard scoring pass play.
