If you weren’t part of the big crowd last Friday night at Tiger Stadium in Houston, you missed a classic example of how fun and exciting high school football can be.
And if you left before the fourth quarter, you missed 12 minutes of high school football at its best.
But if you stayed put the whole way through, you saw what sports in general is all about, as Houston completed one of the most amazing comebacks imaginable and won 36-35 after being down 35-13 with less than 11 minutes left in the game.
When the host Tigers successfully executed a two-point conversion to take a one-point lead with 23 seconds remaining and sealed the deal with an interception moments later, they had downed the visiting Tigers in the most unexpected fashion. The big gathering went nuts and it was like there were dozens of exclamations of joyous surprise audible above the overall din of elation.
“Are you kidding me?”
“No way!”
“Incredible!”
I think maybe most of them came out of my mouth.
Through much of the game (especially the second quarter), it was hard not to just admire the visiting Tigers’ efficiency, as they established their authority with a passing game orchestrated by a quarterback tossing perfect passes to receivers who had beaten the defense just enough to catch them in full stride, a stout running game eating up ground in pretty big chunks and a defense that bent but didn’t appear ready to break.
But then the fourth quarter happened, and Houston startlingly and wholly usurped their guests’ authority, and a memory was etched into the annals of HHS football that won’t soon fade.
Wow, so much goes into making something like that happen. There are many of layers and lots of people involved, and it’s a story of team more than individual.
Instead of attempting to arrange a myriad of thoughts about the big win into a series of organized sentences, I feel led to simply list a bunch of observations about the remarkable occasion.
•There were lots of “difference makers” wearing Houston uniforms, both on offense and defense. Yeah, there were mistakes, too, but the pros ultimately outweighed the cons (by a Tiger’s whisker) and the home side pulled off a virtual miracle.
Linemen on both Houston units stepped up time and again, as the Big Red D made several big-time stops and the Big Red O opened big holes for big gains at numerous crucial junctures. Especially during the comeback, when everything aligned perfectly and a sneeze at the wrong angle could have been enough to change the course of the proceedings.
•When a huge group of HHS fans and players surrounded head coach Eric Sloan at midfield immediately following the game, he told his players, “this is why you hated me during the summer.” The quip was met with more nodding heads than chuckles, and every last soul on hand knew exactly what he meant.
Indeed, many St. James guys were cramping up during the late stages of the game, while the apparently better-conditioned Houston players weren’t. As the HHS group relentlessly kept the pedal to the floor, it was apparent the visitors eventually “hit the wall” and succumbed to fatigue under pressure.
•Speaking of Sloan again, what a pleasure it was to see him still coaching as hard as he could even when his team was way behind late in the game. The same goes for the players, who responded to their high-energy leadership and played like there was no tomorrow even when the chances appeared slim.
I’d say it paid off.
•I like the way Houston fans answered Sloan’s call for “cowbells and chaos” after the week one win over Hollister. As the visiting Tigers’ offense lined up for plays during the comeback, the racket coming from the home faithful had to be at least somewhat of a distraction.
•I spent the second half standing with City of Houston Fire Chief Joey Moore by the two fire trucks at the south end of the field. Right before the Houston defense stopped St. James on the fourth-and-one play and then again a bit later just before the offense’s unbelievable completion on the crucial fourth-and-10 play, one of us said, “well, this is it.”
Success on two “this is it” plays in one quarter. That can’t be a bad sign.
•As long as I’ve been around high school football, I’ve never heard of any business, organization or individuals purchasing all the tickets for a particular game so anyone and everyone who showed up could get in free. But that’s what the Eatin’ Place and Medlock’s Body Shop did last Friday.
That is so, so cool. I wonder what figure was arrived at to be considered a “sellout” at Tiger Stadium? Whatever the answer, the gesture was awesome.
•Sometimes, public address announcers can be a drawback at a high school football game. In my experience, they can often be hard to understand, and sometimes be downright annoying.
That’s not the case in Tiger Stadium, where Jason Pounds is pretty spot-on. He has an ideal deep voice, annunciates clearly and prevents his tongue from flapping too often.
Anyway, so now Salem comes to town this week, boasting a weirdly long 33-game win streak against Houston. My brain has a very hard time processing that number (you would think Houston would win by accident somewhere in a 33-year stretch), but I’m thinking there’s no better time than now to put an end to that nonsense.
After two games in Houston’s 2015 campaign, I think a few things have been established: There’s no quit in the Tigers, big leads over them are not necessarily safe late in games, and the team is led by a man who loves what he’s doing and comprised of players who love what he’s doing. Now it’s time to see about establishing something else: Habitual winning.
I think I speak for a lot of folks when I say that my high school football appetite has been pleasantly whetted in the first two weeks of this season. But I’m hungry for more and I want to see a losing streak of unexplainable proportion end.
This week’s “one game season” pits Tigers vs. Tigers for the third straight week. But this one’s different. It’s for posterity, for restitution and for – as Coach Sloan has emphasized – getting respect.
If you can’t be part of what will surely be a huge throng that sees the game first hand, make sure to tune in to the live streaming broadcast on the Houston Herald website.
I can’t wait.