Baytown Lee - Laporte

[gary-us-bonds]

Went and watched the Ganders play the Bulldogs tonight.

The Ganders have their best defense in over a decade.

Pretty much all of the athletic players are on defense. They have 7 guys starting over there that will be sprinters on the track team next spring.

LaPorte probably only had 5 or 6 first downs. They didn't have any in the first half. They probably ended up with maybe 100 yards tops, with about 70 of those coming on a fluke fumble that a receiver picked up and took the distance for a score. The other LP score came on a fumble by Lee's qb that LP picked up and ran in for a td.

The Lee defense is fast, aggressive and smart. This is the first time I can say that in a long, long time. One problem might be lack of depth. At least 7 of the starting defensive unit played both ways. They didn't play a lot necessarily on offense, but a few of them played probably 15+ plays and the rest played 4 or 5 plays on offense. Three of them came out with cramps in the second half.

Zac Zellars, nose guard, was impossible to handle. For whatever reason he only played on 3rd downs. He probably got 4 tackles and 2 sacks just on 3rd down plays. He may have been hurt a little which might have been the reason for the limited snaps..

Thomas Bates had a punt return for a td of about 70 yards.

Now, the offense....

Don;t ask lol

They actually have a good line. They were opening up some holes in the running game. They just lack athletic abilisty on that side right now. All of the good athletes are playing defense like I said.

It's pretty frustrating because usually the offense is great and the defense can't stop anyone.

Now, the defense is really stout, but the offense can't move the ball at all.

Final score

Lee 17 LaPorte 14

[KFDM COOP]

Congrats!

[Big GANDER]

A win is a win

[Mr. Buddy Garrity]

It's pretty frustrating because usually the offense is great and the defense can't stop anyone.

Now, the defense is really stout, but the offense can't move the ball at all.

same with the titans

[gary-us-bonds]

Did you catch the game Big Gander?

[gary-us-bonds]

The Baytown Sun says that LaPorte had 38 yards of offense.  55 of that came on their receiver pickin up a fumble and running it in for a td.

Lee's defense was swarming.

Just need to get the offense clicking.  I knew we had a lot of false starts, but dang..The Baytown Sun says we had 9 of them total, with 7 of them coming in the second half.

[BMTSoulja1]

Congrads on your Ganders on the win, Pana!

[KFDM COOP]

Ganders refuse to lose

By Dave Rogers

Published September 6, 2008

LA PORTE – You’ve got to give it to the Lee defense – and hang on to Thomas Bates for dear life.

The swarming killer bees that surrounded La Porte’s ball-handlers on virtually every play limited the Bulldogs to two big fumble plays and Bates, Lee’s blue-chip defensive back, countered with two bigger plays of his own.

Racing around the left end of the La Porte line to swat down Layne Camp’s last-minute 33-yard field goal try, Bates allowed the Ganders to hang on for a 17-14 win over the Bulldogs in their season opener at Bulldog Stadium.

“I just wanted to block it so we would win the game,†is how Bates, who earlier scored on a 70-yard punt return, described it. “We didn’t come out in the second half like we had played the first half, but we got the win.â€

The Ganders very nearly blew a 17-0 halftime lead to a now-0-2 team that rushed for 14 yards and threw for 24 more.

“They never should have scored,†Lee head coach Dick Olin said about a Bulldog offense that ran only one play on the Gander side of the 50 until a high punt snap with 1:22 gave La Porte a final chance to win or tie.

The Bulldogs scored their first touchdown on a 37-yard fumble return by Blake Marchal with 13 seconds left in the third quarter.

Defensive end Michael Sanchez sacked Gander quarterback Tim Jirrels and knocked the ball loose for Marchal to pick up and score.

Lee went to a ball-control running game in the second half, trying to milk the time off the clock. But seven second-half false start penalties (nine in all) made that tough.

LaPorte, which had only two first downs through three quarters, made it a three-point game when wide receiver Jimmy Randle picked up a fumble by Bulldog running back Anthony Webb and carried it 55 yards for another touchdown. with 4:20 to go.

Lee responded by running seven straight plays without a false start penalty and running back Stephen Banuelos, the game’s leading rusher with 67 yards on 14 carries, picked up a couple of first downs.

His 24-yard run pushed the ball to the La Porte 34 and on second-and-13, Jirrels found tight end Javier Rodriguez wide open after a neat play fake. It should have been a touchdown, but Rodriguez dropped it.

One play later, Rodriguez, who doubles as Lee’s deep snapper, sailed a ball over the head of Gander punter Emmanuel Torres.

“He had kind of two bad plays in a row,†Olin said.

Torres recovered the ball but was tackled by Sanchez at the 32, giving La Porte its last big chance.

The Bulldogs reached a second-and-three at the Gander 12. But quarterback Ryan Williams had to spike the ball to kill the clock and his third-down pass was incomplete, bringing on the field goal kicker Camp with 22 seconds left.

The ball had barely left his foot when Bates laid out and slapped it down. Needless to say the Gander sidelines went crazy as the ball went out of bounds.

“Thomas is a tremendous football player,†is the way Olin put it.

As if to remind everyone, Bates returned a punt 70 yards for a touchdown late in the second quarter. His run down the Gander sideline made it 17-0.

Lee had taken a 7-0 lead on its first offensive snap of the year. Jirrels faked a handoff to Paul Martinez, then threw to him wide open on the left sideline for a 37-yard touchdown.

Torres, who added extra points after both TDs, booted a 37-yard field goal to end Lee’s second offensive possession of the night and give the Ganders a 10-0 lead midway through the first quarter.

Jirrels finished the night 6 for 9 passing for 110 yards, but his final two first-half passes were intercepted and Olin called for only three passes after that.

Nine different Ganders handled the ball for rushing plays and Martinez had 41 yards on seven carries before injuring his leg on a kickoff return. In all, Lee had 97 yards rushing, 207 total yards and eight first downs.

“We have a lot to clean up,†Olin said of his offense. “But it was a win and I was extremely happy. I was thinking ‘What a way to lose a game: two fumbles and have one snap go over the punter’s head.’â€

[sahen]

I went to the Sterling game on friday night (my old high school)...the Sterling/Lee game might be a good one this year, Sterling's defense looks pretty salty as well, South Houston only got 3 first downs and 65 yards the entire game with most of if coming in the 4th quarter when the 2nd team was in...if Stelring's opponents are as good as advertised in the preseason then they have beaten the 2 tuffest nondistrict teams and should have 3 easier games ahead of htem, not wanting ot jinx anything but they could come into the Sterling/Lee game 5-0....

[gary-us-bonds]

Sterling definitely has an easy road ahead.  I would guess that Dawson would be the only team left that could beat them before district starts.

Sterling beat LaPorte last week, and that is who Lee beat last night.  I can't say anything about South Houston, but I can tell you that LaPorte would get beat by some jv teams around Houston probably.  This concerns me, because Lee couldn't move on them very much.  Lee did have 9 false start penalties which put a halt to a lot of drives, but even then, they could not make any plays. 

LaPorte had no business being around at the end of this game honestly.  Lee just screwballed around and almost got beat by a team that probably had run 25 plays for negative 30 yards of offense for the first 3 and a half quarters of the game.

LP might not win a game this year.

[gary-us-bonds]

I could see Lee going 2-3 in non-district simply because they can't score any points.  At this point, the offense has scored just as many points for the other team as they have for themselves.

[sahen]

LP might not win a game this year.

they will probably beat South Houston...their offense is horrible...but then again stelring's defense did alright against la porte and great against south houston....i think Dawson is playing their first year of Varsity ball so i'd hope they wouldnt be able to beat Sterling....its hard to tell when there hasnt been a lot of games, South Houston made the playoffs last year but im pretty sure they will be at home this year, we'll see...

reguardless of how good La Porte is Lee's defense did a heckuva a job against them, that is an impressive performance no matter who you play, same for Sterling...im just hoping the Sterling/Lee game will mean something besides city pride again, it's been a while...

[gary-us-bonds]

Dawson at least has some athletes, however young they may be.

Rayburn and New Caney just aren't very good.

[Guest BLUEMOOSE]

Gander, a win is a win unless it is a win at Huffman right?

You bust on them, and then you praise Lee for getting by. Funny, they were right, you are not very smart!

Go Barbers Hill!