Goose Creek Memorial vs Galena Park: GCM wins 22-19

[Guest Ranger83]

Talk about your ugly wins! The best part of tonight's game was the final whistle. Defense played very well for 3 3/4 of the football game. Offense was a little better than dismal. GCM will limp into Sheldon next Friday and try to secure the schools first ever playoff berth against C E King.

[friogal]

Congrats on the win and best of luck the rest of the season!

[Guest Ranger83]

The Baytown Sun

Published October 17, 2009

When Bret Boyd arrived to start Goose Creek Memorial’s football program a year and a half ago, he said he would build a team that could run both a spread passing game and a smash-mouth running game.

Talk about an unlikely couple.

But the Patriot fans had plenty of reason to cheer that marriage Friday as GCM used both in coming from behind twice in the second half and win their homecoming game 22-19 over Galena Park.

The win keeps the Patriots solidly in the playoff picture at 3-2 in District 19-4A, 5-3 overall while Galena Park fell to 1-4, 1-6.

“This was the first time these kids have come from behind, so that’s a big thing,†Boyd said. “At halftime, we were down, although our defense was pretty much shutting them down.

“I’m real proud of the way they came back and went nose to nose with them.â€

To do it, the Pats abandoned their spread, shotgun offense in the second half and went to a full-house backfield with a nose tackle (Cody Schumaker) and a linebacker (Joseph St. Julian) blocking for running back DeMartie Allen.

Trailing 12-7 at halftime, the Patriots went smash-mouth on a seven-play, 59-yard drive go-ahead drive capped by Allen’s 24-yard run on which the slender senior spun out of three tackles.

Allen followed Schumaker and St. Julian into the end zone for a two-point play, giving Memorial a 15-12 lead with 5:20 left in the third quarter.

Galena Park, which had only three first downs in the first half, responded with a massive 18-play, 70-yard drive that took 6 minutes, 45 seconds off the clock.

With a swarming Pat defense led by Vince Allen, J’Rente Rogers and Rashaan Sanders, the Yellowjackets had only 25 total rushing yards, so it was left to GP quarterback Bryron Smith (15 of 27 for 187 yards to do his team’s heavy lifting.

GP receiver Lamont Green did some nifty catching of a 20-yard jump ball at the 1-yard line to set up Smith’s one-yard sneak for a 19-15 lead with 10:35 to play.

When Allen had to leave with a hand injury on the Pats’ second play of the next drive, things looked dicey for Memorial.

But sophomore Damon Guillory stepped in and stepped up. He burst loose for a 38-yard gain to the Yellowjacket 9, then scored from there on the next snap to put the Patriots up 22-19.

And, as it turned out, ahead to stay.

Guillory finished with 69 yards on 11 carries while Allen rushed for 142 yards on 22 totes.

The move away from their passing game, Boyd said, had little to do with the fact that regular center Clint Welborn was injured in the first half and his replacement twice sent second-quarter shotgun snaps over the head of quarterback Cody Larson.

One set up a Yellowjacket score, the other ended a Patriot chance for points late in the first half.

“They were just blitzing us from everywhere,†Boyd explained, “and there was no pattern to it. We got out of the shotgun not because we had trouble with the snap, but because they were blitzing us.

“We just decided to line up and run our base tandem offense. The linemen didn’t have to worry about who to block; they just blocked the guys in front of them.â€

Larson finished the game with 7 completions in 17 attempts for 53 yards. He was intercepted once and at least of his five passes were dropped. Pat Wood led Memorial with four catches for 29 yards.

The Patriots lit the scoreboard on their second possession of the game, going 77 yards in 11 plays, the big plays being a 43-yard Allen run and his goal line fumble that a GP player handed to the referee, who curiously ruled it a Patriot recovery.

Schumacher, the lead blocker in the full-house goal-line backfield, scored Memorial’s first points on a one-yard run.

GP cut GCM’s lead to 7-6 when Jomaun White scored on a four-yard run immediately after the Pats’ first high-snap turnover, with 7:32 left in the first half.

They claimed their halftime lead when Smith found receiver Mitchell Vasquez running by himself along the sideline and hit him for a 45-yard TD with 4:51 left in the half.