Tiger’s defense stand tall while Haack execute four touchdowns in dismantling North shore
Katy – If anyone was expecting a Tiger let down due to graduation of star running back Donavan Young. It didn’t happen, partly because Katy looked as dominate as ever.
Friday night at Rhodes Stadium in front of a capacity crowd, Brooks Haack led the Katy Tigers with four touchdowns in a dominating defeat of the North Shore Mustangs 34-6. The win gives Katy the fourth victory over the Mustangs in so many meetings.
Brooks Haack who accounted for 205 yards, two touchdowns passing, rushed for two more and one interception, is in his second year as the starting quarterback. He earned that spot midway through last season.
With Cole Gessler, Cameron Glover, Shawn Mandagelo, Oscar Rodas and Ed Wheeler blocking up front, Haack gave Tiger fans all they wanted and more.
A short punt set up the Tigers (1-0) first scoring drive at the North Shore’s 44 yard line. They moved down the field with the help of talented trio, Haack, receiver Jordan Thompson and running back Adam Taylor who managed a game high 106 hard earned yards on 20 carries. Thompson was cutch all evening coming up with seven key receptions, which totaled a 120 yards, when they needed it most. A 24 yard field goal gave Katy a 3-0 lead with 4:07 to go in the first quarter.
“This year being my senior year, I focused on what I did wrong my junior year and I perfected them on the off season. I and Brooks stayed after to make sure our timing was down, catching at least 150 balls a day. After practice I ran routes with no shoulder pads on, just my helmet until we got out timing down,” said Katy’s receiver Jordan Thompson.
As for North Shore, all four of their first half drives resulted in punts. The Tigers defense was so sufficient in the trenches, with defensive linemen Matt Dimon, Jake Grode, Cory Lyons, and linebackers Bo Brown and Jake Blomstrom, there were simply nowhere to go.
“We didn’t do a very good job up front of blocking. We have a whole season ahead of us and we’ll get it together,” said North Shore coach David Aymond.
An 11 play 87 yard drive gave the No. 2 area ranked Tigers their first TD of the evening, when Haack dropped back in the pocket looking for a receiver, but found wide open pasture as he rambled in from ten yards out to take hold of a 10-0 lead with 9:11 to go in the second quarter.
North Shore the No. 3 ranked team, could never find a comfort zone, passing up a golden opportunity with the best field position of the night, at the Katy 49 yard line. One play later they found themselves at the Tigers 35 after defensive end Grode was flagged for a horse collaring Mustang’s quarterback Tyrone Newsome, who eventually left the game late with a badly injured knee. Now at the 35 yard line, a false start would push them back five yards and from their Tigers steel curtain defense close the door as linebackers Brown and Blomstrom stopped Newsome after a two yard gain to force a punt.
As Steady as things were, the Tigers took the field at their nine yard line and coax an impressive 91 yard scoring drive in just five plays. Taylor got things started, busting up the middle for the best carry of the day, 30 yards to the 39 yard line. Then Hack connected with De/TE Dimon across the middle for a 27 yard pickup down at the North Shore 33, fullback Alan Grizzaffi carried ball down to the 24 yard line to set up Haack’s 24 yard strike to Jordan Thompson, staking out a 17-0 halftime lead.
“With the great coaches we have up in the press box, we knew that they would give us the plays we needed and they did so,” said Brooks Haack. It’s been a very hot summer but we have a great training staff that takes care of us.”
In the second half it was more of the same with the Tigers matching their 17 point output with 17 more points. Katy tacked on two more TDs as Haack scored on a one yard sneak, connected with Thompson on a 38 yard toss and Jeff Johnson added a 37 yard field to round out the team scoring.
The Mustangs managed a total of 161 yards and scored a late TD to avoid a shutout, all after Katy replaced their starters with reserves.
