North shore – North Shore stunned Katy, holding it to two field goals and no touchdowns.
The Mustang’s defense rose to the occasion, and Woods scored a touchdown on Friday night to help extend North Shore’s 70 game regular-season winning streak by knocking off Katy 10-6, at Galena Park ISD Stadium.
North Shore trailed 6-0 in the third quarter before marching 74-yards, in 11-plays as running back Tracy Woods punched in the go-ahead score, 7-6 following Ricardo Perez’s extra-point kick with 3:33 left.
Then the work of North Shore’s stellar defense kicked in, leaving the Tigers few places to roam.
“We knew they were going to come out and play hard, so we just had to be physical with them, being physical; that’s what it’s about. It doesn’t matter what they have,” linebacker Marcus Vorish said. It’s not just about offense and defense. It’s about being a team,”
Woods spearheaded the Mustangs ground attack by carrying the ball 17 times for 100 yards and a touchdown. Backfield mate, DeAndre Jones added 71 yards on 17 carries.
The Mustangs extended its streak to 71, one shy of tying the state record while halting the Tigers’ 16-game winning streak.
As for Katy, it led 6-0 in the first half on a pair of Raul Balbuena field goals of 21 and 36 yards. But later disaster watched the Tigers fail to cover the ensuing kickoff, which the Mustangs’ Alton Demby fell on the ball at the 21-yard line of Katy.
North Shore turned the fumble into a 38-yard Perez field goal with 1:18 to go in the third quarter.
“We just approached it like a normal game, of course naturally the tempo and the energy picked up in practice,” Tre Hopkins North Shore’s junior offensive lineman explained. Everybody knows we are going up against a big team. We just came together as a family and knew what we had to do coming into this game,”
Katy entered the contest ranked No. 3 in the state while the Mustangs held the 5th spot in the 5A polls.
Early in the first half, Tigers’ quarterback Parker Ray tossed a beautiful pass to sophomore receiver Charles Washington, who had beaten his man down the right side but dropped the ball.
Ray led Katy on 9-of-20-2 with 94 yards.
The Mustangs will look to tie the regular-season record next week when it meets Eisenhower at Thorn stadium.
