So, there I was enjoying a nice Friday evening thinking I’d have a nice time moving between the North Shore-Summer Creek and Katy-Mayde Creek games. The playoffs start next week, so we’ll just have ourselves a nice, smooth ending to 19-6A… Looking back on my time following Katy teams, there have been seasons where we get one completely bizarre football game that’s an outlier when compared to others.
Katy’s 36-15 win over Mayde Creek to finish the 2024 regular season definitely was one of those games. Mayde Creek came in with a clear plan to put everything it had into this game given they are eliminated from the playoffs.
The Rams were clicking
They made their intention clear by kicking and recovering an onside kick to start the game. There was a question of illegal touching the officials waved off and that looked like a good call. It was a perfect kick with a big bounce.
The Ram offense scored the opening touchdown on 4th and 6 from an empty formation (3×2). They motioned the outside receiver in from the twins side and ran a slant inside which caught Katy’s coverage to that side wrong-footed (literally) and the play was wide open. Jeremiah Smith was caught singled up against a receiver, and it look like coverage to that side in general was mixed up. The Rams converted the two pointer to lead 8-0.
Mayde Creek basically played a punt block defense against Katy and used the athletic advantage they had in their defensive front to overwhelm the Tiger backfield. The Rams have two defensive ends with about 40 to 50 college offers between them in #11 Kosi Okpala and #13 Tobi Haastrup. Those two caused Katy a ton of problems all game long. Okpala was in Katy’s backfield almost every play.
What about the Tigers?
Katy had a very shaky start and botched a punt to flip field position back to Mayde Creek with 2:59 left in the 1st quarter. MC started on Katy’s 35. Knott came up huge with an INT in the endzone for Katy. The Tiger offense came to life when Quay Jordan broke a long TD run on draw after somehow escaping pressure from both Okpala and Haastrup. It looked like they got in each other’s way allowing Jordan to escape being tackled for loss. I will post a picture below for what it looked like when Jordan got the hand off. 8-7 Mayde Creek end of 1st quarter.
Early in the 2nd, Katy stopped a Mayde Creek fake punt and took over deep inside Ram territory but couldn’t do anything with the ball. Mayde Creek drove the field, but fumbled back to Katy on a botched exchange on the Tigers’ 3 yard line with 3:35 left in 2nd.
Hill broke a huge run across midfield, and was actually run down by the defensive end Okpala to prevent a 97 yard TD. Katy scored on a toss sweep on 3rd and 6 in a double tight end formation where the Tigers caught MC overcommitted and wiped out that entire flank after flipping both TEs in the formation.
Up at the half
Katy led 14-8 at half.
Mayde Creek took over the ball to start the 3rd. Katy immediately stuffed a reverse attempt for a big loss, but was called for a facemask penalty. The Rams moved the ball out to midfield before Katy stuffed them on 4th and 4 with a massive tackle by Knott to stop the drive.
Katy took advantage and scored on an untouched run up the middle by Hill on 4th and 2, again from a two tight end formation where Katy flipped them both pre-snap from one side to another. The Tigers led 21-8 with 7:14 left in the 3rd.
Katy forced and recovered a fumble on the Rams next possession, but the officials ruled forward progress stopped before the ball was out. On film, this was very generous and fortunate for Mayde Creek. The play was still live in my opinion and no question the ball was out.
Later in the extended drive, McMillian dropped an interception, and then Katy committed two pass interference penalties. On the first PI, I did not see what the officials called. On the second PI, Katy defender Dismuke put hands on the Ram receiver ahead of the ball. Mayde Creek punched in a TD to narrow Katy’s advantage to 21-15 with 4:02 remaining in the 3rd.
Where the tide turned
Katy took over near midfield but went three and out. Hilton then came up with an INT with 1:50 left in the 3rd.
On Katy’s next possession, the Tigers had a 4th and 2 in Ram territory and called a reverse/pass. The Katy receiver elected to pass because #11 Okpala outflanked the reverse. Had he not been there, it would have been a reverse run without the pass. The pass option is built in to the play in case that happens.
Mayde Creek drove into Katy territory before McMillian redeemed himself with a deep ball INT after dropping the earlier one. The teams traded three and out possessions.
Katy got the ball back and Quay Jordan broke another big run on counter down to the Ram 34. Gunner then hit Stephens wide open for a touchdown to give the Tigers cushion at 29-15 with 6:36 remaining in the 4th. Katy hit a throwback to OT McMath on the two point conversion. I’ve never seen Katy do that in a game. Epic stuff.
On Mayde Creek’s next possession, Hilton intercepted the Rams on a deep post attempt. Gunner did a great job to find Izzy on the sideline for a big pass down the to Ram 10 yard line after taking over possession. Quay Jordan scored the last touchdown on a sweep untouched to set the final margin at 36-15.
What do we take from this?
Mayde Creek gave Katy everything they had in this game and clearly had drawn up a plan very specific to this game. They were onside kicking everything, faking punts and playing a punt block defense. They clearly wanted to establish some momentum ahead of off-season by playing like their lives depended on it. This is how teams play in the playoffs, so hopefully Katy’s players will be taking good mental notes after this experience.
We saw some of the best and worst of the season to date in this game. Mayde Creek had the athletes to be effective for a while on defense in how the matchups played out with their stud DEs in particular. Katy complicates things by limiting its formations, avoiding the shotgun setups that past Katy teams used to spread the field more effectively. Instead, Katy’s adjustment has to be things like double tight end/jumbo formations to get more blocking numbers onto the field when base personnel (2 WR, 1 TE, 1 FB) is not effectively dealing with the opposition front.
Katy got more out of its regular season opponents than I’ve seen in a long time this year. Rehearsals are officially over, and the test starts next week. GO KATY.
