Editors note: Jeremy’s original title Cincuenta (y dos) Ranch Post Game, was altered for future searching purposes only.
The Katy Tigers took care of business on Homecoming to the tune of a 52-7 thrashing of the Cougars. Katy took a nice step in the right direction development wise as a team, and I’ll go into some of the details in today’s Cinco Ranch Post Game summary.
Sinko deferred the opening toss, so the Tigers received the ball first. Nelson connected with Izzy deep down the sidelines from a left roll out off the run fake. You don’t often see the downfield route open on that particular play, but we aren’t complaining. 7-0 Katy right off the bat. Ahead of this drive starting, Katy let the first punt of the night hit the turf (drop) but recovered the ball fortunately.
Physicality. Point Katy.
What stood out to me early from Katy’s offense was that the Tiger blockers were moving the point of attack and enjoying a great physical advantage. This is one area I wanted to see Katy take a step forward, and I’m very encouraged by what I saw.
Katy got possession again after a stop, but Sinko forced and recovered a fumble from Gunner. The Tiger defense made a couple of a great plays to put Sinko in a 3rd and 24 but gave up the first down when Katy lost track of a receiver downfield. Fortunately, Dismuke stripped the ball as the Cougars were going in for points and Katy got the ball back on its own 16. A nice run from Jordan set up a 74 yard TD pass from Gunner to McCall.
Katy lined up in a tight run formation (twin receivers with FB in H back position) and then called a first down pass. Gunner threw back across the field to McCall who looked like he was running a clear out route and would not have been option 1 on the play. He was wide open, however and Nelson found him. McCall made a great run after catch to score. Yes, I almost blacked out when I saw Katy pass on first down and hit a big play from it.
Pulling away
After Katy extended its lead to 21-0, Sinko pushed out to near midfield and decided to try and go for it (a bit surprising, but they saw writing on the wall). Katy’s defense stopped them short, and then Franklin entered the game at QB to finish the second quarter. Franklin found Izzy on his first pass (stick route), and Izzy made a great run after catch to score. This sequence was Katy’s checkmate move in the game. Nail meet hammer.
For good measure, Katy added 3 more ahead of going into the locker room up 31-0 after stopping Sinko on a second fourth down. The Tigers ran a nice two minute offense with the backup QB Franklin to add points. It’s good to know Katy can still get into hurry up mode. It’d be fun to see Katy do this at random points in the game to catch the defense off guard.
And on the other side of the ball…
Defensively, Katy was able to apply effective pressure on Adamoli and the Sinko backfield consistently whether it was the defensive line penetrating or pressure from a linebacker. This looked more like the traditional Katy defensive approach. Sinko hit Katy for big gains a few times, but the Tigers won more than they lost in this game clearly.
The start to the second half made me laugh with the leg practice for Carter. I counted three kickoffs, and on the one that finally stuck Katy did a great job covering the kick and forced the fumble that set up the Tigers’ first points of the half. Katy’s struggled out of the locker room in its first games, so it was nice to see the Tigers have an ideal start here. A playaction pass from Nelson to Stephens extended the lead to 38-0. Stephens made the outstanding catch of the game here because he was overthrown a bit and did well to catch and get a foot down in bounds.
Sinko hit Katy for a big pass play over the middle on the next series, and this was just a nice play by Adamoli and the WR. They pushed into Katy territory and the Tigers ultimately stopped them on yet another 4th down (4th and 17), barely. Barely is good enough on 4th down.
Nail in the coffin
On Katy’s ensuing possession, Aquaylis Jordan broke off an impressive long run where he stretched his legs out and showed what he’s capable of in the open field. He adds a very important explosive quality in the Katy run game, and I hope we see more as the season progresses. Hill finished the drive with a fist-pumping (for me) touchdown run that is my favorite run of his to date. He ran through a couple of Sinko defenders on this one and its exactly the kind of run that’ll take his game to the next level. This pushed the lead to 45-0. Fayo George, the back who starred alongside Aquaylis in Hill’s absence against Morton Ranch, finished the scoring on the night to cement the 52-7 win.
I saw qualities from Katy in this game that have come to define Tiger teams over the years, and this group needs to build on this performance and lean heavily into the positive aspects from this game moving forward. Katy was dominant on both lines, found a way to disrupt Sinko’s backfield, and got mostly good direct and purposeful running from the backs.
This will not (and should not) be the high point of the season but it was an important step in the right direction. Katy has Seven Lakes on a short week, a bye week, and then Taylor before Jordan on October 18th.
