The Vipers were in pursuit of a program-defining win, and they earned every inch of that achievement against Katy. Vandegrift was the more aggressive team from the start, and I thought they took it to the Tigers during the first half especially. I thought we were fortunate to be down only 7 points at halftime given how well the Vipers played. I thought they deserved more out of that half. Katy got one pretty big piece of luck it needed to avoid digging itself into a bigger early hole when Koger scrambled left deep in our own half under heavy pressure and heaved a ball up for Koenig to make a great play on to catch and run in for a TD. It was a pure backyard play by Koger and Koenig.
Vandegrift immediately tested Katy’s coverage from its first possession of the game, and you knew that was coming after what King had put on film against us the week prior (and their scouts saw in person, no doubt). I talked about Miles Coleman (#1) being the key to igniting their offense in my pre-game comments. It became apparent pretty quickly what happened against King was not a fluke, and that the Vipers were going to play a very open game as a result.
Most of the season, we saw a Katy team that looked like a pretty rock solid unit defensively especially against the run. Some issues cropped up with pass defense during the regular season in the games against Clear Springs, Atascocita, and Cinco most notably from my memory, but it wasn’t a sustained weakness we saw exploited over a full four quarters. As it would turn out, covering and tackling in space was a significant match-up problem for Katy.
Katy’s offense started the game 7 points behind since Vandegrift took the opening possession down to score, and went to work trying to get Seth established. Early on before the big plays started hitting for both teams, the game had the look of our district battle against Tompkins. It had the look of a tougher sledding kind of game. I thought one thing Vandegrift did really well on defense to limit Seth’s big gains early was fight like crazy to get their linebackers off of Katy blocks. Seth would run through the initial point of attack and get hit by #8 (Alex Foster, who I talked a lot about pre-game, and it seemed like he made 80% of their tackles) or one of the linebackers every time before he could break free. I thought Katy was going to have to spread the field more as an adjustment for half because Vandegrift was doing a great job playing Katy’s base offense for the most part.
What Katy actually did after half was figure out how to get Seth beyond the second level, and the big plays started coming with the score to tie things up at 21 apiece. When Katy took the 28-21 lead through the great catch and run by Koenig, I felt like the Tigers were starting to look like the team in control for the first time. However, Vandegrift returned to attacking the space match-ups they’d had a ton of success with and Katy helped them with a couple costly penalties. Not even Seth’s late heroics on the big run to tie the game at 35 could ultimately save the Tigers. Nothing about what Katy wants to do as a team is designed to play in a higher scoring game like this.
If you watch the game back or go to film in the field house, one thing you’ll notice about every Viper touchdown (if you pause when their player catches the ball), there is not a Katy defender near the catch. Every touchdown play and most all of their big plays that didn’t go for scores were uncontested catches. It was effectively a 7 on 7 drill for Vandegrift and the quarterback Buchanan did a great job exploiting it all. They had the time of their lives out there. The single biggest play Buchanan made was on their game winning drive when Katy had a defender wrap around both of his legs, and he made a perfect pass as he was going down to a wide open #88 Skoglund. Apparently, Buchanan is a catcher in baseball so legs are optional for him on throws.
What always makes me chuckle and shake my head a bit when it comes to Katy in the playoffs is despite this defensive breakdown I’ve detailed throughout this post, it still took a field goal as time expired to beat the Tigers. It took Vandegrift being completely locked in as a team for four quarters, players and coaches.
Fundamentals matter a lot in the playoffs, and a team is going to find it very difficult to right the ship when it has any significant breakdowns late in a season. Covering and tackling are two core aspects required to play defense just like blocking and ball security are the first two items on the list for the offense. Coach Joseph mentioned it in his post-game coments to the Times, and Katy will spend most of this off-season figuring out how to get better coverage wise and playing in space defensively. In its last four playoff losses, Katy has allowed 38 (2022), 45 (2021), 56 (2019), and 49 (2018) points. There is a lot to consider here moving forward regarding how to improve against higher caliber opponents in the playoffs.
With the amount of work Katy puts into each class, it’s always really difficult when things breakdown fundamentally. Two issues I’ve seen cause more problems for Katy than anything else late in the season are injuries to the lines and secondary. Any time Katy’s had to shuffle pieces on the backend late, it has not generally ended well. The 2004, 2005, 2009 and 2011 seasons are some of the more infamous to be affected by a combination of injuries and things breaking down a bit. So, 2022 is not the only class Katy’s ever had this happen to. These seasons are long with a lot of wear and tear, and what this should do is make people appreciate the championships even more because they are really hard to win.
I am very proud of the way the team fought in the second half and didn’t just let Vandegrift have a party when things were not going their way. Katy Tigers should never go down without a fight.
In closing, and this is obviously a team game, but I want to single out Seth Davis for an amazing career in the red and white. We’ve just enjoyed one of the all-time talents in program history. I wish Seth and the rest of the senior class all the best moving forward as people and athletes if they continue on to the next level. As Coach mentioned, 42-3 (with a state championship for the guys who were sophomores in 2020) is not a bad record for a senior class.
