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| WEEK 1 FOOTBALL: Silsbee 57, Houston Davis 13 |
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Posted: Friday, November 13, 2009 1:15 pm
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By GERRY L. DICKERT
The Bee
The Silsbee Tigers opened up their 2009 football campaign in a big way, topping non-district foe Houston Davis 57-13 this past Friday night at Tigers Stadium.
The Tigers rolled offensively through the first half, racking up points and yardage against a Davis defensive squad that struggled at every turn. The Panthers, who advanced to the playoffs in Class 4A a year ago, fielded just 20 players in uniform Friday night.
“You know, I told our guys that Davis wouldn’t have more than 21 or 22 guys getting off those buses, that they wouldn’t have a lot of depth,” said Tigers Head Coach Bobby McGallion. “But they had that same number of players last year and they beat us.”
The Tigers showed that they had the ability to score on long runs, on defense and on slow, determined offensive marches down the field.
“I was very pleased with the effort our guys showed,” said Coach McGallion. “There was some indecision in some spots, but offensively, I was very happy with how we executed.”
And execute they did.
By the time the first half clock ran out, the Tigers held a 43-0 lead over the Panthers of Davis.
Rakheem Bolton, who scored three first-half touchdowns, opened the Tigers’ scoring with a two-yard run that capped Silsbee’s first offensive possession of the night, giving the Tigers a 6-0 lead with 8:44 left in the quarter.
Chris Barnes, who also had three TDs in the game, followed that first score with a 5-yard run at the 6:15 mark of the first quarter. A two-point conversion pass from Jeremy Johnson to Kelson McDaniel made the score 14-0.
Bolton showed he was a threat to go all the way on special teams after a 66-yard punt return for a score with 4:06 left in the first quarter.
Bolton crossed the goal line again in the second quarter on a one-yard push, giving the Tigers a 28-0 advantage.
“We played some good pass-and-catch and we showed that our receivers can catch the ball and do something with it once they get it,” Coach McGallion said.
Pheal Hill showed proved that fact with a 34-yard touchdown catch from Johnson with 7:47 left in the first half. Barnes hit paydirt again when he returned a blocked punt 37 yards for a score with eight seconds left in the second quarter. This was one of two blocked punts with two other Davis punts just barely escaping the outreached hands of Silsbee’s punt team defenders. Jacob McDonald, who was the holder on the extra point, picked up the ball after the snap, rolled around the right side and scored the two-point conversion for the 43-0 halftime lead.
“With a lead like that, there were some things we didn’t do as much of as we would have liked,” said Coach McGallion. “We’re not going to throw the ball a lot if we’re that much up on someone.”
Still, Johnson, who didn’t play the second half, finished with 8 completions on 12 attempts for 91 yards and the one touchdown pass to Hill. Johnson also had two rushing attempts for 14 yards.
The Tigers’ second half with a pass connection from backup quarterback Kelson McDaniel to Barnes for 58 yards for a touchdown. Caleb Henry’s kick was good for a 50-0 advantage.
Davis finally got on the board when Steffon Johnson took off on a 90-yard jaunt for a touchdown. Reynal Camacho’s kick made the score 50-7 with 6:37 left in the third.
McDaniel would score again for Silsbee, but this time he would take it in himself on a 44-yard run for a TD with 4:56 left in the third quarter. Travis Willis booted the extra point for the final Tigers points.
Davis ended its offensive output with a touchdown pass in the fourth quarter when Lorenzo Bookman hit Jamell Thorne for 22 yards and the score with 8:09 left in the game.
The Tigers, who punted just once in the game, amassed 314 yards total offense with 10 first downs compared to 209 yards and eight first downs for Davis.
Leading the Tigers’ rushing attack was Barnes with seven carries for 41 yards, while McDaniel ended up with 37 yards on three carries. James Allen had eight totes for 32 yards for the Tigers. Darrian Turk had two carries for 21 yards and Bolton had five for 20.
Barnes was also the team’s top receiver with four catches for 63 yards while Hill had two for 56, Prentice Lane had two for 25 and Jarrian Rhone one for 5 yards.
Steffon Johnson was the top rusher for Davis with 12 carries for 81 yards while Thorne’s two catches were good for 31 yards.
The Tigers will travel to Diboll this Friday night for a 7:30 p.m. non-district game.
The Lumberjacks fell victim to Kirbyville in Week 0 play by a score of 62-20.
“They’ve got a sophomore running back who is truly special,” said Coach McGallion. “They let the game with Kirbyville get away from them. They just had too many turnovers.
“They’re going to do the things they need to do to win this game Friday night and that has to be our plan too,” he said. “As soon as it was over, we put the Davis game behind us. Now our first concern is Diboll.”
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