BRENHAM CUBS 27, PORT NECHES-GROVES INDIANS 21--Cubs upset fifth-ranked PN-G
Brenham High School quarterback Ty Schlottmann gained 289 yards of total offense and scored two touchdowns in Friday’s 27-21 victory over the fifth-ranked Port Neches-Groves Indians at Thorne Stadium. Melissa McCaghren/Reprints at www.brenhambanner.com
By RICHARD BRAY/Sports Editor
Published:
Saturday, November 21, 2009 9:15 AM CST
HOUSTON - The Brenham Cubs felt disrespected heading into Friday night’s Class 4A Division II Region III area-round playoff game against fifth-ranked Port Neches-Groves.
By the end of the first half, they certainly had PN-G’s attention.
Brenham beat the previously undefeated Indians 27-21 at W.W. Thorne Stadium after jumping out to a 20-0 first half lead and then holding on in the closing seconds. PN-G, led by running back Caleb Harmon, won its first 11 games of the season, but perhaps it was that outstanding regular season that inspired a few Internet comments that captured the Cubs’ attention heading into Friday night’s game.
“This whole week we’ve been hearing stuff that they don’t respect us at all,” Brenham quarterback Ty Schlottmann said. “They don’t respect our offense, our defense - they just think they can come out here and beat us and we just came out here with so much intensity, played with so much emotion, and after we scored that first touchdown we knew we could beat these guys. They’re not all that.”
Brenham (10-2) coach Glen West said the online comments didn’t come from PN-G’s players or coaches, but instead came from the fans. That seemed to make little difference to the Cubs.
“We read the comments they had about us on the Internet and we didn’t like that,” tight end Terrell Reese said. “We didn’t take that very good so we just went out here with an attitude to win the game.”
Whatever it was, the Cubs dominated in the early-going. Brenham went 41 yards on its opening possession to set up a 38-yard field goal by Tanner Schmidt. After forcing PN-G to punt, the Cubs drove 67 yards for the game’s first touchdown. A 35-yard pass from Schlottmann to Derek Edwards down the left sideline set up Schlottmann’s 1-yard touchdown run with 16 seconds remaining in the opening quarter.
Michael Walker scampered for a 5-yard touchdown to make it 17-0, and Schmidt closed out the opening half with a 27-yard field goal.
PN-G got itself back in the game early in the third quarter. Amir Jalali returned the opening kickoff of the second half 61 yards to set up Harmon’s 3-yard touchdown run, making it 20-7, but Brenham answered less than seven minutes later when Edwards hauled in a 12-yard touchdown pass that would prove to be the game-winning score.
Edwards was jammed so hard at the line of scrimmage that he almost came to a complete stop, but the junior receiver turned on the afterburners and made the catch in the corner of the end zone.
“That was all him,” Schlottmann said. “I just put it out there for him. That cornerback was jamming him pretty hard, but he fought it off and he got to the back of the end zone. He made a great catch.”
But PN-G was determined to make things interesting. Quarterback Brennan Doty kept the Indians’ hopes alive when he engineered a three-play, 60-yard drive that he finished by connecting with Blake Reyenga for a 34-yard touchdown pass down the middle of the field.
From there, the Cubs battled to run out the clock. The Cubs used a fake punt early in the fourth quarter to keep possession after Christian McBride, who has made his name this season as a defensive end, got the direct snap and ran seven yards for the first down. The strategem burned an extra couple of minutes off the clock before the Cubs were forced to punt, two minutes that would prove crucial to the game’s final/.
The Cubs looked to be in good shape after they stopped PN-G on a fourth-down attempt at Brenham’s 32-yard line, then halted the Indians’ next possession with Jeremy Hall’s fourth interception of the season.
But after a 44-yard run by Schlottmann followed by a pair of personal fouls, the Cubs fumbled at PN-G’s 7-yard line and the Indians struck with their passing attack. Doty completed 6 of 7 passes on the drive before hitting Spencer DeRon for a 1-yard touchdown pass.
With everyone in the stadium anticipating the onsides kick, the Indians were able to pull it off anyway, recovering the ball at Brenham’s 48-yard line with just seconds remaining. But Doty’s 43rd pass attempt of the night was picked off by Reese, and the Cubs ran out the clock to seal the victory.
“They’ve been running that same corner route all through the fourth quarter and I knew it was coming because of the formation they were in,” Reese said. “I was just playing free safety and I saw the quarterback’s eyes and I just went for the ball.”
West said the Cubs were prepared for the game’s conclusion being determined in the final minutes.
“We prepared our team all week long for the fact that it was going to come down to the end of the game,” he said. “These games do. They (the Indians) have a fine football team. They won 11 football games and are No. 5 in the state and it came down to Terrell Reese making a play at the end.”
The Cubs finished with 353 yards of total offense, including 289 yards from Schlottmann, who threw for 165 on 15-of-22 passing and ran for 124 yards on 23 carries. He finished with one passing and one rushing touchdown.
“Ty led us,” Reese said. “He put us in the huddle, he told us to calm down and he took control. As a junior that’s a big job for him, but he did what he had to do and he ran his heart out.”
Said West, “He is a really, really good high school quarterback, and maybe even better than that, I don’t know. But he’s such a competitor and such a winner, and I’m so proud that he’s on our team.”
Edwards finished with 88 receiving yards while Troy Green caught five passes for 49 yards out of the backfield.
Brenham held Harmon to 45 rushing yards on 11 carries as PN-G finished with just 42 rushing yards on hte night. Doty completed 20 of 43 passes for 254 yards.
Brenham will now face the winner of Saturday’s Houston Jones-Angleton area-round game in the regional quarterfinals. West said if Jones wins, the two teams will have to meet to negotiate. If Angleton wins, the Cubs and Wildcats are tentatively scheduled to meet at Conroe’s Woodforest Stadium Saturday afternoon.
For now, however, the Cubs are just enjoying a hard-fought victory over the No. 5 team in the state.
“It feels unbelievable,” Schlottmann said. “Everybody was talking about (PN-G being) 11-0 and nationally ranked or whatever, and the Brenham Cubs pull it out 27-21. It was kind of crazy at the end, but it doesn’t matter how we got that ‘W,’ we got it.”
West said that while the Cubs were inspired by the feeling that they were disrespected, the team got even more energy from the volleyball team’s state semifinal sweep of Richardson Pearce in San Marcos Thursday night.
“I’ll be honest with you, winning the volleyball game the other night helped our football team,” West said. “We just had a feeling today at school and I told Debbie Yeager when she called me this morning, ‘We’re just going to get our surf boards out and ride the wave because there was such electricity from last night, and that just feeds over into your program.”
