La Porte takes advantage of Friendswood miscues for 24-15 win

September 30, 2024

The real season began for the Friendswood Mustangs when they hosted the La Porte Bulldogs in the District 11-5A Div I opener for both teams.

La Porte came into the contest favored to capture the league crown this year so it was important that the Mustangs stepped up to get started in the right direction.

Unfortunately, the Mustangs committed some unforced miscues that helped the Bulldogs to a 24-15 district win.

While the Mustangs struggled on offense with only 240 total yards, the Friendswood defense gave it their best as they limited La Porte to only 223 total yards, but special team miscues by Friendswood and two big runs by the Bulldogs proved to be the difference in the outcome of the game.

Friendswood (1-3, 0-1) opened the scoring when QB Josh Brister scored on a 1-yard keeper with 4:22 left in the first quarter. Nicholas Ruffeno recovered a fumble at the La Porte 11 to set up the Mustang touchdown. A missed PAT left the 'Stangs with a 6-0 lead.

The Bulldogs got on the scoreboard with an Oswaldo Lopez 30-yard field goal to narrow the lead to 6-3.

La Porte took advantage of a bad snap on fourth down by the Mustangs that set up the Dogs at the Friendswood 2-yard line.

RB Sean Simon scored on a 2-yard plunge to give La Porte a 10-6 lead with 10:53 left in the second quarter.

On the ensuing drive, Friendswood marched to the La Porte 7 but missed a 24-yard field goal attempt leaving the Mustangs trailing 10-6.

That set up La Porte on their own 20 resulting in an 80-yard scoring jaunt by Simon to give the Bulldogs a 17-6 lead at intermission.

In the second half, Friendswood cut the lead to 17-9 on Ronan Wilson's 22-yard field goal with 10:52 left in the fourth quarter, but La Porte responded with a 40-yard scoring run by Tyreese Barnes with 5:27 left in the final period to make the score 24-9.

The Mustangs scored on the final play of the game to make the score 24-15 thanks to a 2-yard scoring run by Brister.

Brister was 21-of-32 passing for 150 yards while scoring both TDs for the Mustangs.

La Porte came into the game with an 0-3 non-district record, so the Bulldogs are now 1-3 and 1-0 in league play.

Friendswood is now 1-3 overall and 0-1 in the district standings. The Mustangs will travel to Crosby on Friday, October 4 at 7:00 p.m. Crosby is 1-3 overall and 1-0 in district after getting a 49-0 win over Pasadena (1-3, 0-1).