Friday, March 29, 2024
FRIENDSWOOD — There is no one that can accuse the Friendswood Mustangs for not giving it all they had against the No. 7 state-ranked Texas City Stingarees. There has always been a battle between these two District 24-4A teams and this year was no different.
Most figured that the Stings would run away with the game this season, but Friendswood has always been known for playing with a lot of heart and fortitude.
Texas City focused their attention on stopping junior running back Sam Longbotham and they were successful as they limited him to only 18 rushing yards on 14 carries for the game. Longbotham entered the game with just a little less than 800 yards on the ground.
But Friendswood head coach Robert Koopmann, who was the offensive coordinator for 16 years prior to taking over the helm of the Mustangs, is pretty salty when it comes to making second half changes.
The veteran coach redesigned some of the offense to go to the air in order to get the ball to the hard-running Longbotham and it proved to be a wise move as he gathered in three passes for 137 yards while scoring two times to keep the Mustangs in the game.
Texas City got on the scoreboard first when Aaron Klaes hit a 26-yard field goal at the 9:20 mark of the opening quarter for a 3-0 lead.
It took Friendswood only 17 seconds to take the lead as QB Brandon Sargent hit Slade Holle for a 39-yard scoring bomb. Garron Stewart booted the PAT for a 7-3 Friendswood lead.
The potent Texas City offense put it in gear and reclaimed the lead as QB Andrew Allen tossed a 9-yard scoring pass to Armanti Foreman to take over the lead at 10-7 with 5:16 still remaining in the opening stanza.
The Stings scored again at the 2:25 mark when Donald Lynch found a hole through Friendswood defense for a 42-yard scoring dash to push the lead to 17-7.
With only 10 seconds left in the first quarter, Stewart booted a 31-yard field goal for the Mustangs to close the gap to 17-10.
Neither team scored in the second period as both defenses held their own leaving Texas City ahead at intermission 17-10.
The Mustangs struck first at the start of the second half when Eric Loll got loose on the kickoff for a sensational 68-yard return for a touchdown. Stewart hit the PAT to tie up the game at 21-21 at the 11:40 mark.
But the Stings took the lead again on a 1-yard plunge by D'Onta Foreman for a 28-21 advantage.
Texas City's next possession took them to the Friendswood 10-yard line, but the defense came up big as Blake King picked up a Texas City fumble and returned it 90-yards for a game-tying touchdown at 28-28 with 1:30 left in the third quarter.
It appeared that Texas City would finally push Friendswood out of the way as D'Onta Foreman scored twice on runs of 5 and 34-yards with the latter coming with 7:13 left in the game giving the Stings some breathing room 42-28.
But the never-say-die Mustangs weren't going away as the 'Stangs answered with 6:51 left in the game when Longbotham took a short pass from Sargent and motored his way for a 72-yard touchdown to pull within 42-35.
The Friendswood defense forced Texas City to punt and the Mustangs got another big play from Longbotham on a 33-yard scoring pass from Sargent making the score 42-41 with 2:44 left in the contest.
Koopmann has been in this position before and he and his players decided to go for the win with a two-point conversion.
Sargent rolled out but the pass was incomplete leaving the Stings with the one-point lead.
The onside kick attempt was recovered by the Stings and a few plays later, Donald Lynch got loose for a 32-yard scoring run with 1:41 left in the contest to post the 45-37 final score.
The Stings finished the game with 470 total yards while Friendswood closed out with 224 total yards. The Mustangs actually had more yardage, but Sargent lost a lot of yards on sacks as the Texas City defense spent a lot of time in the backfield. Sargent took a beating in the game, but still proved he is a tough competitor and produced in the clutch.
Sargent was 14-of-30 passing for 241 yards and three touchdowns with one INT.
Holle caught seven passes for 78 yards and one score.
The Mustangs will travel to face Goose Creek Memorial on Friday, October 18 at Stallworth Stadium in Baytown at 7:00 p.m. GC Memorial (2-4, 1-2) fell to Dawson (5-1, 2-1) last week 49-27.