Wylie 7-on-7 Football

Pirates suffer first round exit at College Station

By Shiela K. Haynes
Contributing writer

The Pirates were headed home from College Station much earlier than had been anticipated after suffering elimination in Saturday’s first round of bracket play in the FSN Southwest 7-on-7 State Championship presented by Adidas and Academy Sports & Outdoors.

When it was all said and done, the Richland Rebels were crowned 2008 tournament champion with a 35-32 win over Mesquite in the final. Abilene High squeaked by Houston Langham Creek 34-33 to win the consolation bracket.
The Pirates seemed to lack the spark and intensity they had shown earlier in the 7-on-7 season.

“If we had played like we had in any other tournament, we would have gone five or six rounds,” said Pirates head coach Bill Howard. “We had a lot of young kids that had never been down there before. We learned a lot, but we had a lot of growing pains.”

The two-day, 64-team event began Friday with an opening round of pool play. Wylie was plugged into pool I with teams from The Woodlands, Georgetown and Edcouch-Elsa.

The Pirates defeated The Woodlands 45-39 in the first pool game. After spotting the Highlanders 12 points to start, quarterback Jerod Monk hit Logan Lambert for a 40-yard gain and connected with Colby Harper on the next play for a touchdown. Harper scored three touchdowns in the contest, while Lambert, Noah Cheshier and Justin Thompson scored one each. It was a late interception by safety Alan Menchaca that sealed the deal for the Pirates.

The Woodlands lost all three pool games but regrouped on Saturday to thread their way into the consolation semifinal where they fell to Abilene 41-39.

The Pirates took a dagger to the heart in pool game two when they fell 55-53 in overtime to defending 2007 tournament champion Georgetown. It was a superior offensive contest that featured multiple lead changes and had the teams tied four different times.

Tied at 40-40 heading into the final minute of regulation, Georgetown had the ball but Wylie defensive back Joseph Batiste pulled in a key interception to guarantee overtime.

The squads traded touchdowns in their first overtime possession. Wylie had the first shot at the end zone in the second overtime. They scored when Nick Knott went up top to catch Monk’s pass in double coverage. Knott also made the catch in the back of the end zone for a 2-point conversion, but the official ruled him out of bounds. It appeared the defender had pushed him out, but the ruling held. Georgetown went on to score and successfully converted the two points to win.

The loss placed the Pirates in a must-win situation against undefeated Edcouch-Elsa in pool game three. Wylie drew first blood on the game’s initial possession when defensive back Corey Smith picked off an ill-advised Jackets pass and returned it for a touchdown. Wylie was also leading 24-23 early in the second half, but Edcouch-Elsa rattled off two unanswered scores to claim the 38-24 victory and win the pool.

All 64 teams continued into Saturday with the top two teams from each pool advancing to the championship bracket and the bottom two heading into the consolation bracket. All Saturday games were single elimination.

Wylie drew Houston Langham Creek in Saturday’s first round. Despite losing all three of Friday’s pool games, the Lobos pulled off a convincing 41-19 victory to send the Pirates packing. They ticked off wins over Spring, Beaumont Westbrook, and Tomball to reach the consolation final.

All tournament games were played at Penberthy Intramural Fields on the campus of Texas A&M University except for the championship and consolation finals that were played at Kyle Field.

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