Westfield Mustangs vs. Klein Forest Golden Eagles
Klein Forest 33, Westfield 30 OT
10.4.08
Jay Darneal
Have you ever played football in the park with some of your
buddies and end up losing to your little brother? Well, that’s how the Westfield
Mustangs felt after their devastating loss to the Klein Forest Golden Eagles on
Saturday night. In fact, the game could be termed as a family affair – Klein
Forest SR RB Dominic Wilkins and Westfield SR DB Denerick Demby are cousins.
Klein Forest got the game started off on the right foot at
the 7:36 mark in the first quarter when Wilkins ran for a 39 yard TD run on a
wrap around draw play that he ran to perfection last year multiple times.
Wilkins’ pure speed allows him to reach the edge because the flow of the defense
is moving towards the opposite side. Less than five minutes later, it was
Wilkins once again finding paydirt, this time from 5 yards out making the score
14-0. Ok, now I know that I am not mixing names up very well here but of course
it was Wilkins once again getting into the endzone on a 20 yard touchdown run. A
missed extra point on the third touchdown run made the score 20-0 in favor of
the Golden Eagles. Forest then just started to pour it on as JR K Jacob Decker
connected with a 24 yard field goal to put the Eagles up by 23. Eventually, the
Mustangs were going to get on the board and they did exactly that with 1:03 left
in the second quarter when Westfield SR WR Ja-Mes Logan broke free on a 43 yard
touchdown strike from Westfield JR QB Jacoby Walker. Logan caught the ball and
immediately broke a tackle and the 23 extra YAC (yards after catch) permitted
him to get in for 6 points. Westfield K Ernesto Lazo missed the extra point as
well and that gave us the halftime score of 23-6.
One would normally expect to see more of what they saw in
the first half but, in this case, that one would be dead wrong! Coach Meekins
rallied his troops at halftime and the Mustangs came out looking more like
themselves, scoring first in the second half as Walker once again hit Logan for
a touchdown. This time it was from 67 yards out and Logan piled up the YAC after
breaking another tackle and scampering another 50 plus yards. Just when you
thought momentum had shifted there was another human highlight reel from
Dominique-sorry- Dominic Wilkins. He found the corner and busted down the
sidelines for a 57 yard touchdown run that made it 30-13. So down by 17
entering the fourth quarter would usually mean good things for a team right?
Well as the Texans proved against the Colts on Sunday as well, “Not so fast my
friend!” The Mustangs started their comeback with 7:23 left in the fourth
quarter when Adam Watson found himself alone in the back left corner of the
endzone receiving a touchdown pass from Jacoby Walker. The wide receiver on the
outside ran a slant route to the inside, and the Forest cornerback followed
along, gaving Watson the back corner all to himself except for the play side
safety sprinting over too late. The next score came with 3:36 left in the
ballgame when Walker found, surprise surprise, Ja-Mes Logan for his third
touchdown of the afternoon. Down by only 3 Westfield forced Klein Forest into
punting the ball back to the Mustangs with time running out. The Forest defense
allowed some plays but stopped the Mustangs on three goal-to-go situations. With
only :52 remaining it was Westfield’s Lazo hitting a 25 yard field goal to tie
the game up at 30-30.
Who in the world does not like free football? That is
exactly what we got as overtime began and Westfield getting the ball first. They
could not muster up a single first down and were in a 4th and 5 yards
to go position with the ball on the 20 yard line. Coach Meekins elected to go
for it and the rollout pass from Walker intended for Logan fell to the ground
out of bounds. That allowed Klein Forest to just run Wilkins up the middle three
consecutive plays and gave them the chance to win the game with just a field
goal. Decker did not allow the Westfield timeout to ice him and he nailed a 33
yarder to win the game and begin the celebration.
There were two players that really stood out, and they both
deserved a game ball no matter the score. Klein Forest SR RB Dominic Wilkins had
37 carries for 232 yards and 4 TD’s. On the other side it was Westfield SR WR
Ja-Mes Logan who hauled in 14 receptions for256 yards and 3 TD’s. Another
notable was Westfield JR QB Jacoby Walker who was 24-38 for 387 yards and 4 TD’s.
Walker, however, also threw 3 INT’s. The Klein Forest defense was lead by SR LB
Tronte Robinson, JR LB Cameron Nwosu, SR CB Daniel Cooper, JR DB Damian Payne as
well as the entire front line.
It was amazing to see two teams excel so often being one
dimensional. Klein Forest had 365 rushing yards but was only 3-10 for 37 passing
yards while Westfield totaled 387 passing yards and had a mere 19 rushes for 27
yards on the ground. Klein Forest bumped their overall record to 3-1 and 1-1 in
district play. The Mustangs dropped to 2-1 overall and are now also 1-1 in
district play.
(Spring Editor Sarah Parker contributed to this article)