ROCKWALL- It was a banner day for Garland ISD 7 on 7 Saturday at the Rockwall SQT as three of the four semi-finalists were from GISD and both qualifiers came from Garland. Garland High knocked off arch-rival South Garland 46-38 in the championship game but both schools advance to Texas A&M in two weeks for the State Tournament. Garland’s duo at WR of Keith Blanton and Alex Updyke were solid all day and Steven Baker on defense led the very athletic Owls to their first ever State Tournament. Due to the SQT being held at three different locations full pool recaps are not available.

POOL A RECAP

South Garland and Plano ended up tying with a 2-1 record in pool play and despite losing head to head to Plano, the Colonels advanced as Plano had already qualified. DeSoto lost their first two games in close fashion, but watch out for DeSoto they are very young at the skill spots. QB Ryan Polite is coming along and Darius Terrell is going to be big time. Plano looked good in their first and last game but sandwiched between was a dud as PSHS lost to Forney. South Garland is very athletic but at times they struggle to score points.

POOL A SCORES

South Garland 27 Forney 7

Plano 48 DeSoto 39

Forney 27 Plano 26

South Garland 37 DeSoto 34

Plano 41 South Garland 26

DeSoto 38 Forney 20

POOL B RECAP

This pool was completely and utterly dominated by the play of Sulphur Springs QB Tyrik Rollison who was head and shoulders the top player of the tournament. With talent like RB Ryan Young and WR/DB Bryant Jackson and DB Johnny McSheffrey it’s easy to see why SSHS is averaging over 50 points per game this summer and they hold a 25-1 mark. Rockwall finished with a 1-2 mark in pool play winning the only game they needed to win against Carrollton Turner. Turner went 1-2 also but they did look impressive in their first game a thumping of Naaman Forest who seemed to need a game to really get going and when they did, WR John Harris was a force to be reckoned with.

POOL B SCORES

Carrollton Turner 54 Garland Naaman Forest 34

Sulphur Springs 53 Rockwall 47

Sulphur Springs 46 Garland Naaman Forest 40

Rockwall 60 Carrollton Turner 30

Sulphur Springs 41 Carrollton Turner 20

Garland Naaman Forest 35 Rockwall 34

POOL C RECAP

This pool wound up in the dreaded three way tie with one of the tied teams being a qualifier. Garland, Royse City and Tyler Lee all finished with 2-1 records. Garland wound up advancing on total points despite the head to head loss. Dallas Skyline was easily the biggest disappointment in the SQT as the Raiders who nearly qualified at the Plano SQT finished with an 0-3 mark. Skyline despite having major talent simply seemed out of sync all day.

POOL C SCORES

Royse City 25 Dallas Skyline 12

Garland 27 Tyler Lee 25

Tyler Lee 34 Royse City 18

Garland 43 Dallas Skyline 25

Tyler Lee 47 Dallas Skyline 41

Royse City 32 Garland 26

POOL D RECAP

Garland Lakeview Centennial was the surprise team of the pool posting a 2-1 record as they advanced out of this pool which was played at HBJ Stadium. Coppell finished with a 3-0 mark but due to already qualifying the Cowboys were excluded from advancing.

POOL D SCORES

Garland Lakeview Centennial 24 Mabank 13

Coppell 38 Rowlett 20

Coppell 42 Mabank 42 (tie Mabank decided not to play OT)

Garland Lakeview Centennial 28 Rowlett 27 OT

Coppell 32 Garland Lakeview Centennial 26