Published: September 24, 2008 01:48 pm            

Eustace rallies for a 41-32 victory

EUSTACE —It was some time in the second half while the Eustace Bulldogs were falling apart that coaches gathered the team on the sidelines.

They had fallen behind, 32-28, and Quitman had scored four of the last five touchdowns, all since homecoming halftime.

Eustace was comfortably had, apparently en route to a methodical pouncing of Quitman.

Not so, of course. If there’s one thing these Dogs can’t stand, it’s prosperity.

They come to the Boneyard looking for a fight, and fight they will have, even if they have to slumber through the third quarter to get the opponent inspired enough to give them one.

Quitman did get inspired, and how. The Dogs lost a fumble on the opening second half kickoff. They fell for an onside kick after a personal foul penalty that makes Wendel see red.

But even after keying on fullback Shawn Baldwin on every play, there was one thing Quitman couldn’t do, and the Dogs knew it. They couldn’t hold him to less than 100 yards.

Furthermore...

By focusing so much on the Eustace junior who scored five touchdowns and rushed for over 200 yards a week, earlier, they sometimes didn’t pay proper respect to the Dogs’ undersized quarterback.

Like when Chris Compton faked to Baldwin on the option, then pulled the ball out and raced gracefully toward the end zone 53 yards away.

He found it just as gracefully and put his team in command early.

Later in the game, Compton would have another long run down the opposite sideline. At 5-5, 140, it must have been embarrassing for for one Quitman defender after another to missed tackling him as he raced forward.

“Even after we fell apart, we didn’t panic said” Coach Doug Wendell. “We just felt like they couldn’t stop our offense.”

Which was the reason for the sideline pow wow.

The Dogs were reminded their offense was better than Quitman’s defense, so why didn’t they just forget the soap opera and go out and block, run and execute.

Oh.

With that reminder the dogs went on a six-minute drive, overcoming a third and ??? situation and a fourth and ??? situation when Baldwin slammed into the end zone from the five.

“We put it on our offensive line to win the game,” Wendel said.

Wendel coaches the offensive line and he’s always ragging on them.

They do respond, though.

The Dogs go to Ferris this week to play a team that beat them a year ago.

You’ll never guess what the Dogs will be focusing on this week:

 “We’re going to focus on focusing,” said Wendel, who admitted he was responsible for the halftime talk that clearly didn’t work last week.

He may want to focus on that this week.

Now for the awards, stats, observations and tid bits of useless information:

First Downs: Eustace 19, Quitman 11.

Touchdowns by rush: Eustace 4:

By fumble recovery: 1

By pass: 1

Note: fumble recovery was a a 55-yard crowd-pleasing surprise with Trevan Johnson on doing the honors, but the reason he did it leads us to “The Slobberknocker,” CSI’s most prestigious weekly award, providing there is a slobberknocker on any particular week:

The Slobberknocker: It goes to Ryan Compton of Eustace, whose great hit forced the fumble which Johnson recovered and returned for a TD to ice the game.

Not that Johnson always needed such assistance. Near the end of the game, to keep the lid shut, he intercepted a pass from Danny Thigpen.

This enabled Chris Compton, Ryan’s younger brother, to execute all coaches favorite play.

The kneel down, which he did twice to run out the clock for victory.

Total Points: 73 points, still below Pilot Game of the Week’s opener when Mabank and Kaufman scored 81.

Total Offense: 339 for Eustace and 262 for Quitman.

Extra Points: The Dogs blocked two of Quitman’s point after kicks after Quitman had blocked one of theirs after the first of two Shawn Baldwin touchdowns.

It was less than a masterpiece for point after attempts, five of which the teams missed.

Eustace had a kick blocked, a and a failed pass on a two-point conversion. Quitman had two blocked punts, and a failed run on a two-point attempt.

The Right Stuff:

The Dogs offensive line which helped the team produce 294 yards of ground offense in spite of the third quarter.

More Right Stuff: The Compton brothers. Ryan’s key tackle that forced the fumble, not to mention an all-around good game, and Chris’s 53 yard touchdown, his 28 yard TD pass to Zach Keeling and his execution of the Dogs’ offense.



Still More of the Right Stuff:

Shawn Baldwin’s 113 yard rushing effort on 25 carries and two touchdowns in spite of being keyed on every play.

Concerns: Dog concentration and composure. Third quarter meltdown was probably the worst seen in these parts in a long time. The passing game is still rusty with Zach Keeling just now returning to the lineup. As for composure, part of being a successful team is not losing it when the going gets tough.

Encouraging stuff: Dogs are controlling the ball on long drives, and Baldwin is pening things up for Chris Compton and should be opening it up more for Johnson in future weeks. Stop him at the line of scrimmage, Johnson still figures out a way to beat you with his speed and elusiveness. But oh, the hits this kid is taking from the big boys

Pilot Game of the Week Results for 2008:

1. Mabank 42, Kaufman 39;

2. Dallas Parish Episcopal 39, Kemp 0;

3. Mabank 47, Kemp 6;

4. Eustace 41, Quitman 32.

Total Game of the Week Points for the winning teams: 169

For the losing teams: 77.

Best Coaching Observation of the Week: Doug Wendell on fullback Shawn Baldwin a week after his statewide recognition:

“He carried the whole team on his back. You don’t go from the kind of game he had with everyone keying on him, but he still gained over 100 yards. That’s the reason Chris was able to break that 60 yard run. (Actually, it was 53, but you know coaches).

On this week’s opponent:

“We think we’ve got a good chance of winning. (They didn’t last year).

Dogs need to look out for:

Jeremy Masterson. He’s No.9, and his quarterback likes to throw it up for him.

Second Best Quote of the Week from Wendel:

        

• Click to discuss this story with other readers on our forums.