The momentum the Tomball Cougar football team earned after starting the season 5-0 has ebbed somewhat now that the squad has gone 2-2 in its last four games.

The Cougars endured their second loss of the season Oct. 22 at the hands of the Klein Oak Panthers, 24-17.

A late rally by the Cougars to either tie the game or take the lead fell short as time expired, dropping Tomball into a tie for third place in 13-5A. The top four teams in the district earn postseason spots.

The Panthers took a commanding lead early on, going up 24-7 by halftime. Klein Oak’s balanced offense gave the Cougar defense trouble all night as EJ Fatu ran for 110 yards and a touchdown and quarterback Nicky Baratti was accurate, going 10 of 15 for 158 yards and a touchdown pass.

The Cougars didn’t get on the board until late in the second quarter trailing by 24 points when Montrell Logan caught a 61-yard touchdown pass from Justin Dvorak.

Dvorak had one of his best passing games of the season, throwing for 223 yards and a pair of touchdown passes.

Trailing 24-10 in the fourth, Dvorak threw for his second touchdown pass of the night, a 31-yard scoring strike to Jameson Johnson that cut the Panther lead to 24-17. But the Cougars could not sustain their final drive and dropped their second district contest of the season.

Tomball played host to Klein Oct. 29 in the final home game of the 2010 season. Results of that game were unavailable at press time.

Stratford 34, Magnolia West 28

 The Stratford Spartans won a shootout with the Magnolia West Mustangs Oct. 22 at Stratford. The first quarter score of 3-0 Stratford certainly would not tell the tale of what was to come in the second quarter, when both teams lit up the scoreboard with 21 points each.

After a Jesus Loa 24-yard field goal in the first put the Spartans up 3-0, the Mustangs reeled off a pair of touchdowns, both on Neal Tykoya runs to go up 14-3.

Stratford would answer with a pair of touchdowns of their own, one on a 71-yard run by Bryan Skulski and the other on a 12-yard touchdown pass from Terrence Louis to Mackie Hirsch.

The two teams exchanged touchdowns again in the second quarter and went into the locker room with the score 24-21, Stratford.

Loa connected on a 28-yard field goal in the third quarter to increase the Spartan lead to 27-21 while the Stratford defense held Magnolia West scoreless.

Skulski scored his second touchdown of the evening with 7:48 left in the fourth quarter to put the game out of reach, 34-21.

The Mustangs would add a Desmond Richards 6-yard touchdown run in the final minutes, but the Mustangs were not able to come up with the winning points in the closing minutes.

Richards again topped the 100-yard mark, going for 111 yards on 29 carries.

Magnolia West took on Spring Woods Oct. 30. Results of that game were unavailable at press time.

Comments (0)

Subscribe to this comment's feed