Tribe dominates in bidistrict romp

Published November 17, 2007 01:46 am –

By Tom Halliburton
The Port Arthur News

PORT NECHES — If that has to be the original Indian Stadium’s final football game ever, Port Neches-Groves certainly made it a grand finale Friday night.

Clicking offensively and defensively, the Indians blanked Galena Park, 33-0, and convincingly claimed its 4A Division 1 bidistrict championship before 8,000 fans on a night of many special memories for Indians faithful everywhere.

With a new field turf, grandstands and $9 million in stadium renovations expected to begin this winter, PN-G probably played its last game ever on its original yard and the Indians departed it by trampling their playoff opponents with a dominant second half.

PN-G (8-3) advanced into next weekend’s 4A Division 1 regional action against Rosenberg Lamar Consolidated (9-2), a 39-14 bidistrict winner over Dickinson on Friday night.

Indians chief Matt Burnett and Mustangs coach Lydell Wilson are scheduled to meet in Baytown this morning. Burnett indicated that the second-round matchup tentatively was arranged for next Saturday night in Baytown’s Stallworth Stadium at 6 p.m. Those plans will be finalized this morning.

Tickets will be sold Monday and Tuesday only at the PNGISD administration offices from 8 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. All seats were expected to be sold as general admission tickets. Further ticket information will be made available later this weekend.

To hear Burnett’s take on this opening-round playoff performance, his Indians definitely derived some positive after-effects from the 40-7 spanking at Dayton last week. Thirty-three seniors returned to The Reservation with a purpose.

“I think Dayton woke this whole place up,” Burnett said. “It was great for us to play this well on a historical night like this. I’m so happy for the seniors. They’ve worked through every problem all year that’s been in their way. Tonight they played with a sense of urgency. They sharpened up. They were crisp.”

With defensive coordinator Carl Broussard devising an ideal plan to corral Yellow Jackets’ quarterback Gahn McGaffie, Galena Park (7-3) stayed within range for a half, trailing only 7-0. Then the Indians owned the final two quarters, producing arguably their season’s finest half of football to date.

Galena Park managed no points, eight first downs, and 153 total yards. Subtract McGaffie’s 83 rushing and 56 passing yards, and the remainder of the visitors’ output totaled only 14 yards. Meanwhile, the grass arrived in large quantities on PN-G’s stat chart. Jake Hemmings answered the ball with authority, rushing 19 times for 116 yards and one touchdown. Hemmings was superb. Josh Wright was too, contributing 14 carries for 110 yards and a touchdown.

Harrison Tatum was too, completing eight of 14 passes for 99 yards and two touchdowns.

This amounted to a special occasion and big-hearted senior corner Jacob Broussard summed it up eloquently.

“We’ve been thinking about this since we started playing together in the seventh grade,” Broussard said. “We knew if we played our game, we could win.”

Broussard devised such an outstanding plan that Galena Park’s offense finally dented the Indians’ 20-yard line for the very first time on the game’s final play. His boss, Burnett — a defensive mastermind in his own right — lavished praise on his coordinator for preparing the team so effectively.

“I thought Carl did the best job I’ve seen since he’s been here of preparing our kids,” the PN-G head coach said. “They were so intuned to what Galena Park was fixing to do. They fired all their bullets, most of them in the first half.”

 The Indians stationed a spy — usually linebacker Austin Miller or Hagan Crorey — to keep the slithery and elusive McGaffie from free-lancing too much. The Jackets’ quarterback was so difficult to contain that PN-G’s first would-be tackler would not finish off the play. But the Galena Park field general only produced one play of more than 20 yards. He gained 24 on GP’s second offensive play.

“Austin Miller was forcing McGaffie somewhere else, even if he didn’t make the tackle,” the Indians’ defensive coordinator explained. “We worked on it all week.”

PN-G’s offense could sympathize with its defense for a half. The Indians would move the ball but not finish first-half possessions well enough. Senior guard Josh Cortez and junior linemen Jerin Spikes, Tanner Ross, Dillon Harrison and Ryan McLin decided to take over the game.

PN-G scored on 4 of 4 second-half touchdowns and covered 85, 42, 76, and 50 yards.

“We definitely took control after half,” guard Cortez said. “It’s sweet. I wouldn’t have had any other way. We were a little slow on offense and then we made some adjustments and everything started going great.”

Tatum and Johnson clicked on a 21-yard post route off play-action to open the second half. The Indians’ wide receiver got behind Jackets’ corner Wendell Williams. That scoring pass doubled the 7-0 halftime edge to 14-0 with 4:28 left in the third quarter.

Exactly a minute later, a Ben Lancaster fumble recovery regained the ball for PN-G at the Jackets’ 42. Nine plays later, Tatum and Johnson connected again as time expired in the third quarter.

Johnson ran an out route to PN-G’s sideline. Williams tried in vain for the interception and Johnson turned it upfield for a 13-yard catch-and-run and a 20-0 cushion.

Hemmings, Wright and Kenneth Tezeno each scored once on the ground and welcomed the strong work of their blockers all night. Bothered earlier in the week with a leg bruise, Hemmings performed like a champion all night.

“I felt good,” he said. “I knew the whole week that I would be playing.”

It all ended up becoming a dominant display on a most fitting occasion.