Deer Park Ousted by Nationally-ranked Mustangs 59-7

 HOUSTON  —  by Robert Avery: [email protected]

Well, North Shore High School is 17 percent of the way to a third consecutive Class 6A state football championship.

With too many weapons to count, the Mustangs completed eight of 10 possessions with points, allowing the District 21-6A champions to capture the bi-district banner with a 59-7 win over Deer Park at Galena Park ISD Stadium Thursday night.

Eight North Shore players scored touchdowns, four weapons from the ground game and four receivers. But doing the majority of the damage was quarterback Dematrius Davis and his slick play. Davis, in three quarters of work, rushed for a nine-yard touchdown, while throwing touchdown passes of 16, 52, 11 and 15 yards.

North Shore now prepares to play Pearland Dawson next week, a 35-19 winner over Dickinson Thursday night.

“I don’t know if it’s a swagger, a confidence, but it’s impressive. You don’t win two state championships in a row without that swagger. I’m sure they’re on their way to a third year. They just have that experience, belief. Even before they get on the field, there’s an aura. They walk on the field knowing they’re really good and they are. I think that’s where they beat a lot of teams is they’re mentally tough,”

-Deer Park head coach Austin Flynn said.

North Shore, with its multiple quarterbacks, multiple receivers and multiple placekickers, owned a 556-83 advantage in total yardage to go with 22 first downs to Deer Park’s seven and one of those was due to a penalty. North Shore rushed for 271 yards and passed for 285, while Deer Park rushed for 52 yards over 29 carries and threw for 31 on 6-of-18 attempts.

Calm, cool and collected, North Shore finished five-of-six first-half possessions with touchdowns to enjoy a 35-0 intermission lead.

North Shore completed its first four passes, sparking the team to a 14-0 lead with 3:06 left in the first quarter. Different receivers each time, Davis hit David Amador, Charles King and Jhalyn Bailey before the role was reversed and Davis was on the receiving end of a pass from Shadrach Banks, a 28-yard toss that led to a short scoring run from Brannon Davis.

In addition to the 28-yarder, Banks also caught passes for six, 18, 24, 24 and 10 yards.

Dematrius Davis’ most impressive chunk of the night was the pass that scored the sixth touchdown. With the pocket collapsing, Davis had been in this rodeo before. He just stepped up in the pocket and unleashed a 52-yard pass to Amador.

Deer Park meanwhile, went three-and-out for its first four possessions. The team’s initial first down of the game arrived with seven minutes remaining in the second quarter. The maroon and gold was milking the play clock as much as possible but unable to move the chains, North Shore was more than happy to wait out Deer Park’s slower tactics.

“The score doesn’t really reflect on how we played. Going three-and-out early in the game doesn’t help us. We gotta move the ball, we gotta control the clock. We gotta get first downs and we just didn’t come out and do that early on in the game. But in the end, I think we gave it a heck of a shot. Deep down, we played hard, we knew who we were going against, No. 2 in the country. We’re not even ranked in the country and we were trying our hardest. It’s a brotherhood. We have each other’s backs,”

-Deer Park quarterback Matthew Potts said.

Potts and Alex Argueta did hook up for a pretty 44-yard touchdown pass with 10:47 to play in the game. A Mustang defender had an arm around Argueta, but he shook him loose and scored.

“I saw Alex going straight between the safeties. I felt pressure coming from my right, I rolled left. I just threw the ball and he got underneath it. His speed is amazing,”

-Potts said.

Defensively, Cookie Garcia played a very strong game. He came up with a blindside quarterback sack of Davis on first down, leading to North Shore’s only punt of the first half. He also recovered a fumble that set up the Potts-to-Argueta TD pass. He had other solo tackles and assists.

“I just beat the dude with speed. He shot his hands (to try and grab his shoulder pads), I hit his hands, I ripped under them. I saw the quarterback and took my shot,”

-Garcia said of his sack.

Garcia played like he relished the opportunity to face a nationally-ranked team.

“It was a great experience. Not a lot of teams get to go against a team that high of a level. I loved it. It was fun. I love a challenge,”

-Garcia said.