On Friday, I was at Heroes stadium as the Reagan Rattlers hosted the O’Connor Panthers. It was really weird for me not being in the Texas Sports Radio Network (TSRN) booth as the statistician – that has been my home away from home since 1997. Yeah, 18 years. I did pop my head in the booth and said hello to Mark Kusenberger, Virgil Peterson, and Nick Medina.
I wasn’t even sure if I was going to do stats and if so, how would I do it? Would I use my large dry erase stat board, my small dry erase board, a piece of paper, or my laptop? I figured it would be trial and error. I always had my large dry erase stat board within my reach if I found the need to enter my comfort zone (which reminded me of the talking can of Green Beans in Wet Hot American Summer).
Ultimately, I decided to do extremely partial stats on a piece of paper and that included drive summaries and key players only. Halfway through the 2nd quarter, I scrapped the drive summary – it didn’t do anything for me besides be a nuisance. I did like keeping tabs on the main players.
One thing I really enjoyed doing during the game was being more active on social media since I had my laptop. I love engaging with the fans. On Thursdays, I am the statistician for Thursday Night Lights TV games and I am tethered to a headset and barking out stats all night long to the production truck – I only have time to use social media in between quarters, at halftime, and at then end at the of the game, all on my phone.
O’Connor defeated Reagan last year by a score of 28 to 23. Reagan ran 66 plays for 406 yards AND O’Connor ran 54 plays for 261 yards. Reagan also had 40 yards in penalties and 3 turnovers! In that game, the Reagan Rattlers played quarterbacks Kellen Mond and Cade Bormet – both were sophomores. Kellen Mond was 8 of 12 for 118 yards with 1 touchdown and he also had 92 yards rushing. Cade Bormet was 10 of 15 for 114 yards with 3 interceptions and 1 touchdowns. Kellen ended up being the starting quarterback and Cade switched to wide receiver last year. The Panthers junior running back, Jamontae Edwards, had 30 carries for 180 yards and 3 touchdowns.
Last year, as a sophomore, Mond was absolutely sensational. He was 139 for 232 passing with 1,745 yards and 20 touchdowns and 4 interceptions. He also ran the ball 165 times for 1,142 yards with 14 touchdowns. Early this summer, he verbally committed to Baylor.
Kellen and I were going to meet up before the game (we talked on Twitter earlier in the day), but I didn’t want to intrude on his game-day warm-ups when I saw him on the field. His eyes were focused and he was in a football zone. He did send me a Tweet a few minutes before the team took the field for the pregame festivities. So now we all know what players do in the locker room before a game: TWEET!
As a sophomore, Edwards had 691 rushing yards with 9 touchdowns. Last year, as a junior, he had 180 rushing yards in the first game against Reagan and 199 rushing yards in the second game. Unfortunately, that was all he did as he suffered a season-ending injury in the second game.
Ever since I saw this game on the schedule for the first Friday night, I knew I had to be there! Primarily, I wanted to see the Reagan Rattlers quarterback, Kellen Mond and the O’Connor Panther running back, Jamontae Edwards. Those two were the only players I kept my eye on for stats.
That’s enough reminiscing about last year’s game and stats because last year is history and the only thing that matters is what happened on Friday night.
The O’Connor running back, Jamontae Edwards, got the first 2 carries of the game and man, it was awesome to see him running the ball and healthy! Welcome back to football, Jamontae. His first half stats were not as impressive as I wanted them to be – just 3 carries for 9 yards.
Kellen Mond, the quarterback for Reagan had 10 carries for 14 yards and was 11 of 19 passing for 80 yards in the first half.
The halftime score was Reagan Rattlers 7 and O’Connor Panthers 6. I was expecting a lot more points by Reagan. I think I need to take a class called “How To Lower Your Expectations!”
In the 3rd quarter, the Rattlers scored 3 touchdowns and one of those was a 79 yard reception from Kellen Mond to Tyreke Holloman. The Rattlers lead O’Connor 28 to 6 and in my Tweet, I said, “Blow-out is starting.” Somebody on the O’Connor side-line must have read it because on the very next play, sophomore Millard Bradford returned the kick-off 80 yards for a touchdown!
Going into the 4th quarter, Reagan led 28 to 13 over O’Connor. The O’Connor Panthers cut the deficit to 28 to 19 as Millard Bradford scored on a 36 yard reception. Dude, we got a game! Kellen Mond used his speed and scampered for a touchdown. Obviously, he didn’t want this be a nail-biter finish – all he wanted was a win and that was what he got. Reagan scored another touchdown and the final score was Reagan 42 to O’Connor 19.
Jamontae Edwards, the O’Connor running back, had just 6 carries for 17 yards. I expected him to have a much better game. Maybe he is holding back until the District games begin. I was extremely impressed with sophomore Millard Bradford — he had touchdown receptions for 54 and 36 yards and an 80 yard kick-off return for a touchdown. I would love to see Millard more involved in the game and will watch him again in Week 3 when they play the Steele Knights.
Kellen Mond had a relatively easy night at the office. He was 14 of 24 passing for 181 yards with 1 touchdown and 17 carries for 43 yards with 1 touchdown. My next Reagan game will be in Week 4 when they host the East Central Hornets. I hope East Central uniforms will be easy to read because in the past, I have seen them wear white jerseys with very light yellow numbers (basically invisible to everybody). At least if that does happen, I don’t have to worry about stats!
I was nervous all throughout the game (although I never admitted that out loud to anybody) but I survived and can’t wait for my next games.
On Thursday, I will be at Farris stadium as the Brandeis Broncos host the Judson Rockets. Friday will find me at Heroes stadium as the Johnson Jaguars host the Cedar Ridge Red Wolves. Follow me on Twitter @statmanspeaks for game-day updates.
If you want to see my complete photo album from the O’Connor and Reagan game, please visit The Stat Man Speaks on Facebook. Below are a few teaser photos:
