Last season was a tough pill to swallow for the Goose Creek Memorial Patriots from Baytown. After a five-year stretch of making the playoffs from 2009-13, the Patriots had back-to-back 4-6 seasons.
But last year Goose Creek laid a goose egg in the 2016 win column.
Having an 0-10 record leaves the Patriots nowhere to look but up. Goose Creek will need improvement on both sides of the ball, in which they gave up 47.8 points a game while only scoring just 13 points per contest.
The Patriots got shut out four times in 2016, including the first game of the season and the final two against North Shore (62-0) and Atascocita (78-0). But those last two teams made deep playoff runs — North Shore to the state quarterfinals and Atascocita to the state semifinals.
For 2017, Goose Creek needs to find some good juju to get things rolling again and shed the current 11-game losing streak.
Key Losses
QB Deandre Herman, LB Dyamond Thomas, DE Jeremiah Broussard
Herman rushed for a team-high 1,141 yards and five touchdowns last season and was the team’s leader in passing.
Thomas and Broussard were both named second-team all-district on defense.
Key Returners
RB Victor Colón, WR Cristian Cienfuegos, FS Sean Kelly
Colón was second on the team with 503 rushing yards and four touchdowns. Cienfuegos was a threat at both running and receiving last year as a sophomore. Sean Kelly has good size at corner and free safety at 6-3, 175.
The Verdict
The Patriots have a long way to go after losing 13 of their last 14 games dating back to 2015.
Goose Creek returns two playmakers on offense with Colón and Cienfuegos, and Kelly has potential to be the nice shutdown corner.
To have a shot at making the playoffs, the Patriots need to get things worked out in non-district, which includes road trips to Tomball Memorial and Port Neches-Groves to start the season.
District begins with a pair of home games against Kingwood and Sterling before a trip to Channelview. They need to win early because once again the regular season ends with North Shore and Atascocita.
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