Final: China Spring: 33 / Melissa: 63
Melissa (2-0) and China Spring (1-1) came into Week 2, both ranked #1 in their respective divisions, but the Melissa Cardinals came out and emphatically showed that #1 in 5A-DII is clearly ahead of #1 in 4A-DI, and that their 50-14 win over Argyle last week was no fluke.
After the first 3 possessions of the game, it looked to be a defensive battle. China Spring had two 3 & out possessions, while Melissa had one. Melissa’s fifth play from scrimmage resulted in their first positive yardage play when QB Trever Ham hit WR Lincoln Dunn for 16 yards. The Cardinals then attempted to go with a hurry-up offense and had back to back false start penalties. The next three plays went for a total of 20 yards when another false start penalty pushed Melissa back again. That’s when Ham found WR Karson Maynard for his first of four touchdowns on the night. Melissa didn’t look back.
As the Cardinals did last week against Argyle, Melissa overcame many self-inflicted errors. Along with the false starts, Melissa had 3 unsportsmanlike penalties in the first half. The final one negated a touchdown as taunting was called as the Cardinal player was entering the endzone on a long run. Head Coach Matt Nally had seen enough of the Cardinal errors and had all 11 young men on the field do “up downs” during a timeout. The Cardinal errors cleaned up after that.
Cougar Offense Out of Sync
While China Spring did amass 409 yards of total offense, it never seemed to be firing on all cylinders. Rarely did QB Cash McCollum have a clean pocket to throw out of. The Cardinal defense was clearly keyed on RB Kyle Barton. Barton only needs a sliver of a lane to get loose, but even that was unavailable. Barton immediately had two to three Cardinal defenders on him as soon as he touched the ball.
Cougar Defense Missing Key Piece
Zane Borland, who came up big last week against Lorena, was on the sidelines this week. Borland suffered multiple injuries last week that he gutted through, but was unavailable for the Cougars, and will be sidelined for a few more weeks. Borland is able to disrupt the passing game, both by rushing the quarterback and dropping into coverage.
Bright Spots for China Spring
The Cougars can take some positives out of this game. WRs Cameron Campos and Dean Hannah looked good for the offense. Both were able to use their athleticism to make plays, both finding the endzone. WR/QB Matthew Battles also showed explosive speed.
Defensively the Cougars did well against the run with LB Ryder Reeves and DL Izaak Lard holding RB Nathan Adejokun in check for most of the game.
Next Up
China Spring will travel to Mexia (0-2) next Friday night. The Blackcats fell to the Franklin Lions 70-6.
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