Posted on 12/04/2004 5:49:45 PM PST by Richard Kimball
The Crawford Pirates (President Bush's) hometown team are still on a rampage in the Class 2A high school playoffs. This week, we played the Celina Bobcats. Most people figured we were dead meat. Celina has been the class of 2A for years. They had not lost a 2A game since October 16, 1998. Their record during this streak is recorded here, http://www.texashsfootball.com/news/perspectives/celina2a70.htm.
On top of this, Celina spent the last two years in 3A, which is for schools above 400 students. Crawford is one of the smallest 2A schools in the state, with 192 students, five students above being a 1A school.
Crawford had spent the week hearing about how Celina was going to kill them. Lee Murphy, the Crawford QB, was supposed to be another victim of Celina's 10-1 special defense, which was designed to shoot gaps and bury the opposition before their plays even got started. We weren't supposed to be able to run on them. Our only hope was supposed to be that they would mercifully put in their second teamers so the score would look respectable. Then the game started.
Coach Robert Murphy, father of quarterback Lee, had put in a three step drop pass offense, and son Lee spread passes to Adam Murphy, Jad Tawater, Todd Westerfield, Derek Dumas and B. J. Christian. Celina was surprised when they were stopped on their first drive, and were completely shocked when Crawford scored on their first three possessions to take a 21-7 lead.
Just before half time, with Crawford nursing a 35-14 lead, Celina drove the length of the field, and looked like they would pull to within two touchdowns. Crawford intercepted a pass in the end zone to kill the threat, and send a very bewildered Celina team into the locker room.
Crawford took the opening kickoff of the second half and added another score to make it 42-14. Celina scored on the next series, but it was a time-consuming drive that killed most of the third quarter. They also missed the extra point, which left the score at 42-20. On the next series, Crawford attempted a 42 yard field goal, but it was blocked and Celina returned it for a touch down. They went for two, and were stopped. The score stood at 42-26 with 11:43 left in the game. After that, Murphy went to a ground game, and Crawford started trying to run out the clock. On one of the runs, B. J. Christian broke loose again for over fifty yards, and Crawford tacked on one more score to bring the final to 49-26.
During their amazing 70 game streak, Celina had allowed more than 21 points only one time, during the state title game in 2001. They'd had 26 shutouts, and have only been held under thirty points four times in the last four years.
Here are some game shots:
By the way, win or lose, the Celina Bobcats are a class act. Here's a shot from after the game:
President Bush called the school during the pre-game pep rally and encouraged the team. Wow. I still can't get over it. Smallest 2A school in the state, and we won it all. Click on the picture to go to the site. It opens in a new window.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.