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Football: Second-half Knockout: Poteet turns tight game into a rout over Newman Smith
By Devin Hasson, DHasson@starlocalnews.com
MESQUITE - Poteet and Carrollton Newman Smith entered Friday's district opener each wanting to make a statement in the newly-aligned 10-4A.
After one half of a defensive battle, it had the makings of a game that would go down to the wire.
But Poteet emerged from its giant, inflatable pirate ship as a different team to start the second half and once they grabbed the wave of momentum, they rode it all the way to the end.
Poteet remains perfect on the season, improving to 4-0 overall and 1-0 in district play, while the Trojans dropped to 2-2 and 0-1.
"We've been off a week and we missed some big plays and had some penalties early on," Poteet head coach Randy Jackson said. "But the second half, I felt like our attention span was a little bit higher and I think we wore them down a little bit so I was really proud of our effort in the second half."
Newman Smith had lost the field position game for much of the first half, but was able to hang around, and a 68-yard touchdown pass from Cole Brewer to Logan Bradley late in the second quarter suddenly cut Poteet's lead to 9-7 going into halftime.
The second half, though, was a completely different story.
"I just think they are a really good football team," Newman Smith head coach Paul Ressa said. "We did some good things (in the first half) and started to put things together and then just shot ourselves in the foot. We made some mistakes and couldn't overcome it and you can't do that against a really good football team."
The Pirates struck quickly to start the second quarter on a six-play, 65-yard drive. They capped it in electrifying fashion as Ramsey hit Rodney Douglas with a short pass in the left flat and Douglas proceeded to reverse field all the way back to the right sideline where he outraced the defense for a 38-yard touchdown to make it 16-7.
After forcing a quick three-and-out, Poteet took advantage of a short field for a 40-yard drive, with Ramsey scoring on a 5-yard run and it was suddenly 23-7 less than five minutes into the half.
"It was time for me to give a speech," said Jackson of halftime. "We've got to go take these. These are tough to get and those guys (Newman Smith) right now believe that they can beat us. So we needed to go make it happen and they responded like a veteran team will."
After another short punt, Poteet pounced again, with Ramsey bulling in from a yard out to give them a 30-7 advantage with 4:33 left in the third quarter.
That series was indicative of much of the night for the Trojans, as they had three punts of less than 11 yards and another blocked. And while the defense was able to hold the Pirates off for a while, it would not last.
"I thought we were winning at halftime, to be honest with you, because with all the short fields that they had--we had a few punts that we couldn't get outside the 20--so to hold them to three and stop them a couple of times was really big," Ressa said. "I thought our defense played extremely well but we may have gotten a little gassed at times later on because that is a really good, well-coached offense and then we started to make some mistakes and miss some tackles and you just can't do that."
Newman Smith showed signs of life when Brewer, who was 12-of-26 for 232 yards, threw his second touchdown of the night, this one a 30-yarder to Ryan Huntley to close to within 30-14 with 2:02 left in the third quarter but that was as close as it would get.
Ramsey completed his night by capping a four-minute drive with a 2-yard run to push the lead back to 36-14 and Lane Novy came on in relief to throw a 25-yard scoring strike to David Ayala to provide the final margin.
Poteet, which had only 127 yards at halftime, finished with much better numbers. Ramsey had 239 total yards, completing passes to six different receivers, while James Swindle had 94 yards on just 10 carries as the Pirates finished with 417 yards overall.
It was that second-half production that Poteet is hoping to remember next week, but so will Newman Smith, as it heads into a short week with a Thursday game at 7 p.m. against crosstown rival Carrollton Creekview at Standridge Stadium.
"Physicality," said Ressa about what the team will take away from this week. "We got punched in the mouth and our kids responded and they understand that now. They got a little taste of it and now they know they have to play for four quarters.
"We're getting closer. Tonight we came out a lot better than we have in the past so that is a positive; we came to play we've just got to put four quarters together and I hope it is next Thursday."
For Poteet, the victory was the start of what they believe will be a return run to the playoffs. After making it to the state semifinals two years ago, the Pirates were left out of the postseason last season in a tiebreaker.
It is a situation they do not want to see again and after taking the first step on Friday, they are hoping to take the next one on Friday when they travel to City Bank Stadium to take on Forney.
"Starting district 0-1 is brutal it is just such a hole you've dug yourself," Jackson said. "We are at home and we hadn't been home in a month so we felt like this is one we couldn't let get away. We could have won 2-0 and I'd have taken it.
"I have to watch the film but I feel good, they didn't run the ball against us, which was positive, but we did give up some deep balls. We'll look at it, coach them up and get them ready for next week."
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