Thank you blog fans for encouraging me to go and see the SMCC/Crockett game tonight at the rained soaked Navarre Field.
This may have been one of the most entertaining high school games I have ever witnessed. SMCC opened the scoring by picking up where they left off last year on special teams. While running their tricky reverse kickoff play Mike Howey ran around the left side 85 yards and the Falcons took a 6-0 first quarter lead
The Falcons took a 12-0 lead midway through the 2nd quarter on a Chris LaBeau 3 yard plunge that capped a 85 yard drive. Crockett responded with a 58 yard drive of it’s own in the quarter as QB Tony Lippett scored on a 4th and 1 QB sneak from 49 yards out to make the score 12-6 Falcons at the half. The Falcons dominated the first half time of possesion by having the ball on offense for 17:39. Much of the 1st half was played in monsoon type conditions that limited the Rockets spread offense.
The 2nd half started with Crockett taking their opening drive 75 yards in 1:46 culminating with a Lippett pass to WR James White making the score 12-12. SMCC roared right back and took an 18-12 lead with a 55 yard drive of their own. Andrew Lamour used his speed to get around the left side from 23 yards out. With the 2nd half completely free of rain, QB Lippett generated another long drive which resulted in a 40 yard TD pass to Ashton Gaines the 2 point conversion was good and Crockett took a 20-18 lead into the 4th quarter.
The 4th quarter started with the Rockets on their own 3 yard line and they put together their best drive of the night eating up half of the quarter while going 97 yards. Lippett threw another TD pass, this one from 12 yards out to White to take a 26-18 lead with 6:00 minutes to go. The Falcons ensuing possesion started at their own 17 yard line and they ran the ball down Crockett’s throat and scored with 1:56 left on a 2 yard plunge by Lamour making the score 26-24 Crockett. SMCC’s 2 point conversion try was good on a Mike Howey run. The score was made possible by a pancake block by Robbie Cardella on a would be Crockett defender.
This is where the game gets interesting. Crockett gets the ball back at their own 25 with 1:51 left. Lippett looks to pick up where he left off throwing the ball down the field. With 57 seconds left, SMCC conerback “John John” Qualey intercepts a Lippett pass and the Falcons are back in business at their own 39 yard line. The Falcons start immediately moving the ball down field en route to a possible game winning score. With 26 seconds left a Falcon ball carrier coughs up the football at the Rocket’s 36 yard line. Enter Crockett QB Tony Lippett, it simply took the athletic senior 3 plays to go 41 yards down to the Falcon 23 yard line with 2 seconds to play. With one snap left before overtime, Lippett took the snap out of the shot gun and lofted a soft pass to sophomore James White who had gotten behind the Falcon defense again and caught his 3rd touchdown of the game. The Crockett team rushed the field and celebrated as 32-26 winners in a game for the ages.
Most of SMCC’s offense came on the ground. The Falcons rushed for 273 yards on 59 carries. Chris LaBeau’s 77 yards led SMCC in rushing as 6 players shared the carries. Crockett’s Tony Lippett finished the game with some gaudy numbers. The senior was 15-21 for 351 yards and 4 touchdowns. He also had 4 carries for 59 yards and a touchdown. Rumor has it that Lippett skipped the half time speech of Coach Rod Oden and sold 12 popcorns and a slushy at the concession stand and did a halftime routine with the Crockett cheerleaders.
I stick by my prediction that this game would make SMCC a better team for the playoffs. This team was the best the Falcons will see in the regular season. With apologies to Andrew Mayrand from Huron, this is also the best QB the Falcons will see all year as well.
Wow…
If they take a knee go to OT, and then fumble the ball over to Crockett, everyone would be begging for a new coach today!
You have a chance to win the game, try to win the game.
In my humble opinion, SMCC got beat by a little better team. The rain in the 1st half really was to SMCC's advantage. I thought OT would be to the Falcon advantage but what were you thinking when they were driving toward a potential winning touchdown. SMCC had taken care of the football all night. They were down to the 36 yard line of Crockett. Be happy with the coach you have.
When you have your team in position to win I said take a knee and go to overtime. We would have been better off playing a 10 yard game instead of giving them the ball with time on the clock. You need to be able to make these calls….. I made it with 25 seconds left, Just ask the whole crowd, sorry boys you played your butts off………………… And poor coaching lost the game
That play was right in front of me. I thought his knee was down and that the ref made the right call.
This was a great game. I personally feel that SMCC won the battle physically, where as Crockett simply won the game. Crockett did not show up in the first half, but they did in the second half. SMCC played at the same level the entire game. Usually I would say it takes a team to win, but that number 11 for Crockett is a hands down stud that will go somewhere in play. The catches he made were un real and I realized how good of a football player he was when he was getting absolutely drilled and just got right back up. Kid started on defense also and was there best defenses player.
With that said I will now talk about SMCC. I really did feel bad for you guys. Thought you desevered to win and should have one. Number 30 is a stud, the quaterback is a great player, and the way that 70 pulled on that conversion is a great indicator that cc will be rolling shortly. I was impressed with how physical the team was. With a group not that big in size they sure liked to hit.
There were a few things I did not like that I seen. The late hit penalty hit on 11 was uncalled for. Kid was not even close to being in bounds and numner N/A drills him and the Crockett gets hit into the fence on the track. That dumb play cost the team a td. I think it would have been a td no matter where the ball was thrown. I also know a games not one on one play, but that play was pretty big.
It appeared that CC were hitting crocketts players in the back and basically playing dirty. I'm 100% for full contact and kids drilling eachother but not when its dirty.
Last the officiating crew was junk. Blew a full calls and made some stupid ones. The worse of the night was when the cc kid cause the crockett guy from behind and caused a fumble but the official ruled it down. Could have been the game. And they also had some stupid calls against crockett. Moutpiece call, a few delay of games that I don't feel were.
Overall it was a great game and I see SMCC dominating the league and making a run in the playoffs.