FOOTBALL SATURDAY
Port Neches-Groves 22, La Marque 6
The Port Neches-Groves Indians came into Friday
night's quarterfinal football showdown with the La Marque
Cougars as decided underdogs. They left with a berth in the Class 4A semifinals.
Quarterback Dustin Long hit 21-of-28 passes for 288 yards and three touchdowns
to lead the Indians to a surprisingly easy 22-6 victory over the tradition-rich
Cougars in front of some 25,000 fans at the Astrodome.
PN-G, 13-1, next will take on the winner of today's Schertz Clemens (13-0)-San
Marcos (11-2) contest.
La Marque, which was trying to advance to an unprecedented seventh straight
Class 4A championship game, finished the season 11-2.
"Our kids never cease to amaze me,'' Port Neches-Groves
head coach Matt Burnett said after the game. "We have a great group of kids
who really get after it.''
And they have perhaps the best quarterback in the state of Texas.
Long, who is being recruited by several Division I schools, showed why he came
into the game with more than 2,000 passing yards as he continually riddled the
Cougars' secondary. Long's favorite target was senior wide receiver Justin
Baxter, who finished the game with seven catches for 126 and two touchdowns.
"We were just trying to move the ball,'' said Long, who also rushed for 72
yards. "La Marque threw a bunch of different defenses at us, but our
receivers did a good job of adjusting their routes, and Coach (Burnett) did a
good job of calling plays.''
Long gave the fired-up PN-G crowd something to hoot and holler about early in
the first quarter as he guided the Indians on a nine-play, 67-yard march. Long
hit Baxter for 23 yards on the first play, then, on fourth-and-4, found Bo
Wortham for 15 yards and a first-down at the La Marque 21. A pass interference
call took the ball to the La Marque 12, where Long found Baxter with a 12-yard
touchdown pass.
Joey Rice's extra-point gave the Indians a 7-0 lead with 2:02 left in the first
quarter.
After a La Marque punt, Long directed the Indians on an impressive 90-yard march
that ended in Rice's 35-yard field goal. La Marque was called for roughing the
kicker on the three-pointer, but Burnett elected to keep the three points and a
10-0 lead.
The Cougars, thanks to a long pass-interference penalty, worked their way into
field goal range, but Brian Dibrell's 43-yard attempt sailed wide left on the
final play of the half.
Dibrell also had a chance to cut the lead to 10-3 in the third quarter, but
hooked a 34-yard attempt at the 7:56 mark.
The miss seemed to take the life out of La Marque as the Indians drove 80 yards
in 12 plays to grab a 16-0 lead. On the drive, Long converted a fourth-and-1
with a 5-yard quarterback sneak, and hit Baxter with a 36-yard touchdown pass on
third-and-21.
La Marque had stopped PN-G on third-and-11 from the 25 but elected to accept a
holding penalty on the Indians in hopes of pushing PN-G out of field goal range.
The strategy backfired when Long hit Baxter for what proved to be the
game-clinching score.
"He is a Division I prospect and it showed on the scoreboard tonight,'' La
Marque head coach Larry Walker said of Long. "We needed to put pressure on
him and we couldn't do it. If you give any quarterback time to throw the ball,
they are going to pick you apart. Especially someone of his caliber.''
Long put the game out of reach when he hit Wortham with a 20-yard touchdown pass
with 10:40 left in the game to up the lead to 22-0. The touchdown was set up by
Long's 23-yard scramble.
La Marque finally scored on quarterback Michael Hill's 2-yard run with 6:06 to
play, but would not seriously threaten again.
The Cougars had a chance to recover the ensuing onside kick, but the ball
bounced out of Nehemiah Glover's hands into a pile of Indians at the PN-G 43.
"This was a big step for us,'' Long said. "La Marque had been to the
finals six times in a row. To beat them is a big step.''
"We had a good run for it,'' Walker said. "We set a goal (of winning
the state championship) and came up a little bit short this year. But I’m
proud of the guys. They worked hard. They just got beat by a good football team
tonight.''
Port Neches-Groves finished the game with 391
total yards to only 238 for La Marque.
La Marque's Trevor McKenzie finished the game with 105 yards rushing on 25
carries.
