Itis A Shame Someone Had to Win This One

[Augielio]

After a well-played game between two worthy opponents, spectators and sportscasters often say, "It's a shame somebody had to lose this game." As the chilled fans filed out of the stadium at Brownsville tonight, many must have felt as I did: "It's a shame that someone had to win this game." It was a poorly-played and error-filled game by both teams by any standards, shockingly poor for a playoff game.

Ken Torrey, the heralded Mitchell QB, completed one pass in the first half and had two picked off in the game. Haywood played a 5-1-5 against the Mitchell spread, with an umbrella of DBs, lined up 9, 12, and 15 yards deep and backpedaling at the snap. For some reason, Mitchell decided that the way to attack this conservative defense was to try to throw bombs over it.

Haywood attacked the Mitchell 6-2 alignment by running at it. Neither offensive efforts worked.

In fact, it was poor kick coverages which decided the outcome. Bradley Witherspoon, the one shining light in the frigid evening, returned a Mitchell punt for the first Haywood touchdown. Then, after a second quarter TD gave Haywood a 14-0 lead, a poorly-placed and poorly-covered kickoff was returned to the Haywood 30 by Mitchell, their deepest penetration of the game at that point. Robert Redmond replaced Torrey at QB and hit on two rollout passes. Mitchell punched it in just before halftime and Torrey threw his first completion--for the two point conversion. It was 14-8 Haywood and halftime.

The first half saw other notable low points--a Haywood player managed to get himself hit on the foot by his own team's punt, giving Mitchell possession in Haywood territory. Mitchell tried to take advantage of the field position by flinging 4 bombs as far as Torrey's strong arm could cast them--in spite of the fact that Haywood's secondary was retreating into a different zip code. For its part, Mitchell had one of its tackles wander downfield on a long pass, nullifying a pass interference call against Haywood.

In the second half, Haywood continued its extremely loose coverage, gambling that Mitchell would self-destruct before they could hit enough short passes to take advantage of the gift. They almost won the gamble. Torrey connected with is slot men for a string of 7 to 9 yard gains, moving the ball into Haywood territory. Then the temptation to throw the bomb overcame him and the successful strategy was abandoned. In the 4th quarter, Torrey drove the Tigers to the Haywood 3 with the short passes. Then the ball was given to a big linebacker to take it into the endzone. Unfortunately, 250 lb Donald Holloway went into the end zone, but the ball did not go with him--it squirted out of his hands before the was hit to be recovered by Haywood for a touchback. Ball out to the 20.

Haywood remained with its conservative offense and was stuffed after one first down. A poor punt gave Mitchell field position in Haywood territory. Back to the short passes, Haywood still lined up loose and deep. Whenever Mitchell had less than 5 yards to go for a first, they simply extended the snap count and the Haywood right side oblidgingly jumped into the neutral zone, giving Mitchell the first down. In this drive, the payoff came when Torrey was able to elude the pass rush by tired Haywood linemen and scramble out of bounds down deep. Mitchell tried to pound it from the 5 without luck, a short fade failed when an official failed to see a Haywood defender bumping the receiver just before the ball arrived. It came to 4th down and Torrey scrambled right and extended the ball over the goalline just before he was knocked out of bounds. TD and tie game. Mitchell went for two and Torrey faked a run up the middle from the spread, then jumped into the air and passed to an open receiver. 16-14, three minutes left.

Passing is not Haywood's game, and the Tomcats had wasted their timesout. QB Stoots did connect on a couple of short ones but managed to get only to midfield before 4 throws in a row went incomplete.

Neither team played anywhere near its potential and the fans realized it. Brad Witherspoon was the exception. He returned the punt for a TD, ran the ball well, played well on defense, made a wonderful diving catch for Haywood's longest play from scrimmage, and even took a turn at QB in a couple of crucial situations.

Maybe it was the Thanksgiving holidays, maybe it was the sudden cold. Whatever it was, this was a game with very few highlights, a most forgettable game, underwhelming, one that must give David Lipscomb a warm feeling as it awaits the winner.