At the Deer Park High School north campus Tuesday night, portable lights were piercing the darkness.
It must have been a crew diligently working on a leaking pipeline of some sort. If not that, it was probably a crew fixing potholes in the parking lot.
Nope, this time it was seven through 11-year-olds under those portable lights not dirt-covered, pipeline fixer-uppers wearing hard hats.
It was the Deer Park Tigers youth football team attempting to sharpen their game for the next round of the TIFI playoffs, set for this Saturday at Barbers Hill High School.
The Junior, Freshmen and Pee Wee Tigers were holding their first practice since breaking for the week-long Thanksgiving holiday and were the respective coaching staffs excited to have their pint-size players back.
Junior Tigers quarterback Mason Holman spent some of his Thanksgiving with his grandparents in College Station. But now it was time for his football family and their semifinal assignment with the La Porte Texans. Kickoff between the No. 2 and 3 seeds is 11 a.m. in Eagles Stadium.
“We have to work twice as hard, give it 150 percent and work as a team,” said Mason, before going through some stretching routines with his teammates to get practice under way.
It was way back in September, but despite the long passage of time, Mason remembers very well that Week 2 contest against the Texans in Clyde Abshier Stadium. Essentially, one play did the Tigers in when a Texans ballcarrier motored a long distance for the only touchdown of the game.
These same two programs met in the 2019 Sophomores Super Bowl with the Texans winning the high-scoring game.
“They’re a real good team. Good kids. We know a lot of the kids over there. I’m tired of losing to them, I know that. If we do what we’re supposed to do and if the boys play hard, we’ll be in the game,” head coach Brandon Holman said.
Under another set of portable lights, the generator’s hum was helping to illuminate the Freshmen Tigers and their first practice since they ate all that apple pie and gravy-covered mashed potatoes.
It’ll be another 2 versus 3 seed showdown at 9:30 a.m. when the Tigers meet the Bay Area Predators on the auxiliary field.
“We’re just going to have to do what we’re supposed to do. We’ll be fine. Just stay aggressive, stay mean and we’ll be fine,” said head coach Adam Cox.
On the road, the Tigers defeated the Predators 19-13 on Halloween. One of the Predators’ scores was turned in by the special teams with a kickoff return.
“But they’re dangerous. They have a lot of athletes. They’ve got five or six kids that can carry the ball, make people miss, go to the house on any play. Our defense is going to have to be physical and disciplined and our offense must be ball control, just like we’ve been doing with this team the last few years. We’re not flashy like some other teams,” Cox said.
The Predators went 8-2 in the regular season, but one victory was a forfeit and they had a 19-13 overtime win, two weeks before losing 19-13 to Cox’s Crew. After the forfeit win, the Predators surrendered double-digit points to every foe except in the season finale.
Cox reports the Tigers roster will be injury-free for the first time in a few weeks, so that will be a bonus.
A.J. Beard is the probable starting quarterback. The kid can scoot. Give him some open turf and he’ll have the chance to eat up a lot of real estate.
The top-ranked Pee Wee Tigers will kick off at 8 a.m. against the Dickinson Gators. The Gators eased by their quarterfinal foe, winning 31-28, while the Tigers had no trouble with the League City Cowboys, winning 33-0.
The defense hasn’t allowed a score in 12 consecutive quarters. Now it only needs four more quarters of that stinginess to land them in the Super Bowl.
ravery@hcnonline.com
The Link LonkDecember 03, 2020 at 09:48AM
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Deer Park Tigers begin work for TIFI semifinals - Houston Chronicle
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