By Allan Jamail
Houston, Tx. – At the Houston Cougars TDECU stadium on Thursday Sep 5, 2019, the GPISD North Shore Mustangs easily won against the Ridge Point Panthers from Missouri City 38 – 7. The week before they loss the season opener to the Katy Tigers by 3 points (24-21), the Tigers took over the Mustangs #2 state rank, moving the Mustangs down to #3.
Coach Jon Kay put together a versatile game plan to win; he’s without three starters including last year’s leading pass receiver, junior Shadrach Banks, leading rusher, senior Zachary Evans and pass defender senior Jojo Wilson.
What appeared to be a mismatch the Mustangs stingy defense shutout the Panthers until late in the final 4th quarter, their Special Teams gave up the lone Panther touchdown on a 78 yard kickoff return.
Dematrius Davis Jr., the Stangs junior quarterback racked up yards on the ground (2 TD’s) and in the air (3 TD’s) with a game total of 385 yards completing 67 percent of his passes. Davis’ success wasn’t made by himself, the offensive line gave him good pass protection and opened holes for his running game.
Davis spread out passes to Jhalyn Bailey, John Gentry, Charles King and Zorhan Rideaux for 194 yards and 3 touchdowns (TD’s).
North Shore’s running game compiled over 290 yards (2 TD’s), leading rushers were Dematrius Davis (191 yards), John Gentry (55 yards) and Roger Hagan Jr. (44 yards). Total offensive yards, passing and rushing was 488.
John Villalobos the Mustangs kicker was again flawless with 5 extra point kicks and a 40 yard field goal.
If the Mustangs can stay healthy and get all their starters playing, they’ll probably win their District and have a showdown game against Katy again. In order to beat Katy they must do a better job covering the Tiger receivers and rushing the quarterback. Katy’s South Carolina transfer running back Ron Hoff who made 206 rushing yards has to be keyed on and shutdown.
North Shore’s next game is at home in another non-conference game with the Westfield Mustangs on Friday, September 13th at 7 PM.