By Allan Jamail
North Shore — On Nov. 11, 2021, at GPISD Stadium, it was another no-contest football game when the Eastside Boys scored 9 touchdowns over Pasadena Dobie Longhorns, ending with a 62 – 14 win. The game’s Team Captains were #80-Ronnie Hill, #34-Rashaad Johnson, #55-Ronald Wilson, and #8-David Amador.
Coach Jon Kay’s offense has proved over and over again they can run for TDs, but his passing game netted zero passing TDs. Not sure if this was by design or not. This season they have made a few passing TDs, and hopefully they will begin to balance their offense attack with both runs and passes. At game’s end, they only passed for 19% of their total 567 yards. A balanced offense is usually a must in most bids for the state championship.
With the easy opponents they have faced this season, it would have been good to fine-tune their passing game. They have a stable of good running backs, which is a good thing; much of their success comes from the offensive line and downfield blocking. But successful passing is not as easy; it’s much more demanding. It requires the quarterback and receivers to be on the same page, and this takes practice between the two to develop perfect timing.
No one has to tell this to Coach Kay; he is the winningest Texas 6A Division 1 State Championship Coach, with 3 state championships. North Shore’s offense was so successful even with the first unit sitting out that they never had to punt the ball during the game. In other words, they scored every time they had the ball on offense, something that rarely ever happens.
Their nine rushing touchdowns were made by: Xavier Owens – 3, QB Kaleb Bailey – 2, Javin Logan – 1, QB Aubrey Broussard – 1, Treyventa Hilliard – 1, and QB Darrel Jean – 1. Carlos Dominguez and Andres Montes-Zamora kicked the extra points. Mustang leading rushers: Xavier Owens 7 – 131, Kaleb Bailey 13 – 126, Treyventa Hilliard 4 – 79, Darrel Jean 1 – 75, Aubrey Broussard 2 – 27, and Javin Logan 2 – 6.
Freshman quarterback Kaleb Bailey threw for 108 yds, completing 66% of his passes. His receivers were Joseph Richard 1 – 35, D’Andre Hardeman 2 – 32, #David Amador 1 – 19, and Jhalyn Bailey 1 – 18.
North Shore’s consistent tough defense only allowed 337 yds. The Dobie running game made 220 yds, averaging 4 yds a carry, and 137 yds passing, averaging 20 yds a pass. Caleb Flagg intercepted a Longhorn pass.
North Shore’s next playoff game is with Clear Springs of League City, Friday, November 19 at 7pm in Webster at Challenger-Columbia Stadium.
(Statistician Linda Jamail.)