By Allan Jamail
October 3, 2024 ~ Humble, TX ~ The North Shore Mustangs on the road easily outclassed Humble ISD’s Kingwood Mustangs. It appeared NS had stallions on the field against KW’s ponies. The Eastside Boys by the 3rd quarter more than doubled KW’s final score, finishing ahead 48–21.
So far this season NS hasn’t faced much competition, this is nice in one sense, and it enables Head Coach Willie Gaston to fine-tune his team’s offense, similar to playing a scrimmage game. However, these weak teams present few challenges, so when NS faces equal playoff-caliber teams, the question is: will they be able to meet the challenge?
The game’s scoring started with a 99 yard run by NS’s Chris Thomas. A couple other big yardage plays were the 67 yd fake punt run by Deion Deblanc for a TD, and a 51 yd pass play to Quanell Farrakhan Jr. for a TD.
North Shore’s fast-pace defense continues to mop up their opponents offenses game after game. Opponents running up the middle against the Eastside Boys defensive line have proven a waste of a play; they only allowed KW to make 66 yds on the ground.
Passing against NS defense has been the most profitable for their offensive opponents so far. But even so, with the hard-charging NS defensive ends and linebackers, most QB’s pass attempts are not on target, and many times the passer is running away to prevent a sack behind the line and has to simply throw the ball away.
NS’s Deion Deblanc picked up 81 receiving yards and a touchdown; he also rushed for 69 yards and a touchdown. Deblanc showed off some serious bursts, turning on the afterburners on one carry for 67 yards. Kaleb Bailey passed for four touchdowns, completing 80% of his passes. NS offense has racked up 203 points in five games, averaging 40.6 points per game.
This victory was NS’s sixth straight on the road, dating back to last season, which pushed this season’s undefeated record to 5-0.
Two upcoming games, which could be the biggest challenges yet for NS, are against Atascocita (5-0) on Oct. 25, and Summer Creek (4-1) on Nov. 8. Expect these two games to be sellouts. These two teams faced off in a slugfest going down to the final minutes this past Friday before a sellout crowd: Atascocita 42 – Summer Creek 39.
North Shore will be playing at home Thursday, October 10th at 7PM against another weak team, the Goose Creek Memorial Patriots, who are winless this season.
Linda Jamail statistician & photographer