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Lehman Lobos footballPosted September 6, 2007, 8:30 a.m.
from ground up |
Hays Highway Editor
KYLE — Starting a high school football program from scratch involves a lot of activity like coaching up the players, putting on the games and rounding up the community. But even when that's all done, football is an attitude that doesn't always come to kids naturally.
That's what coaching is about, and it's the better part of Steve Davis' job as the head coach at Lehman, which opened its second varsity season last Thursday night with an 18-14 win at Johnston.
Then along came Labor Day, with school not in session, and 16 of 72 kids out for football missed practice. It's just an indication of how Lehman is situated in a state where, it seems, some programs would practice on Christmas if they had games scheduled for the weekend.
"It's serious," Davis said. "Football in Texas is serious and people expect perfection and working hard and sacrificing for it if they're going to reap the benefits from it."
Among the benefits is victory, which Lehman barely hung onto last week against an always-floundering Johnston outfit, which now has lost 35 straight games. The lesson wasn't lost on Davis, who is preparing the Lobos to play Travis Thursday night at Burger Stadium in Austin.
"We jumped on them early, but we had some mental mistakes, motion penalties and stuff like that," Davis said. "We could have been up on them a lot. We were up 18 points on them. Then, in the second half, some guys had to go out, our kids didn't keep up the intensity and we let them back in the ball game. We had to hang on."
Injuries already are messing with the Lehman backfield, which makes it hard to sustain an offensive rhythm. The Lobos didn't think lead running back R.J. Hardaway would play at all because of knee problems, but Hardaway gave it a shot and ended up with 102 yards in 19 carries. It would figure, then, that quarterback Chad Miles and running back Jesse Primeau missed much of the second half with physical problems.
The Lobos dominated the game when all their parts worked. Primeau ran 20 yards for a first quarter touchdown, then Hardaway ran four yards for a touchdown in the second quarter, then Miles passed to Primeau for a nine-yard touchdown in the third. Meanwhile, the Lehman defense held Johnston to three yards in the first half. The Lobos held an 18-0 lead.
But the game changes quickly in high school football and the Lobos, without their weapons, felt the heat before it ended.
With four minutes left in the third quarter, Lehman cornerback John Martell made one of his two interceptions, picking Johnston quarterback Omar Lozano deep in Lehman territory. But as Martell took his return, Johnston running back Anthony Kavanough extracted the ball from him at the Lehman 26 and ran it in for a touchdown.
Early in the fourth period, Lehman backup quarterback Gentry Capps threw an interception, returned 68 yards for a touchdown by Johnston linebacker Abraham Cuellar. Suddenly, the Lobos were protecting an 18-14 lead with nine minutes left.
But the Lobos never gave a hint of letting Johnston move the ball, allowing only 83 total yards. A Lehman interception with less than a minute left finally sealed the victory.
Along with Hardaway's 102 rushing yards, running back Chris Holmes carried 11 times for 58 yards against Johnston and Miles added 26 yards in eight carries. The Lobos kept the chains moving with 15 first downs and 277 total yards – 230 on the ground and 47 through the air.
Now, the Lobos are picking through their injuries. Davis said Hardaway's knee is starting to bother him again and the back will see limited duty, if any, against Travis. Miles and Primeau should both be back against Travis, and running back Chris Duran, who missed the Johnston game, is expected back against San Antonio Edison on Sept. 15.
Travis, 1-0, opened its season last week with a 37-19 win against Akins at Burger Stadium. The Rebels allowed only 144 total yards. Running back Larry Johnson led the offense with 101 rushing yards, though 75 of them came on one carry. Travis, 6-4 last season, barely missed the playoffs last year with a fourth-place 5-3 mark in District 17-4A.
Meanwhile, Davis keeps pushing forward with Lehman, which finished its first varsity season 2-8, including an 0-7 performance in District 26-4A. With every day, Davis tries to instill a little more of the commitment needed to succeed as a high school football team in Texas.
"We are better," Davis said. "We have the potential to be a good football team if we keep working hard and playing hard. It's about buying into what we're doing and working hard, expectations in the classroom and taking care of their grades. It's just an attitude that you're going to take care of your business and work hard, and that's something you've got to learn."
The education of a football team continues.
