Div. III State Final - Notre Dame vs. Baytown Christian

N

NDknight04

11-man fan
The Knights have battled through injuries, a brutal non-district schedule and a couple of nail-bitter playoff games.

Having only seen a few clips of game film on Baytown, I don't feel I can make a great prediction on this matchup. However, I feel like if Baytown lets Notre Dame stick around in this game, the Knights just might have enough offensive firepower to pull off the upset.

Regardless of the outcome, congratulations to Baytown on a great season thus far and doubly so to my Knights for this their second-straight state championship appearance.
 
Hello NDKnight, congratulations to WFND on making the finals and congratulations to BCA.

I've watched a few BCA games this year and can honestly say will require quite the effort to stop their rushing attack. Having a mentality of "containing" won't cut it. They stick to that run and it pays off for them. In the past they have thrown the ball more per game but this year I guess they figure there is no need. It's working.

And their defense is nasty fast. Talking with a few of their fans, the games that has given their defense trouble has matching speed across the board. They say Freddy had a good range of spread backs that kept them having to run high octane the entire game. Heck, evident in a one point win when you've been blowing teams out all season. But not all teams have a solid pool of speed and I'm not sure I would want to play a game of speed with them unless I have the horsepower.

Same with ND, only a few clips being found on the internet. I'm sure we will all know more once people comment.
 
ND back to back State Finals is very impressive and a huge advantage in this game. I think this is Baytown's first time in the Finals on a short week. #1 for ND is a solid player but might have his hands full with Baytown. #21 from Baytown is the best pure RB that I have seen in a long time. He runs over you or at times around you. Fun to watch.
 
Congratulations to both teams for making it to the big dance.

Baytown's body of work this season has been very impressive. Notre Dame has had a roller coaster of a year, and I don't think many people predicted them to reach the mountaintop again.

I believe the game will come down to this. The Knights will have to put points on the board early, and test the resolve of Baytown's defense. It seems Freddy was the only team this year to put the Bulldogs in a competitive game, and obviously they handled that pressure well enough.

Still, I think if ND can utilize its speed and maintain their bend but don't break defense in the red zone, this one could once again come down to the final minutes.

Excited to see the game in person. God bless to all the coaches, fans and players who will be traveling this week!
 
Putting points on the board has been a huge issue for all but 1 team. I would be surprised if they accomplish that hurdle, early or late.
 
Nobody else will say it so I will. WFND is the true D3 caliber team here in the D3 final. This game will be very one-sided. Baytown contends solidly this season with D2 teams and would be mostly competitive with D1 teams.

This is the largest mismatch of the TAPPS championships and puts Baytown in a similar situation back to week 5 when they faced Apple Springs. I congratulate WFND for making it this far but this is not going to be a great matchup like we will see in Veritas/Rockwell. If WFND scores on Baytown's 1st team squad I would be extremely surprised.

ND is erratic and lacks the athletes to compete like they did in the 2015 state final. Not only that, turnovers will kill WFND. Baytown has not lost a district game in three seasons and are on a tear. Freddy gave a scare, they put on a clinic for Seguin and will handily take care of the state game on Thursday.
 
Mr Jones":34re8ms5 said:
Nobody else will say it so I will. WFND is the true D3 caliber team here in the D3 final. This game will be very one-sided. Baytown contends solidly this season with D2 teams and would be mostly competitive with D1 teams.

This is the largest mismatch of the TAPPS championships and puts Baytown in a similar situation back to week 5 when they faced Apple Springs. I congratulate WFND for making it this far but this is not going to be a great matchup like we will see in Veritas/Rockwell. If WFND scores on Baytown's 1st team squad I would be extremely surprised.

ND is erratic and lacks the athletes to compete like they did in the 2015 state final. Not only that, turnovers will kill WFND. Baytown has not lost a district game in three seasons and are on a tear. Freddy gave a scare, they put on a clinic for Seguin and will handily take care of the state game on Thursday.
Click to expand...

Scorched earth comment. This will definitely receive a rebuttal from ND supporters. Is it really that much of a mismatch???

ND doesn't look too bad from the highlight clips the players have posted on maxprep.
 
Dont think it is a mismatch, but do believe it will be closer than people think. Baytown should win but dont think it is a halftime game. Notre Dame has been there, Baytown hasnt. Just my opinion.

The truth will be known in a little over 24 hours!!

Good Luck to both teams.
 
The comment about "Been There" vs. "First Time There" is overrated. It really comes down to talent and preparation. For instance, the leading up to the Seguin game--the "experts" predicted that Seguin would beat Baytown by 15 pts. Those same "experts" also gave Seguin extra credit for having "been there" in that situation multiple times previously. Well, the result was a 45 pt. win for Baytown (a 60 pt. swing in the opposite direction of the experts predictions).

With all this being said, I am NOT going to make a prediction at this time. I don't want to give ND any "red meat" to chew on. However, I just wanted to squash the talk of "been there" vs. "first time there". I don't think that really makes a big difference unless the teams are evenly matched.
 
After attending the Seguin game, Notre Dame better be ready to be hit and hit hard. Those Baytown boys brought the wood last game and it was fun to watch. Good luck to both teams!
 
Baytown has too many weapons to deal with. Quick defense and a punch you in the mouth offense. I have to go with Baytown in this matchup.
 
billybobthornton":1jkemqh2 said:
Dont think it is a mismatch, but do believe it will be closer than people think. Baytown should win but dont think it is a halftime game. Notre Dame has been there, Baytown hasnt. Just my opinion.

The truth will be known in a little over 24 hours!!

Good Luck to both teams.
Click to expand...

I am not turning this into something that its not, just stating facts.

ND is 7-4 / 3-0 in one, if not the easiest of TAPPS districts. They have an offense that IMO is all over the map on what will happen. Often the QB will throw hail Mary's on first and second down looking for a play. The teams who beat them capitalized on these mistkes by making the interception. To me, the only move they have made since their last defeat was a counter punch to Granbury, which is defensively a mess. ND squeaked by a bad team in Weatherford by only 4 points! Not a strong showing. ND has a run game that is par.

Baytown is 12-0 / 4-0 with no big wins over any true powerhouses but did take care of Freddy by one and mercy ruled a personnel suffering Seguin. Conroe was overrated on this site in power rating and Baytown helped to correct the issue after the win. The beginning and latter of their schedule was blowout after blowout of sub par teams. Baytown is the pretty penny in their district. I have seen this team a few times this season including both playoff games.

I think the guys saying that this will be a decent contest need to hit the road and watch some sixman. This will be a one sided event for Baytown although I do hope for a decent game and not a slaughter. I, for the record would have rather had one D2 bracket and done away with D3. Much more competition this way.

Good luck again to these teams. See you in the stands tomorrow!
 
I have been a reader of these pages for years. I am not big on commenting but there is 1 thing is being over looked in this situation. Strength of schedule. If you look at the people Baytown has played and compare it to WFND, it doesn't compare . Baytown in the regular season played one team with a rating of higher than 270 (currently). Then as soon as they play a great coached team in Freddy,that is above 300 they "squeak" by with a 1 point win. They then get a Seguin team at 1/2 strength because of their missing players. Not trying to take anything away from baytown, but their rating is inflated by an easy regular season.

Compare that to WFND who played a tough regular season.WFND's 4 losses were to a bryson (312) team who is a consistently good as well as a consistent playoff team, a lucas christian team who was #1 in TCAF (330), a Crowell (381) team who is a state public school powerhouse playing in a state championship, as well and Granbury who they beat the second time around. Granted WFND almost lost to Weatherford, but as anyone who has actually played football knows, its hard to come out hot after 2 bye weeks back to back. (WFND had a first round buy and a bye the last week of the season.)

I, like everyone else thought Seguin would run through this playoffs and win state, ecpecially after seeing a couple of their games early on. But now i like WFND. We shouldn't be so quick to judge records, But i like underdogs. I think WFND pulls off an upset and wins by 7.
 
Final: Baytown 65, ND 54
It was a battle! Those boys from ND played a helluva game and fought their tails off! But in the end, the Dawgs completed their perfect season. The Dawgs offense was unstoppable. The Dawgs also gave up 3 turnovers--otherwise the margin would have been more in their favor. Kudos to ND--everytime it looked like Baytown was about to pull away with a 20+ lead, ND responded. They used lots of trickeration and double reverses and double passes to keep things interesting. Congrats to the BCA Dawgs on their perfect "Championship" season! Congrats on the runner-ups for giving Baytown a true test today. It was a fun ride!
 
It was a good game afterall. BC pulled away and were en route to 45 WF but the Knights responded.
WF never quit. I was very surprised by the no die attitude down to the end.

Hats off to 13-0 BCA. Although you guys thought the victory margin should have been higher, you got it done and won your first football title. Well deserved.
 
Congratulations to the Baytown Bulldogs. Very impressive athletes on both sides of the ball and worthy state champions for sure. I'm pleased you were all able to accomplish something so historic for your school and city.

I don't think I could be any more proud of my Knights even if they had pulled off the upset. They were outmatched in just about every physical category except the size of their hearts. They went the distance with the #1 team in the division, and refused to go quietly into the night.

Anyone who was surprised by this outcome doesn't know the resolve of these boys and the Notre Dame football program. These are the same people that gave them no shot in the pre-season, regular season and post season. The final score proved more than just Baytown being the well-deserved state champion. It proved that Notre Dame football is to be respected. End of story.

Great game yesterday, spectacular season Knights and see y'all next year.
 
Mr. NDKnight04:

I agree 100%. I am proud of the Bulldogs for what they accomplished but I was equally impressed with the heart and resolve of the Knights! At numerous times during the game Baytown went up by 20+ points only to see them come back to make it close again. They never gave up! They fought hard--till the last second. I believe ND could be back to the Finals for a third straight year.
 
I too would like to congratulate both teams on successful seasons. It's always nice when your team is on month 6 or 7 of football in the school year. Those hot summer two-a-days, grueling regular season schedules and heart-stopping playoff moments all seem so much more worth it when you're playing to be called the best in the state.

Congratulations to Baytown. So many on these boards were hyping other teams within the division, while the Bulldogs seemed to let their talking take place on the field.

Notre Dame, as per usual, also found their fair share of doubters all the way back to the pre-season prediction threads. They were called "down movers" and without the athletic ability of former teams. I think they proved this season that they deserve to be recognized as one of the elite programs in TAPPS 6-man. I hope one day they are able to claim a state title as well to further validate all these great seasons and the hard work of a dedicated coaching staff.

And now we wait until next season. Can't wait to see what lies ahead. Good luck, good night and God bless.
 

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