Pretty crazy result between Conroe Covenant and Pasadena First Baptist. Went from Pasadena 45ing Conroe a month ago to a 12 point Covenant win tonight. Witnessed both games and tonight looked like it was going to be similar to the first meeting. Pasadena goes up 40-22 halfway through the 2nd and it looks like Covenant might be starting to fold. They scored to cut it to 10 with 1:30 in the half. Pasadena then throws a pick on their next offensive play which led to a Covenant TD as time expired at the half. All the sudden, its 40-38 with Covenant getting the ball first in the 2nd half.
Both defenses came out strong in the 3rd though. There was something like 5-6 possessions in a row with no scores. Covenant eventually scored to take the lead and ultimately never gave it up, despite a crazy 4th quarter that included the teams giving up back to back onside kick return touchdowns.
Conroe had a pretty good plan for slowing down First Baptist's run game, which has one of the best blocking schemes I've ever seen. It relies largely on trapping, but Covenant's defensive shell seemed to take away a lot of the angles that come from those trap plays. Most of Pasadena's explosive offensive plays came from play action boots, but once the explosive running plays were bottled up, they seemed to struggle in changing up offensive philosophy. They had their moments of course in what was a wildly fun game, but Covenant came out on top this go-around.
Not only was this a district rematch, but it was also a semi-final rematch from last year. Playing a team four times in two years is always interesting, but it was hard to imagine Conroe sticking around in this one. Seems like the other side of the bracket had some unexpected results as well, so very excited to watch Conroe and Abilene at State. If memory serves, seems like Abilene Christian has won it a couple times, but I know this is Covenant's first State Championship game. Word is that they are moving to 11-man next year, so seems like this is their last shot after perennially being in the playoffs for a decade.