During last summer and off season, the Eisenhower (8-3) football team decided one of their goals would be to make the playoffs.

              In the bi-district round of the playoffs, Cypress Ridge defeated Elsik 35-7 for its first-ever playoff victory Saturday afternoon at the Berry Center.

            Lamar's first touchdown Saturday caught even some of the Redskins off-guard. They woke up in enough time, though, to extend their season long enough to see the team that ended it last year. Ryan Smith recovered a fumble in the end zone for a touchdown in the first quarter, and Lamar steadily extended its lead in the final three periods to ease by Aldine 42-20 in a 5A-Region III bi-district game at Delmar Stadium. Craft ran for 157 yards and two touchdowns and Kalvin Guyton added 140 yards and another score to advance the Redskins (10-1) into a second-round game next weekend against Cy-Fair. After the two teams traded scoreless possessions to start the game, Aldine (4-7) took over at its own 18.

             Stratford made a 19-year wait seem worthwhile Friday night. Playing their first home playoff game since 1988, the Spartans routed Chavez 38-7 in a 5A-Region III bi-district game at Tully Stadium. Stratford (8-3) coach Elliot Allen suited up 101 players ready and willing to play long and hard.

    After dropping its last two regular-season games, Pasadena Memorial was looking to regain a taste of its earlier success Friday night against Baytown Lee in a 5A-Region III bi-district playoff game.

    Challenger Football is a local organization founded in 2006 by West University Little League's Challenger Baseball division.

    Former NFL player Perry Williams was in Houston this week speaking to Aldine High School and Thornton Middle School football teams.   Williams played 11 years with the New York Giants and played a role in their two Super Bowl victories.

        Four Houston-area selections for the U.S.

  A look at this weekend’s bi-district playoff games for Districts 17- and 18-5A and the picks of staff writers Dave Purpura and Ahmard Vital:   DIVISION I Cinco Ranch (5-5) vs.

  A look at this weekend’s bi-district playoff games for Districts 19- and 20-5A and the picks of staff writers Ahmard Vital and Dave Purpura. Games for districts 17- and 18-5A will be previewed Wednesday: Stratford (7-3) vs.

      Three area football teams took time out of their preparation for the playoffs to join The Athlete’s Connection Tuesday night for the Katy ISD Playoff Preview Coaches Show.

{mp3}FBMortonRanch{/mp3}      For some football teams, a victory is just another win.

{mp3}Dave Elsik FB 20071113{/mp3}   University of Texas-bound running back Jeremy Hills helped save Elsik’s season Saturday, and not just by scoring two fourth-quarter touchdowns. Asked for his most memorable moment in an up-and-down year that isn’t over, he mentioned a block that allowed quarterback Anthony Robinson to complete a 60-yard pass to Derell Smith on third-and-7 to set up a Hills touchdown. “It’s just looking at stuff like that; I go ‘Wow, I threw a block like that?,’ ” Hills said.

Elsik's offense stood tall Saturday, overcoming Katy Taylor in the final minutes of a 25-21 victory at Rhodes Stadium to secure the Rams' first playoff berth since 2003.Now they'll see another set of Rams who have operated on high octane all season.Elsik's game against Cypress Ridge is one of several next weekend for area teams in the bi-district round of the state playoffs.Powered by phenomenal junior quarterback Russell Shepard, who has thrown for 695 yards and seven touchdowns and rushed for another 1,105 yards and 15 scores, Cy Ridge (9-1) averaged 36.9 points a game.

      Memorial turned in a defensive effort to remember Saturday afternoon at Tully Stadium, holding Stratford scoreless until the last minute of a 21-7 victory.

               Elsik’s playoff drought ended Saturday afternoon at Rhodes Stadium.

       With its sometimes-flashy offense locked in a blue-collar battle with MacArthur on Saturday afternoon, some pressure fell on Eisenhower's special teams and an always-workmanlike defense to make a big play or two. They did, ensuring the Eagles an undefeated district championship. Quarterback Kenneth Guiton threw for one touchdown and ran for another, and Darius Willis' interception with 19 seconds left sealed the Eagles a 24-21 victory in a District 19-5A game at Thorne Stadium.

       Coming into Saturday’s match up against Cy-Fair, the Cypress Ridge football team knew they would have at least a piece of the district championship and a playoff spot.

      The Aldine Mustangs clinched a playoff berth Friday night, soundly defeating Nimitz 38-14 at Thorne Stadium and reserving a spot in the bi-district playoffs next weekend. With the trip to the playoffs hanging in the balance Aldine came out ready to finally live up to their potential.

      Teams have been working all season to secure their playoff spot and Friday night at Crump Stadium the Cinco Ranch Cougars did just that with a 30-20 win over the Hastings Bears.

          The Katy football team bulldozed its way to a three-score lead against Mayde Creek in the second quarter Friday night at Rhodes Stadium, but the throng that calls itself “Katy Nation” was anything but comfortable.So playing as if they smelled blood, the Tigers crushed any lingering Rams’ hopes with two touchdowns in the final two minutes of the half and two more in the first 2 minutes, 19 seconds of the first quarter to cruise to a 63-3 win.Katy secured its third straight 10-0 regular season and eighth since 1984.

       B.F.

   A substantial portion of Andrew Luck's 6.5 grade-point average comes from his love of history, so the Stratford quarterback was well aware he is the latest in a long line of Spartan athletes recognized for their academic work.He was somewhat surprised to be named the Greater Houston Football Scholar-Athlete of the Year Wednesday, but it didn't show as the affable Stanford commitment charmed the crowd and dozens of well-wishers during and after a Touchdown Club of Houston luncheon at the JW Marriott Ballroom."It's a great honor.

{mp3}AOW 20071106{/mp3}   Time and again Friday night, Cypress Creek quarterback Jacob Thompson made something out of what appeared to be nothing – even to him.To hear Thompson tell the tale, many of his eye-popping 600 yards of total offense in a 63-62 loss to Cy-Fair came on broken plays.

The Athlete’s Connection Football Podcast has your Week 9 wrap up and your Week 10 preview, with all your playoff contenders.

          Stratford built a 28-point halftime lead over Nimitz Saturday night, then had to survive a furious Cougar 28-point second-half rally to win 42-35 at Thorne Stadium. The Spartans (7-2 overall, 5-1 district) clinched a playoff berth, staying second in District 19-5A, one game behind Eisenhower. The game was a tale of two halves as Stratford’s Andrew Luck and Rodney Anderson and the Spartan defense could do no wrong in the first two quarters   Luck threw for more than 150 yards and had touchdown passes to Ben Bredthauer and B.J.

    With one week of district play to go and the playoffs in sight, Mayde Creek hosted and defeated Alief Taylor 27-20 Saturday night at Rhodes Stadium.

           The MacArthur Generals amassed 417 yards of offense and crushed the Northbrook Raiders 47-27 in a District 19-5A game Saturday night at Tully Stadium.

              The Katy Taylor football team has a chance to match its 5-5 record from a year ago, but if it does, quarterback Phillip Supernaw said, the atmosphere might be a 180-degree turnaround from 2006.

    Just shy of 11 p.m.

 Channelview created a logjam in District 21-5A Friday night, defeating Baytown Lee 23-8 and joining Lee and two other teams with 3-3 district records.The Ganders came into the contest with their top two quarterbacks sidelined with injuries and two of their tops running backs on crutches with broken legs.The Falcons came out throwing as quarterback Garrett Beal hooked up with Zachary Loudd for an 80-yard touchdown pass midway through the first quarter.

    Eisenhower fans packed the home side stands at Thorne Stadium Friday night to see if their District 19-5A-leading Eagles could maintain their unbeaten district record and bring home a championship.  Ike fans didn’t leave disappointed as the high-flying Eagles dismantled Aldine 49-14.

    Even though the Cypress Ridge football team had the ball only 26 times in Friday's game against Strake Jesuit, it was obvious they made the most of the situation.

            Friday night was the kind of game Memorial has been waiting for all year.

       Katy, Texas’ No.

    The North Shore Mustangs score like the New England Patriots, but they’re glad to credit Thursday night’s 52-31 win at Pasadena Memorial to a handful of second-half defensive stops. In a District 22-5A game featuring 818 yards of offense, North Shore’s Deaundre Jones ran 55 yards for a touchdown on the first play of the second half and the Mustangs proceeded to keep the previously undefeated Mavericks in check, improving to 9-0, 6-0 and sending Pasadena Memorial to its first loss (8-1, 5-1). “In the first half they converted third-downs and a fourth.

At first, Wade Lytal thought he was going to vomit. The Trinity University offensive lineman and Memorial High School product misjudged his reaction, just like virtually anyone would have misread how the Tigers’ game at Millsaps College would end Saturday. Lytal was on the field for one of the wildest moments in college football history, a 15-lateral play ending in a Riley Curry touchdown that lifted Trinity to a 28-24 victory in Jackson, Miss. “I saw Riley (a Fort Bend Clements graduate) run into the end zone and I thought ‘we’re gonna score,’ ” Lytal said Monday afternoon from Trinity, in San Antonio.

        Saturday night’s match-up was both District 18-5A’s Rams butting heads for the win in week 5.

        Strake Jesuit quarterback Jeff McVaney was nearly perfect through the air and had a part in all of the Crusaders’ scores en route to a 34-12 victory over Cypress Creek at the Berry Center Saturday night. “We felt like we played really well, especially in the first half,” Strake Jesuit coach Ron Counter said.

  The Aldine Mustangs took the field more ferociously Saturday night than ever this season as they took on the Memorial Mustangs.

            Even though they are undefeated and have not lost a district football game since the mid-1990s, Katy still, from time to time, thinks it has something to prove. Saturday afternoon, in front of a packed Rhodes Stadium crowd and regional television audience, the Tigers played what they considered their best all-around game of the year, crushing crosstown rival Cinco Ranch 38-9 in a District 18-5A game; clinching a playoff spot. The Tigers (8-0, 5-0), ranked No.

              The Humble Wildcats struggled early Friday night but their defense was strong enough to defeat the Baytown Lee Ganders 21-12 in a District 21-5A game at Turner Stadium.

            After last week's three-point loss to Hastings, Katy Taylor entered Friday night hungry for a win against Morton Ranch.

  The confetti, balloons and controlled bedlam as St.

                  Cy-Fair’s offense controlled the ball against Cypress Springs Friday night, scoring 38 points in the first half en route to a 44-14 District 17-5A win.

                The Stratford Spartans extended their district record to 4-1 with a 48-20 Homecoming win over the Northbrook Raiders on Friday night.   A one-point difference at the end of the first quarter looked like it would be close game but the Spartans put that thought to rest scoring 31 unanswered points.

        The Cy Falls Golden Eagles rode the arm of quarterback Kolby Gray and their vaunted receiving core for a 56-14 victory over the Langham Creek Lobos Friday night. It didn’t take the crowd at Berry Center long to see why the Golden Eagles quarterback is ranked among area passers and his favorite receivers Darius Bolden, Denzel Wells, and Blake Shaw are among the area’s biggest gainers in reception yards.  The Eagles took two plays and 38 seconds to get on the board when Gray lofted a 65-yard pass to Wells who outraced Lobo defenders to the end zone.  The Lobos Obinna Akujuobi and the rest of the Lobo defense had its hands full early trying to corral Gray and his receivers as well as running back Shane Turner.  By the half, the Golden Eagles had scored six touchdowns, three in each quarter and four through the air.  Meanwhile, their defense stymied Max Jenkins and the Langham Creek offense, although the Lobos did manage to put together back-to-back touchdowns midway through the second quarter.  All total, Cy Falls tallied 473 yards passing en route to its fifth game in which it scored 45 points or better.  The Golden Eagles had 607 total yards in the contest, adding 134 on the ground.  Gray spread the wealth around, too, tossing the 65-yard scoring pass to Wells, a nine-yard pass into the end zone to Bolden, and two TD passes to Shaw, one for five yards, the other from 49 yards out.  The other two scores in the first half came on option pitches to Shane Turner, who rushed for 100 yards for the night, giving Obinna Akujuobi and the rest of the Lobo defenders fits. The Lobos added their scores in the second quarter on touchdown passes from Jenkins to Cortez Paige, one from nine yards out, the other on a 35-yard bomb to trim the lead to 21.  Jenkins had 181 yards passing on the night, while running back Kyron Lee had 47 yards on the ground.