(Langham Creek VS. Abilene - Consolation Championship)

COLLEGE STATION – Six hours before Langham Creek’s state 7-on–7 tournament journey culminated in a rather unlikely fourth-place finish, one of the opponents they manhandled unwittingly described the Lobos’ entire day.

“We just got murdered from the start,” one Spring player said to another after a 44-0 loss.

Maybe the rest of the field should have listened.

One day after a tough-luck 0-3 road through pool play, the Lobos crushed two early opponents, snuck by two more and were edged 34-33 by Abilene in the consolation championship game at Kyle Field.

The Lobos’ resurgence followed a gut-check team meeting Friday night after three close losses. Results showed immediately – they smashed Wylie (41-19) and Spring (44-0) before back-to-back seven-point wins against Beaumont West Brook (33-20) and Tomball (35-28).

“Today they seem focused. Everybody’s making the big plays and we’re showing our true athleticism,” Lobos coach Kurt Juergens said. “We’re playing more as a team. We let some teams get into our head a little bit yesterday and it affected our play. Today we said let’s just get out and play ball and not worry about what the opponents say.

“We haven’t dropped very many balls and we’ve had a few picks go our way.”

The defense was sterling, especially against Spring when they recorded four interceptions of touted quarterback Kenric McNeal, a recent verbal commitment to Texas A&M.

“It’s a huge advantage when you have a defense with guys like D.J. Teasley who can make huge plays like that (two picks, including one for a touchdown),” Lobos quarterback Will Bryant said. “It’s such a confidence-booster. … We could have scored only seven points today (against Spring) and still won. …

“Today we had nothing to lose. We just went for it. Yesterday we weren’t on; it was ugly. But we stepped up today and tried to make up for our mistakes.”

Langham Creek, the only Cy-Fair ISD team to go winless Friday, lasted far longer than the district’s other two representatives.

Momentum turned in the second half of Cy-Fair’s only championship bracket game. The Bobcats, who went 3-0 Friday and won their pool, led El Paso Montwood 14-12 at halftime but two touchdowns in the last 15 minutes powered Montwood to a 25-21 win.

Cy-Fair’s Morrice Lane caught two first-half touchdown passes and Colby Goodwin added a score early in the second half to give the Bobcats a 21-12 lead.

Cy-Fair played the tournament with nine seniors and nine juniors, some of whom have little prior varsity or 7-on-7 experience.

“We lost a little momentum there and kind of got out of our element but I’m super-proud of these boys,” coach Greg Kuchar said. “They played above expectations and I’m really excited about our potential for this fall. …

“I’m really proud of guys on both sides of the ball. We spread the ball around well. It was just phenomenal.”

Cypress Falls finished 1-3 at state, losing its first Saturday game 28-8 to Beaumont West Brook.

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