10-18-24 Joshua
It’s Homecoming weekend at Highland Park and the headline event will be the Scots hosting the Joshua Owls Friday night at Highlander Stadium.
Loyal reader Johnny Bergen is excited about the game because he remembers when the Owls were the defending state champs and rolled into Highlander Stadium back in 1964. The Scots beat the mighty Owls who still went on to win the state championship for the second year in a row. Bergen is right about the Owls but he got the town wrong. This Friday HP plays the Joshua Owls. Bergen remembers the Garland Owls.
I can understand the confusion.
Speaking of the Garland Owls, Randy Allen’s first game at Highland Park was the season opener against the Owls in 1999. The Scots won the electrifying game on a Marshall Smith pass into the east end zone as time was expiring. Not only did the game serve as a premonition of the Scots’ future success, it turned out to be a premonition for the Owls, who went on the win the 1999 state championship 35 years after they won the 1964 title. Both of the Owls state championships came after losing to the Scots.
But let’s get back to Joshua.
Joshua is located in Johnson County, an hour southeast of Dallas. The Owls fly into Highlander Stadium this Friday with a 4-3 record. Texas Football magazine picked them to finish last in district 7-5A but they started the season 4-0. They beat Springtown (21-20), Irving MacArthur (28-0), Greenville (42-10) and Elk City (42-0).
Then 7-5A happened. The Owls were competitive in their first three district games but lost to Midlothian (26-10), Tyler (24-7) and Red Oak (21-14). The Red Oak game is the one to focus on. The Scots beat the Hawks the week before, 32-14, but it was a 14-7 game going into the second half. The Owls were ahead of the Hawks, 14-7, at the half last Friday. The takeaway is that for a half, Red Oak played the Scots and the Owls even. What would happen if the Owls strung together two good halves?
Joshua is a running team. They rarely pass. They can beat passing teams by stringing together first downs by gaining three or four yards per snap. It’s not exciting but it eats up the clock and keeps high-octane offenses on the sidelines. You can’t score when you don’t have the ball. This type of triple-option offense is especially strong late in the fourth quarter when the game is close. You don’t see very many football teams still running this type of ground assault but the United States Service Academies do and they do it well.
Oct. 4 was Daniel Turner Night when the Scots defeated Red Oak. Turner was all over the field and he not only tackled a Red Oak player in the end zone for a safety, but he came down with his first interception. The Scots defense played a great game against a solid Red Oak offense. Defensive end Thomas Cook created a safety, Jonathan Boyanovsky intercepted a tipped pass, Jack Morse got a fumble recovery. Holding the Hawks to 14 points was a nice accomplishment.
HP quarterback Buck Randall completed 12 of 30 passes for 234 yards and three touchdowns. Paxton Smith, James Lancaster and Brandon Lilly each caught a TD pass. The HP offense gained 349 yards of total offense.
Analytics will tell us that if the Scots beat the Owls, then the Owls will go on to win the state championship. But the analytics experts need to understand that the Garland Owls and Joshua Owls are two different teams. My personal analytics expert, Johnny Bergen, tells me that the game this Friday better not be close near the end of fourth quarter. If it is, the Owls ground game could score and then ultimately run out the clock.