Football playoffs: Deja Vu for The Woodlands

THE WOODLANDS, Texas – The 2012 playoff journey has begun for The Woodlands High School football team and the Highlanders are taking a similar road as last season, a run that lasted all the way to the Region II-5A finals.

The Highlanders (8-3) are hoping for similar results again when they take on Round Rock Westwood (8-3) at 1 p.m. Saturday in an area round playoff game at Floyd Casey Stadium on the campus of Baylor University in Waco.

The two teams met in the area round last season at the same site with The Woodlands coming up with a 21-14 victory in the first-ever meeting between the two schools. And like last year, the Highlanders opened the 2012 playoffs with a victory over Klein Collins.

Will history repeat itself? For that to happen, the Highlanders defense will have to clamp down on the Warriors’ combination of quarterback Bear Fenimore and running back Ty Marshall.

Fenimore has thrown for 1,150 yards (133-215-2) and four touchdowns while Marshall has rushed for 15 touchdowns and is Fenimore’s favorite target. Marshall has piled up 822 receiving yards and six touchdowns on 99 pass receptions.

But the Warriors’ real strength is its defense. Only twice has it allowed more than two touchdowns in any one game. Westwood defense allows just 11 points per game over the last eight, including last week’s 31-10 bi-district playoff victory over Del Valle. It also held opposing offenses to 14 points or fewer in seven games this season.

By contrast, The Woodlands scored a school playoff-record 66 points last week in its bi-district playoff victory over Klein Collins. It was the most points scored by a Highlanders team since posting 76 on New Caney during the 1986 regular season.

The Highlanders have averaged 53 points over their last five games and scored 42 points or more in seven of 11 games this season.

Senior quarterback Blaine Gillespie has blossomed after an injury sidelined him earlier in the season, and running back Patrick Carr has been sensational in his sophomore season. Both have accumulated right at 2,000 yards of offense.

Saturday’s game will offer the classic matchup of good defense against good offense.