Second-Half Surge Sends Highlanders to Lone Defeat

Football season is over.

The Woodlands bowed 38-24 to Stony Point in an area round playoff game Saturday at Woodforest Stadium. It was the second consecutive season in which the Highlanders’ season was ended by the Tigers. Last year, Stony Point won 21-7.

“It’s tough,” said The Woodlands head coach Mark Schmid. “I would have liked to reciprocate for last year. But they’re a good football team. And I knew that coming in. They played great defense all year, (giving up) nine points per game. We were fortunate enough to score 24.

“I thought if we could score 21 on them we’d have a chance to win it. I never guess that offensively, they’d have the success that they had.”

Junior running back Daniel Lasco rushed for 166 yards and two touchdowns and senior quarterback Trent Eckel threw for 144 yards and a touchdown. Senior wide receiver Jonathan Wilcher compiled 107 yards on seven catches, including a 56-yard touchdown pass from Eckel that put the Highlanders in front 14-0 midway through the first quarter.

Ben Pruitt delivered a 24-yard field goal as time expired in the first half to rebuild the margin at 17-3.

But the second half belonged to the visitors.

Tigers quarterback Gus Barrera carried the ball four times in the second half, three of those went for touchdowns. Barrera ran for second-half scores covering 9, 20, and 44 yards. He rushed four times for 80 yards in the second half to finish with 102 of Stony Point’s 351 yards on the ground.

Barrera added 99 yards through the air, including a 73-yard touchdown pass that capped a 21-point third quarter as the Tigers drew even 24-24 entering the final period. His final two touchdown runs provided the only scoring in the fourth quarter.

“We couldn’t get them off the field,” Schmid said. “I think they scored every possession they had in the second half.”

The unfortunate thing about the playoffs is, no matter how many teams are in it, only one team will end the season with a win. Everybody else ends the season with a loss.

“Tonight was our time,” Schmid said.

The Woodlands High School football team had a good run. Obviously not as long as it had hoped for, but a good one nonetheless. The 2009 Highlanders made history in being just the third-ever to go through the season undefeated.

It will take some time for the Highlanders to realize how special their 11-1 season really was. Only once in school history, the 2003 run to the state finals, has a team won more games in a single season.

“It’s a great group of kids and I enjoyed coaching them,” Schmid said. “They’ve done some amazing things this football season. They played as a team, had great chemistry, they all supported each other.

“You just hate to go out with a loss. But I couldn’t be prouder of these kids and the effort that they made.”

Schmid put the season into perspective. “It’s like I told the kids, unfortunately the only loss we have this football season happened tonight,” he said. “It happened in the playoffs and our football life is over with.

“But all season long we have risen to many, many challenges and we have come away with wins. The kids have fought. Tonight didn’t happen. But along the way in all those wins, they became a very, very good football team and I’m very proud of them.”