The Tomball Cougars scored their first-ever win against the Magnolia West Mustangs in their homecoming game on Friday, sending the fans home happy with a 41-21 win.
Coming into this game, Tomball was 3-0 and looking for a second straight district win against a Mag West team that has struggled in district play recently suffering a bad loss to Klein Collins.
The Cougars kicked off the game with a strong drive that finished in the endzone but Mag West responded right back and this would become the theme of the first half as the Cougars and Mustangs scored on 5 of the first 6 drives of the game with a score of 21-14 before stalling out and taking that score into halftime
Coming out of half the Cougars’ defense picked up right where they left off and would only allow one late touchdown when they had a big lead and also forcing a turnover and getting multiple key stops.
The offense regained the momentum they had in the beginning of the game by scoring off of a quick stop by the defense coming out of halftime, and in total they would find the endzone three times for 20 unanswered points in the second half
The offensive onslaught of the second half was led by a strong ground attack that combined for over 320 total yards and five total touchdowns, with Oswaldo Morales running behind the powerful blocking of the dominant offensive line, with the performances of Division I recruit Miles Hagan, team captain Colby St John and senior Ryne Laws on display.
The duality of junior quarterback Jaxyn Faldyn was a shining part of this win as he recorded over 300 total yards and three total touchdowns, including an impressive 56-yard touchdown run where he successfully used his blockers and evaded and outran multiple defenders on his way to the endzone.
Defense dominated the second half of this game by constantly putting pressure on the quarterback, allowing little to no ground in the running game and winning key downs to get off the field and get the offense the ball back when they needed it. A key turning point was a redzone interception by team captain Connor Lowe to shift momentum and begin the avalanche for the Cougars
While it was a great win for the Cougars, the issue once again was being consistently at the top of their game. Through all of the first four games, there have been ups and downs and the games have seemed much closer than they should be. There has been improvement through the season but the challenge is still to finish through all four quarters and be as good as they’ve shown they can, but regardless this was a dominant win in a dominant start to the season and this team looks very dangerous approaching midseason.
Player Highlights:
#0 Oswaldo Morales: 135 rushing yards, three rushing touchdowns
#3 Jaxyn Faldyn: 159 passing yards, one passing touchdown, 158 rushing yards, two rushing touchdowns
#10 Joey Bruhn: Four catches, 31 receiving yards
#77 Miles Hagan
#88 Miles Roy: Four catches, 73 yards, one receiving touchdown
Defensive Highlights
#90 Ryan Troy
#15 Braeden Schnider
#13 Connor Lowe
