7-ON-7 UPDATE | Kilgore won two games in pool play, finished in lightning delay; set to go at 8:45 a.m. Friday (w/ VIDEOS!)
COLLEGE STATION — Summer thunderstorms still flex their muscles at times. And they did on Thursday as the Texas State 7-on-7 (Football) Tournament attempted to have pool play games.
Kilgore, the only ETBlitz.com-area team in competition here at Veterans Park, beat Austin LBJ and Bay City in a pair of close games today: one in overtime and then, after a 90-minute-plus lightning delay, the other in a game that came down to the wire.
The Bulldogs were leading a third pool game against Brownwood, 14-7, when (unsurprisingly) yet another lightning horn sounded, stopping play yet again for the entire complex. There are numerous fields here, between 12 and 15 fields, with two games being played on each field, and over three days, 128 teams will decide three state champions in 7-on-7 football; Dave Campbell’s Texas Football governs it all.
Friday’s games begin at 8:45 a.m., with Kilgore on field 4A (for anyone not here, that won’t mean much) against Columbia. If the Bulldogs win that game, they’ll face either Paris or La Marque, also on field 4A.
At 10:15, it could be a host of teams, but one of them is Hitchcock, a multi-time 7-on-7 state champion.
Friday’s format is simple: keep winning, and you keep playing.
Lose, and you’re out.
Kilgore reached the state semifinals last year.
The Bulldogs would need to win five games on Friday to win the 7-on-7 Division II state championship.
Against Austin LBJ on Thursday morning in the first game, Kilgore’s Dre’ Sanders started off a chain reaction that Austin LBJ just couldn’t stop.
Kayson Brooks made sure that reaction continued, shaking it up like a Coca-Cola. And LaKeyleon Graves? He blew the top off that thing.
Kilgore won its first game here in College Station, a 32-26 victory punctuated by Graves’ touchdown-winning catch from Brooks, set up by Sanders’s interception in the end zone moments earlier.
Kilgore and the entire tournament went into a lightning delay just after that, though, at about 11:50 a.m.
Playing for Kilgore this year are Isaiah Watters, Ja’Kalen Sheffield, Brayden Williams, Dre’ Sanders, Devin Tinney , JT Johnigan,T.K. White, Kayson Brooks, Rayshawn Williams, Deandre Thurman, David McGowan, LaKeyleon Graves, Blade Chitwood, Keifer Hunter, Kaeson Clayton, Tre’ Hutchinson, Zerele Hall), Braddox Johnson, Travis Holmes, and Quavian Mumphrey.
Here’s Dre’s interception…
And here’s the game-winner, the throw from Brooks to Graves…
Game two saw the Bulldogs top Bay City, 20-19.
Graves had two touchdown catches in that one, and J.T. Johnigan had one. And we have more video, but we’re a little limited right now due to WiFi issues because of storms.
We’ll be back tonight on our socials and here on the site with a wrap-up of the tournament’s first day, with photos by Alex Nabor, a story and more video — if the lightning allows.
