WHAT’S CAUSING ALL THIS? | Kilgore-LC-M dustup was ridiculous; if history means anything, look out, Sanger

Since the arrival of coach Scott Surratt in 2007, Carthage has played 291 games, by my count. And I could be wrong (math wasn’t my strong suit; has never been). But I have coach Surratt at 260-31 at Carthage.

The man had won three state titles (IN A ROW) and had a record of 53-7 after just his first four seasons there).

Now, all these years later, the Bulldogs have won 10 straight titles, they’re actively pursuing No. 11, his son is at quarterback and is pulling the trigger on one of the state’s most impressive offenses, he’s got not one but two running backs in the backfield that any team in the state would love to have (and same thing at receiver), a tight end that doubles as a nasty linebacker, a fierce linebacker that’ll rip your head off roaming around out there, and a good secondary, too.

It’s ridiculous. It’s just flat-out ridiculous and I’ll tell you what: Pittsburg found it out this past week, and Sanger finds out this week, at 7 p.m. on Friday night at City Bank Stadium in Forney. That’s when the Bulldogs (11-0) play their area, or second, round game.

Sanger is 8-3 on the season, and comes in having won three straight games, most recently against Quinlan Ford (31-20) in round one. And Sanger, the Indians, is known for scoring points. A LOT of points. If what I’m looking at is correct, they’ve gone over the 60-point mark in SIX games this season (63-6 in a win over Bonham; 73-23 against Van Alstyne; 62-26 against Community; 60-42 against Gunter; 80-22 over Gainesville; and 91-56 over Farmersville).

We’ll look at the numbers a little closer when we do a preview, but Sanger’s quarterback, Reed Sebastian – he’s got good, solid numbers, but they don’t look just out of whack great: 144-of-190 for 2,248 yards, 23 touchdowns and 6 interceptions. I mean those are very good numbers. Let’s look at Jett Surratt’s numbers: 177-of-244, 2,719 (similar), 38 touchdowns (much better), five interceptions. Again, similar. So both, very, very good, not nutso-video game numbers.

We’ll come back to numbers later.

Here’s a number: 8-2.

That was the record this past week for teams in the ETBlitz.com coverage area in playoff games.

We wish West Rusk and Gilmer would also have won; then all of the teams in our coverage area would have gotten through to round two.

Kilgore-Little Cypress-Mauriceville: Here’s the elephant in the room, and the reason a lot of you are reading this column today, so let’s get to it.

Before we go ANY FARTHER, I want to make it clear that the opinions in this column are MINE. I in no way represent Kilgore High School, the Kilgore Bulldogs football program, coach Clint Fuller, any of the Kilgore Bulldogs football assistant coaches, the players, the trainers, the Gatorade or Powerade cups, the buses, the little black pellets on the turf at R.E. St. John Memorial Stadium, or anything else. Clear?

That being said, here we go. I’m about to turn it loose. Are y’all ready?

For those of you who missed Kilgore’s home playoff game Friday night against pitiful Little Cypress-Mauriceville – and they were pitiful, and I mean that – LC-M decided they didn’t want to play football. They wanted to scuffle. They appeared to have came to the game wearing their fighting shoes.

For much of the game, after every other play, LC-M wanted to push and shove. And after one play in the first half, where their backs were against their own end zone, a fumble recovered by Kilgore defensive end Cameron Christian for a Kilgore touchdown that made it 39-0 (and it felt like a GAZILLION to zero) was apparently the straw that broke the camel’s back.

Pushing and shoving led to an escalation under the goalposts closest to the concession stand, and I want to make this clear: LC-M players CAME OFF THE SIDELINES and ONTO THE PLAYING SURFACE to get involved. Officials – who were from the Houston chapter, and I’m gonna name them in just a few, were trying to break things up to their credit, and did so eventually.

They made some ejections from both sides and on we went. Extra point was kicked and the game continued.

Here’s where I get upset with things.

LC-M is down by 40, then 47, and more. The Bears have NO playoff future. And they knew it. And they continued to provoke, knowing that Kilgore was advancing on into the postseason. The officials – again, FROM THE HOUSTON CHAPTER, close to the LC-M area and with a Houston-area opponent coming for Kilgore next week – allowed this and CONTINUED TO EJECT Kilgore players from the game, giving a competitive advantage to Kilgore’s next opponent in the second round.

In my opinion: GARBAGE. Just really, really horrible, a bad look.

What would I have done differently?

Well, I don’t know. I’m not a University Interscholastic League board member, not a licensed official with the UIL. I know I wouldn’t have freakin’ done it that way. There were so many thumbs thrown they looked like they were hitch-hiking.

The referee was Matt Levin. The umpire was Benjamin Trimmer. The head line judge was Robert Nolan. The line judge was Mark Klecka. The back judge was Curtis Cooper. The side judge was Jessee Wayne Pratt (yes, that’s how I have his first name spelled). The field judge was Thermyn King-Jones.

Let me be clear: I’m not alleging any money changed hands or anything at all of that sort, nothing like that. I’m simply saying there were judgment calls made that could’ve been better. I think Kilgore was done a disservice here, given that they were sure to be playing a Houston area opponent this coming week (as it turned out, the Bulldogs are playing Stafford at Yates Stadium in the Houston area on Friday, and the officials? They’re set by the UIL).

Do the players who were ejected bear some responsibility here? Yes! Of course they do! I’m not arguing against that. But it certainly seemed like it became an LC-M strategy, particularly in the second half.

We’ll have more on all the games and where everyone is playing shortly on ETBlitz.com – hope y’all have a great Sunday.