Laredo United
September 8, 1967: Laredo
Judson, having finally gotten its 1A Rocket Program off the ground in 1966, was looking go where no Rocket Program had gone before. Hence, Judson took its mobile Rocket launcher to Laredo for the first time and had a supremely successful liftoff. Kenny Venuto got things going early when, in the opening period, he carried for five (5) yards and the score to put the Rockets up 6-0. The PAT, however, was blocked. In the 2nd Quarter, the Rockets quickly jettisoned their 1st-stage and used their second-stage sustainer engine to go the final distance into orbit by scoring 22 points, as listed below:

• Venuto on a 2-yard plunge to cap a 63-yard drive, supplemented by his conversion run for two (2) points
• QB Larry Tauch on a 21-yard rollout and keeper, supplemented once more by a Venuto run for two (2)
• Venuto for five (5) yards to successfully conclude a 71-yard drive and finish the scoring for the day.

The Rockets, on a very hot sustainer engine, got into orbit and BECO (Booster Engine Cutoff) and preceded from there and through the 2nd Half to work on some Defensive tests to see if they could maintain the goose-egg. That test was also successful, and the Longhorns' deepest penetration into Judson territory came only because they recovered a Rocket fumble at the 35-yard line.

Southside
September 15, 1967: Cardinal Field
Once in orbit the Rockets were slow establishing an acceptable Passive Thermal Roll, which caused their offensive Orbital Maneuvering Thrusters to freeze up and perform very sluggishly in this meeting with the Cardinals. The Rockets got on the board in the 1st Quarter when Tauch hit Venuto with a 12-yard pass and the TD. The run for two (2) points was unsuccessful. The score, however, remained 6-0 until early in the final period when the Cardinals' Jesse Barajas recovered a Judson fumble at the Rocket 1-yard line. On the next play, David Lucas punched in from there, but the Cards suffered the same fate as the Rockets on the 2-point play, and the score was knotted at 6. Judson moved the chains only six (6) times, and the Cardinals got only four (4) First Downs. The Rockets only got 148 yards on the ground and 17 through the air, but Southside only got 104 and five (5), respectively. A key determinant was turnovers: The Rockets experienced one (1) INT and lost three (3) fumbles, one (1) of them supremely costly. The Cardinals, however, didn't do much better. Although the experienced no INT's, the Rockets snapped up four (4) fumbles

Medina Valley
September 29, 1967: Converse
The infamous Hurricane Beulah blew ashore and did her damage in South Texas and, a day late and in Lytle instead as originally planned in Converse, the Rockets blew away the Pirates on September 23 to fully throttle up their offensive Rocket thrusters and come away with a 35-0 verdict, thus atoning for the scoreless tie in 1966. The Rockets returned to Converse for their next redemptive endeavor: Atoning for their only District 30-A loss in 1966. The first Quarter in their meeting with the Panthers was scoreless, but early in the second period Mike Jaksik went in from a yard out and Jimbo Masters drilled the PAT to put the Rockets up 7-0. The Panthers came back growling by returning the ensuing kickoff 85 yards for the TD. Louis Hart nailed the PAT and the score was knotted at 7. Jimbo Masters put the Rockets in the lead to stay when he split the uprights with a 25-yard FG with ~four (4) minutes left in the 1st Half. The 2nd Half belonged exclusively to the Rockets, as Venuto scored twice---once on a 32-yard dash and then on a 4-yard run, with Masters providing the PAT following Venuto's first score. A pass for two (2) points following the final Rocket TD of the day was no good.

Castroville St. Louis
October 6, 1967: Medina Valley Stadium, Castroville
Early in the 21st Century, unmanned probes successfully rendezvoused with a comet and dissected portions of it. In 1967, however, Judson, endeavoring to advance the state of its Rocket Science, went to Castroville and thoroughly dissected the St. Louis Comets.

In the 1st Half:

• Rodney Reinhard snatched up a blocked punt and returned it 20 yards to paydirt, and Masters thereafter drilled the PAT.
• Venuto punched in from a yard out and then again from four (4) yards out to give the Rockets a 19-0 lead at Halftime.

In the 3rd period, Barry Tauch hit up Gary Kinard for a 14-yard pass and the score, he thereafter hooked up with Venuto for a 52-yard pass play and six (6) more, and Masters was good on both PAT's. In the 4th Quarter Mike Jaksik took it in from 12 yards out, and Clayton Irey connected with Masters for two (2) points

Bandera
October 13, 1967: Bandera
The Rocket Flight Crew went after the Bulldogs with a rolled up newspaper and caused the winless dogs to clinch a losing season outright

In the 1st Quarter:

• Venuto zipped in for a 32-yard TD
• Alfred Andreoli took off on a 20-yard draw play to provide another six (6) for the Rockets; and
• Masters nailed the two (2) concomitant PAT's

In the second period, Masters took it in and drilled the PAT once more, thus giving the Rockets a 21-0 advantage at the Half.

In the penultimate period, Masters got a 10-yard TD run on an end-around play, Jaksik followed suit from the 18-yard line, and thereafter Venuto ran it in to pick up two (2) additional points for the Rockets. Then, in the 4th Quarter Irey scored two (2) TD's----one (1) coming on a 17-yard dash, one (1) coming from 13 yards away. Masters also provided one (1) additional PAT.

Comfort
October 20, 1967: Converse
The Rockets took a 14-0 lead into Halftime by virtue of:

• Mike Jaksik's 2-yard run in the opening period
• Venuto's 1-yarder in the 2nd Quarter; and,
• Masters' two (2) successful PAT's

The Bobcats got rather sassy to start the 2nd Half, forcing the Rockets to punt for the only time of the day. The cats then engineered a 70-yard drive that John Goforth finished off with a 2-yard run for the score. The try for two (2) points, however, was unsuccessful, and the Rockets still had the advantage at 14-6. The Rockets got untracked thereafter, engineering a 60-yard drive that Venuto finished off with a 4-yard run to give the Rockets a 20-6 lead entering the final period. In the 4th Quarter:

• QB Tauch kept the ball and zipped in from 13 yards out
• Venuto took off for a 64-yard dash, which Masters followed up with still one (1) more of his patented PAT's

Marble Falls
October 27, 1967: Converse

The Rockets got on the board in the 1st Quarter when Alfred Andreoli took a reverse in from two (2) yards out to cap a 70-yard drive, and Masters converted on the PAT. Later in the 1st, Venuto slid off tackle and completed a 47-yard sprint for paydirt, although the PAT was blocked. In the 3rd Quarter, Jaksik took off on a 58-yard foot race to extend the Rocket advantage to 19-0. The score remained so once the PAT was dead on arrival as a result of a bad snap from center. Once again, the Rocket Defense put in a stellar performance, with Jimbo Masters hauling in three (3) INT's and David Farley, Gary Kinard and Mike Graff doing yeoman service.

Johnson City
November 3, 1967: Johnson City
The Rockets jumped out to a 14-0 lead by virtue of

• A 42-yard pass play from Barry Tauch to Kenny Venuto
• Venuto's 27-yard dash
• Masters' pass reception from Tauch for two (2) points

In the 2nd Quarter, Paul Lindig scored for the Eagles from a yard out following a Rocket fumble, and the 14-6 score stood up through the intermission. In the third period Mike Jaksik increased the Rocket advantage by punching in from three (3) yards out. In the final Quarter

• Tauch hit Masters for an 18-yard scoring toss
• Venuto took off on a 70-yard sprint for another Rocket score
• Masters hauled in two (2) passes for four (4) points worth of conversions, one (1) of which was launched by Tauch and one (1) that was sent in from Freshman Clayton Irey.

All told, this pushed the score to 36-6, although the Eagles got two (2) garbage-time TD's to narrow the gap.

Venuto finished with 207 ground yards for the day, and this pushed his season total to 1050

Sabinal
November 10, 1967: Sabinal
Once again, the Yellowjackets entered the matchup with the Rockets at 9-0. This time, however, they had an offensive juggernaut, averaging over 40 points a game. The Rockets, on the other hand, entered with an 8-0-1 record but, more importantly, an unblemished record in District 30-A. In addition to a sterling Defense, the Rockets also had an improved Offense this time. Nevertheless, the Jackets once more seemed to have the edge on the Rockets, given their offensive numbers turned in by James Hargreaves and Bill Bales, and the fact that with an offensive output like they had, it usually becomes more difficult for a really good defense to maintain goose-eggs, because frequently the only way to get a game over with is to let the clock run by letting the other team move the ball and eventually pick up in many cases "garbage time" scores. The Jacket Defense, in other words, was just as good as in 1966. The Judson Rockets, nevertheless, perhaps once again had a certain amount of developing US Space History on their side. Approximately 38 hours earlier, NASA successfully launched the unmanned Apollo 4 in the first test of its Saturn V Moon Rocket. The test sent the Command Module to an apogee of a little over 10000 miles, and about ten (10) hours later the spacecraft splashed down to conclude the first-ever "all-up" test of a new American space vehicle. Meanwhile in Texas, Judson was about to conclude the fourth and final year of its Class 1A Rocket Program and was looking to go out with a bang and probe new heights in a prospective post-season. But first, they had to avoid being stung by the Yellowjackets on a soggy field in Sabinal.

The Rockets were able to neutralize the Jackets’ ground threat, but the Jackets went to the air instead and had a fair amount of success with it. The opening period was scoreless, but in the 2nd period the Jackets appeared to have taken the lead on an aerial hookup from QB Dusty Parker to Tommy Foster. An apparent offside call, however, nullified the score. The Jackets then missed on a 30-yard FG attempt. All told it caused the 1st Half to end in a scoreless tie.

In the 3rd Quarter, the Rockets were finally able to mount their only serious drive of the day. The major pickup in the 70-yard drive came on Ken Venuto’s 26-yard gainer. The drive was aided by a 15-yard piling- on call against the Jackets that moved the ball from the Jacket 30 down to their 15. It nevertheless took the Rockets six (6) plays to get in from there, which came when Mike Jaksik punched in from one (1) yard out. Jimbo Masters drilled the PAT, and the Rockets had a 7-0 lead. The Rockets, spurred on defensively by Arthur and Alfred Andreoli, Mike Graff, David Farley and Gary Tschoepe, continued to neutralize the Jackets’ ground combo of Hargreaves and Bales, but finally, with the game going critical in the waning minutes of the final period and the Jackets facing 3rd and 8 from their own 30-yard line, Dusty Parker put the ball up, and Tommy Foster, with a Rocket defender immediately in front of him and prepared to get the INT, snatched the ball away and took off for the endzone to close the gap to 7-6 with just over two (2) minutes to go. At the time, the Jackets were ahead 2-1 on penetrations, but they nevertheless chose to go for the win instead. The Jackets called a timeout to settle everyone---the crowd included---down a little bit, and then attempted the pass for two (2) points. It came up incomplete, and the roles were reversed with the Jackets reduced to stunned silence and the people dressed in red going ape instead. The Jackets used some superior clock management by using their remaining timeouts and moving the Rockets backward on their impending series, the Jackets got one (1) final shot on offense but to no avail, and the Rockets picked up a "GO" for the postseason.

Semifinals
Clifton 20 Seagraves 0
Tidehaven 6 Rogers 0
Final
Tidehaven 7 Clifton 6

Stockdale
November 17, 1967: Matador Stadium, Seguin
Once more, the Rockets had the Brahmas in Seguin for the opening round of the playoffs. This time, the Brahmas entered with a perfect 9-0 record. The 3500 witnesses on-hand were treated to a sterling defensive-oriented struggle. The Rockets drew first blood with a 26-yard FG by Jimbo Masters at the 5:28 mark of the 1st Quarter, which concluded a 76-yard drive spearheaded largely by Mike Jaksik. Following the concomitant kickoff, the Brahmas moved down to the Rocket 17-yard line, but Jerry Korzekwa’s FG fell short and the Rockets still led 3-0. With time running down in the 1st Half, the Brahmas mounted a 94-yard drive. Two (2) integral pickups were by Bill Fatheree---one (1) that went for 21 yards, and one (1) that went for 23 yards that set the Brahmas up at the Rocket 1-yard line. Two (2) plays later, Fatheree crashed in for the score, and Stockdale was up 6-3 at the Half. In the penultimate period, the Brahmas threatened at the Rockets’ 2-yard line with 1st-and-goal, but could only get as far as the 1-yard line. Later in the 3rd Quarter the Rockets, aided by pass completions by Barry Tauch, reached the Brahma 25-yard line, but on 4th Down Tauch, attempting to pass, bobbled the ball and Billy Knowles recovered for the Brahmas. Thus the game ended, and thus concluded Judson’s Class 1A Rocket Program.