1986:
Judson B Good

NOTE: Click HERE to view the season record

Going into the 1986 season, Holmes was the heavy preseason favorite both in the San Antonio area and in the State. In fact, Holmes was at the top of the state rankings as well. The Rockets coasted along through their schedule, including a meeting with Madison that saw the Rockets score all the points in the first Half of a 32-0 win in Converse, and followed the very next week at Blossom by a 27-14 win over Churchill (its only district loss), which put the Rockets in reasonably good shape with only four (4) games gone. The big game promised to be the final regular-season game, in this case, with Roosevelt. Roosevelt took an 8-0 record into its showdown with Churchill, and came out 8-1, and needing to beat the Rockets in order to make the playoffs. In other words, it was "all or nothing" for the ‘Riders. 48 minutes and a 30-7 loss later, it was "nothing," and Churchill was in the playoffs once more, for the first time since the four-year run that saw two consecutive rematches with the Rockets. Holmes played up to expectations, but so did Clark, perhaps a few steps off their 1985 pace win-loss wise, but perhaps with a more variegated offense that included a better than average passing attack. The meeting in Week 9 between Clark and Holmes lived up to the pre-game billing, as Holmes jumped out to a 14-0 lead, then fell behind 30-14 before re-gaining the lead late, only to have to hold on after a last-second FG attempt by Clark. Holmes then did it again the next week, as they came back from a 28-14 deficit to Jay, and won 35-28, thus denying Jay a possible playoff spot. Most peculiar in this game was that, because of the way the positive point tie-breaker system would work for the teams involved, the Huskies were in a situation that if they had lost, they would have missed the playoffs unless they "allowed" Jay to beat them by a larger margin than a smaller one.

Meanwhile, Judson people, and football fans in general, were experiencing a heavy, grim dose of reality, known as Life. Or, make that DEATH. The evening before the Rockets' match-up with Holmes, Ogi Yi, Judson’s Senior Class President, who was probably as good example as any of how Rocket Pride isn’t simply about winning in football or even about sports in general, died in a car crash on Binz-Englemann just outside Kirby. Certainly, as the week leading up to Reagan’s visit wore on, what with the funeral, the shock, not to mention the sorrow, it must not have been a very fun environment in which to prepare for a game. In such situations, those things tend to have less meaning than they once did. On the other hand, take a look at La Marque’s situation: Their Head Coach, Hugh Massey, died in a freak car crash late at night which he hit a vehicle on I-45 that was inexplicably abandoned in the middle of the road. La Marque, under interim head coach Larry Nowotny (future assistant at Judson), managed to stay focussed and beat Aldine MacArthur two days later, to set up a meeting with the winner of the game in Converse. Meanwhile, at about noontime on game-day, the weather, which had been good for the better part of the past two weeks, began to deteriorate, as a very slow, albeit steady, drizzle began to fall so that by game time 71/2 hours later, everything was pretty well-soaked. With the cheerleaders’ on-the-track speaker system turned off in such situations, and the Band kept under wraps, choreographing the spirit if things got critical was going to be difficult---HEY!! HEY!! or not. Rocket supporters were pretty much on their own, essentially cut off from functioning as a synergistic whole. Either way, the game was going to be played, and the best team was supposed to win. The only question remaining at that point was, which team would that be???

The Rockets got the kickoff and moved down to the Reagan 33 yard line to start the game. Reagan then intercepted a pass into the Endzone, and ran it back to the Judson 20. Almost as quickly, Reagan went in for a 6-0 lead (after missing the PAT). The Rockets immediately answered back and made it 7-6 with a 72-yard run three plays later. Things settled down after that, but Judson missed on a FG attempt and then, with time winding down in the First Half, Reagan intercepted a pass and, from there methodically, and a very little at a time, moved down to take a 12-7 lead just before Halftime. Although no one dressed in red was real pleased with the way things had gone thus far, they also knew that the 2^nd Half would be the determinant. The object, obviously, would be to make Reagan go "three-and-out" following the 2^nd Half kickoff. Unfortunately, the Raiders squirted out on 3^rd Down and, although they punted after the next series, they took their time in running the plays so that, by the time they punted to Judson, the Rockets had been on ice way too long to start the 2^nd Half, so that they went "three-and-out" instead." By now, the Third Quarter was starting to wind down, and the good thing, at least, was that it was still only 12-7. A little later, Judson was backed up way too close to its own end of the field, and Reagan, starting to sense the kill, forced Judson into a very short, slippery punt. Reagan scored soon thereafter, but, once again used valuable time in doing so. By the time the Raiders got in, there were less than 6 minutes left. Well, in spite of the life being sucked out of the crowd (which, as indicated in a post-game interview, pleased Reagan Coach Wally Freytag to no end), the Flight Crew at least had a few more sparks of life left, and the Rockets returned the kickoff to the Reagan 41 and then, on the next play, Tight End Scott Burris, after taking the hand-off, surprised Reagan by connecting with Chris Samuels on a pass play for a TD, which was followed by the two-point play.with exactly 5:00 remaining. Then, Judson was finally able to get Reagan in a "three-and-out," and actually had a chance following the punt. The Rockets then managed to work the ball down to the 33 yard line, where the drive stalled and, following a strategy time-out, failed on 4^th down with 1:14 remaining. Nevertheless, true to "Rocket Pride" form, the Rockets managed to conserve what was left of the time so that, although Reagan was already taking a knee with each play, they were forced to punt with 4 sec. left. The play that followed was relatively futile given the distance and all. Nevertheless the last six minutes of the game were another "Rocket Pride" moment in the face of neither ideal conditions nor happy circumstances.

The next week, Reagan, trailing 7-0 at Halftime, took a 14-7 lead early in the 4^th Quarter before La Marque unleashed its version of the aerial assault, and shortly thereafter had a 26-14 lead and an "Un-Lamarqable" appointment with Plano at Kyle Field for the Finals, in which Plano and La Marque scored all their points in the 2^nd Quarter in that 24-7 Plano victory.