ROCKPORT, Tx — The Thomas J. Henry Game of the Week heads to Rockport in week eight for a 4A-D2 District 15 match-up. The Pirates of Rockport-Fulton (4-3,0-1) square off against the Ingleside Mustangs (5-2, 1-0).
Pirates first-year head coach Eric Soza has the boys believing. After an underwhelming past two seasons, the Pirate ship is correcting course with a 4-3 this year.
“Everybody’s kind of played a part,” Soza said. “It’s been one of those things. In this offense, you don’t have that superstar running back. You don’t have that superstar lineman or quarterback. It’s everyone playing team ball.”
“I love this offense,” Dawson Phillips said, Pirates running back and safety. “It’s just a great way for everyone to do their job and do their thing. I just love the way that he coaches, and I just really feel like like I said, he’s really brought us all together like we want to be here every day.”
Soza said there are still some growing pains, but he knows what their identity is.
“Toughness. I think that’s one of the things we were worried about. And we weren’t sure because we haven’t been in an off-season to develop that. But, through the summer, through the preseason, through the district play so far, the kids are mentally tough.”
Soza said he saw that in the first district last week when they lost to Cuero.
“34 to 14 looks like a blowout, but you look at our defense. They gave up four first downs in the second half. They bode up whenever they need to,” Soza said. “The problem is we gave the ball away too much.”
“We like to lift each other up whenever it doesn’t go our way. We have good teammates here in Rockport,” said Trevor Garcia, Pirates running back and safety.
Ingleside is 5-2, but they’ve had to find a new identity of their own.
“We don’t have Aiden (Jakobsohn), and JC (Smith), and Nate (Ambrose), and Wade (Johnson), and all those other guys that were really explosive, but we’ve been able to utilize what talents we do have. So, Sawyer ran for right at almost 1,000 yards. Javi had a huge game last game, and he’s getting hot as our receiver,” Travis Chrisman said, Ingleside head coach.
“I think it’s more of they’ve adjusted to my skill set and they’ve done a really good job at that,” Sawyer Chalk said, senior quarterback and linebacker for the Mustangs.
Chrisman said most of the offensive line returned this year. Despite that, he said they knew they weren’t going to throw for 3,600 yards this year and instead knew they could lean on their quarterback’s legs.
Chalk has stepped into the quarterback role this season and made it his own at the perfect time.
He had his best game last week in the Mustangs' first district win over Robstown. Chalk was 19 for 25 on his throws, totaling 356 yards with four touchdowns through the air. On top of that, he carried the rock 14 times for 134 yards and three more touchdowns on the way to a 56-19 victory.
It earned him the Built Ford Tough High School Football Player of the Week for 4A. He was also named 4A Quarterback of the Week by Dave Campbell's Texas Football.
“Feels good. Came into the season not really too sure how I was going to do at QB, but I’ve done pretty well,” Chalk said.
“Aidan (Jakobsohn) was able to get that last year. So, pretty big for Ingleside to get it two years in a row. Of course, Aidan went on to win player of the year, but now Sawyer has a chance as well,” Chrisman said.
Expect a strong run game and stiff defenses from both sides in this contest.
“We don’t have any five-star athletes over here. We don’t have Alabama coming through her, but we have five-star hearts. And that’s kind of what we pride ourselves on,” Soza said.
This game kicks off at 7 p.m. at Pirate Stadium. Highlights and the Thomas J Henry Game of the Week trophy presentation can be seen on Friday Night Fever on KRIS 6 News at 10.
Rockport-Fulton will also be celebrating Homecoming.
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