By Tom Halliburton
The Port Arthur News
November 21, 2008 09:35 pm
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CONROE -- Former award-winning Port Arthur News scribe Howard Roden was talking with Larry Neumann earlier this week about Magnolia's bulldozing offensive style in a Conroe newspaper interview.
Roden was telling the Nederland head football coach that Magnolia was not real flashy.
"Flashy," Neumann responded, "can be in the eyes of the beholder."
Although this has been a dead-serious week for both sets of Bulldogs, that remark brought a hearty chuckle when it was relayed to Magnolia coach Andy Sexton during Friday's lunchtime.
"Hey, tell Larry to take it easy on us, we're just real simple," the 42-year-old Kingwood native Sexton said.
Neumann would counter that remark by labeling today's opponent as simple all right, simply huge.
To which Magnolia's mentor said, "We're not big... We just look big in those uniforms."
When Neumann shares his portion of the coaching lingo, he claims Magnolia's size exceeds that of Livingston or any other Nederland opponent to date. The NHS boss gets to find out first-hand in Moorhead Stadium today at 1 p.m. Magnolia (7-3) meets Nederland (5-4) in a 4A Division I area playoff round game.
The winner stays busy on Thanksgiving weekend. The loser does whatever it wants to do next week, but does not keep practicing football.
Magnolia is a ground-eating Wishbone machine that comes right at you, eats up yards and tries to shorten the game. That's exactly what Nederland prefers to avoid.
Yet, after last week's amazing 35-34 bidistrict survival of C.E. King, the Nederlanders have dealt with their own new set of physical challenges.
Knee injuries to starting quarterback Kirby Bellow and starting wide receiver Ryan Brady keep NISD trainers Larry Southard and Terry King extremely occupied. As of late Friday afternoon, Neumann could not be more pleased with all four of those individuals and their efforts during the week.
"We're still deciding who our quarterback will be, but Kirby and Ryan were looking great on Thursday," the Nederland head coach said. "We will just have to see what happens."
So the inspection will continue this morning during a walk-through at school and will resume on Moorhead's artificial surface when the teams will loosen up shortly after noon.
To suggest these personnel matters may be game-time decisions might be premature. The Dogs may have to watch 10 or 15 minutes of game conditions to know what Bellow and Brady can or can't do.
The backup duties fall on a handful of sophomores who displayed remarkable poise last Friday night. Tyler Smith completed 7 of 13 for 92 yards and guided Big Ned to a pair of touchdown drives. A big part of that had to do with the determined blocking of Nick Smith and Stefan Huber on the right side and the hearty runs of Wareall Grogan and Grant Lovelady.
While Nederland tries to balance runs and passes, Magnolia keeps its passes to a bare minimum. Sexton determined two years ago upon his arrival in Montgomery County that the Wishbone suited his type of athletes. Neumann agreed with him, too.
The teams have differed IN another respect as well. Nederland enters its 10th game at zero on the giveaway-takeaway chart. Neumann's group has yielded 13 turnovers and acquired the same number. Magnolia is a whopping plus 23, including five interceptions in last week's 26-14 bidistrict victory at Buda Hays.
"Our defense is doing a great job of taking away the ball," Sexton said. "We have no heroes and no superstars, but they like playing. We don't have any one standout lineman. We've got three seniors and two juniors on the offensive line and they're all buddies. We split it up a lot on running the ball, too."
Magnolia led 18-4A with 333.4 yards a game, running for 2,685 yards and throwing for only 316. Junior quarterback Dennis Dunbar led all rushers with 925 yards on 96 carries. Senior fullback Arnold Nevarez followed with 123 tries for 734 yards.
The MHS defense placed third among 18-4A defensive numbers allowing 231.1 yards a game, 1,418 on the ground and 662 in the air. Although Magnolia has corraled 17 interceptions in 10 games, the Dogs' meat-and-potatoes senior leader has to be middle linebacker Sean McKeown.
By the later stages of this afternoon, Neumann will determine Magnolia's degree of flashiness by how much the Moorhead Stadium scoreboard flashes.
"I believe we're going to win the football game, unless in the course of the game, they just overpower us," the Nederland coach said. "Our bottom line is staying focused and executing. Execution is everything."
But Larry did like his chances that his injured bodies figured to play and play well.
NEDERLAND VS. MAGNOLIA
When: Saturday, 1 p.m.
Where: Moorhead Stadium, Conroe
Records: Nederland 5-4, 4-3; Magnolia 7-3, 5-2
At Stake: Class 4A Division I area playoffs
Advance: The Nederland-Magnolia winner meets the Friendswood-Houston Westbury winner next weekend in the 4A Division I regional playoffs
Series: First meeting between the schools
TV: Port Arthur News Friday Night Experience, Cable 18, Tuesday, 7 p.m.
Radio: KLVI-AM (560)
Directions to Moorhead Stadium: Take Texas 105 west or I-45 north to the intersection where Texas 105 goes under I-45. Travel west on Texas 105 from that point for approximately one-half mile. A sign on right reads Buddy Moorhead Stadium. Turn right and go 3 blocks. The artificial turf stadium seats 8,421. The home team's press box side is on the north side. Nederland fans will sit on the visitors' south side. All seats at the gate are $7.
NEDERLAND OFFENSE
SE -- Asa Cardenas (21)
LT -- Ben Jones (62)
LG -- Khoby Moore (60)
C -- Trey Terracina (56)
RG -- Nick Smith (53)
RT -- Stefan Huber (54)
FL -- Ryan Brady (7)
LSLOT -- Brent Salenga (4)
RSLOT -- Jude Vidrine (5)
QB -- Kirby Bellow (3)
RB -- Wareall Grogan (2)
MAGNOLIA DEFENSE
LE -- Adison McClellan (60)
LT -- Andrew Sherman (42)
RT -- Evan Enderle (72)
RE -- John Edmundson (81)
OLB -- A.J. Huskey (28)
MLB -- Sean McKeown (46)
OLB -- Easton Hohensee (4)
LCB -- Dai' Jon Chaney (5)
RCB -- Chase Wehr (8)
LS -- Daniel Rueda (18)
RS -- Joe Bolin (25)
MAGNOLIA OFFENSE
WR -- Justin Caka (24)
LT -- Corey Yoest (56)
LG -- Patrick Leabo (75)
C -- Garrett Young (67)
RG -- Clinton Moore (71)
RT -- Josh McNeill (70)
WR -- Dai' Jon Chaney (5)
QB -- Dennis Dunbar (3)
FB -- Arnold Nevarez (34)
LHB -- Connor Wehr (9)
RHB -- Alex Smith (33)
NEDERLAND DEFENSE
SE -- Anthony Maddox (26)
LT -- Marcus Louvier (55)
NT -- Shelby Clark (48)
WE -- Dionte Forney (10)
SLB -- Grant Lovelady (40)
WLB -- Jordan Landry (8)
BAN -- Nick Cardenas (33)
LCB -- Jimmy Swain (24)
RCB -- Asa Cardenas (21)
LS -- Adrian Pina (25)
RS -- Jake Kemp (20)
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