I knew this game would be special, what with both teams bringing a perfect 3-0 District record into the contest, but I had no idea that this game would turn out like it did. The conditions, depending on how you looked at them, were either horrible or great. Coach had said that on Thursday they got 4 inches of rain at Harlandale Memorial Stadium, where the game took place. I'm sure they got a few more throughout the day Friday, as it rained all afternoon. And it rained the entire first half, soaking the already saturated field. To say the least it was sloppy. But it all came down to having fun and playig a great game and putting the weather out of mind. Which is hard to do when your covered in mud. And we were covered, our jerseys, our pants, our socks, our shoes, our helmets,our faces. Everything. Mud got inside your helmet, in your mouthpiece, in your hair, in your ears, and worst of all, in your eyes. But despite it all, it was fun. It was even more fun because we won.

After going three and out the first drive, I though that we would be in for a long night. Little did I know that we would score on our next three possesions. The next series we were moving the ball, and we had picked up a first down. Then we called a screen pass, which was nearly intercepted, but it slipped through the defender's hands, right into Fitz's. I had pulled out to the left, and was the lead blocker. I erased a defensive back, and when I looked up, Fitz was another fifteen yards downfield, spinning out of a tackle. He got all the way down to the eight yard line after about a forty yard pick up. Fitz scored four plays later, but the PAT was no good because of a bad snap caused by the mud. After the kickoff, the D held the Cowboys and forced them to punt, which was blocked and we got the ball back on their 15. After Matt bulldozed up to the 2, Fitz scored again, and we went for 2. Blake found Fitz in the corner of the endzone to make the score 14 - 0. After the Defense forced McCollum to punt once again, we took over. On the second play Blake hit Trey at about our 35 yard line, and he took it all the way in for a 76 yard TD. We were up 21 - 0 at the half.

We came back out after the half, and it had stopped raining, but the field was torn up bad. We recieved the kick, but a funble a few plays later gave the Cowboys good field position, which they used to score their only TD of the night. After that, Matt scored from a yard out and Butler booted the PAT, and that was our final score, 28 - 6. The defense held the Cowboys for the rest of the third and fourth quarters, and we just took time off the clock. I believe that we could have scored again, but Coach Mangold doesn't like to run up the score.

The defense was awesome. McCollum was averaging about 250 yards on the ground a game this season, but against us they gained only 24 yards. That's ridiculous. With a defense as great as ours your have to believe we have what it takes to go into the playoffs. And that's what it's all about. Next week Uvalde comes into our house, and we'll try to finish the season with seven straight wins and a perfect 5 - 0 in district. Then, if all goes well, I will hopefully be updating this webpage for many more weeks to come. Here's to the District 28 - 4A Champs!

The pregame coin toss had something do with this one, as Medina Valley clinched its first playoff berth as a Class 4A school by outmudding McCollum 28-6 in a quagmire at Harlandale Memorial Stadium.

Medina Valley clinched at least a tie for the District 28-4A championship with a 4-0 record and goes for an outright title at home next Friday against Uvalde. The Panthers have won six straight since starting the season with three losses.

McCollum drops to 3-1 in district play and 6-3 overall, but despite the loss clinched a playoff spot of its own along with Southside.

Medina Valley won the coin flip but deferred as a pouring rain fell for the entire first half and limited the crowd to about 1,000 fans, a sixth or seventh of what it would normally have been, considering this may have been the de facto district championship game.

"We wanted to go on defense and, as it turned out, our defense made the difference," veteran Medina Valley coach Jay Patterson said.

The strategy paid off, as Medina Valley's defense forced McCollum into a three and out on each of the Cowboys' first four possessions. Meanwhile, the Panthers offense, after punting on its first series, scored the second, third and fourth times it had the ball, and nearly did on the fifth as Medina Valley took a 21-0 bulge into halftime.

"We came to play," Patterson said. "We told our players before the game that when they came out of the locker room to shut everything out — the weather, the mud, everything, and to just remember it was the same for both teams."

For the game, Medina Valley's defense held McCollum to just 24 total yards, all on the ground, as the Cowboys failed to connect on any of their 10 passes. Meanwhile, the Panthers had 132 yards and one touchdown in the air and 106 yards on the ground.

The Panthers struck paydirt the second time they had the ball with a 68-yard drive in 10 plays, the key one being a 33-yard pass from quarterback Blake Weston to tailback Jon Fitzsimon for 33 yards to the Cowboys 8. It was a quick pass to the left near the line of scrimmage. A McCollum defender nearly intercepted the pass, but Fitzsimon grabbed it and spun out of a tackle.

Fitzsimon scored the touchdown from a yard out on fourth and goal, but a fumbled snapback prevented an attempted PAT.

Medina Valley linebacker Joe Biediger blocked a punt early in the second quarter, giving the Panthers the ball at the McCollum 15. Fullback Matt Crisp roared 11 yards to the 1, from where Fitzsimon went around right end for the touchdown before taking a pass from Weston in the end zone for a 2-point conversion.

The Panthers struck through the air for a 76-yard touchdown play the next time they got the ball. Weston hit wide receiver Trey Tschirhart at the Medina Valley 40 on the left side of the field, and Tschirhart cut back to the middle about midfield and angled his way the remaining distance. Michael Zinsmeyer's PAT made it 21-0 with 7:15 still left in the second, giving the Panthers three TDs in a span of 6:34.

Each team fumbled to set up a touchdown by the other in a rainless second half.

First, McCollum defensive end Charles McDowell returned a fumble 19 yards to the Medina Valley 4 to set up a 3-yard TD by Rene Herrera, then the Panthers got a fumble at the McCollum 7 and scored on Crisp's 1-yard plunge, followed by Zach Butler's PAT.

MV — FitzSimon 1 run

Second quarter

MV —FitzSimon 1 run (FitzSimon pass from Weston), 10:16.

MV — Tshirhart 76 pass (Zinsmeyer kick), 7:15.

Third quarter

McL — Herrera 3 run (kick failed, fumbled snapback) 8:44.

MV — Crisp 1 run (Butler kick), 0:38.

RUSHING — Medina Valley, Crisp 13-68, FitzSimon 25-49, Weston 6- -11. MCollum, Herrera 19-51, Fennell 11-28, Team 1- -11, Gutierrez 1- -14, Ortiz 8- -29.

PASSING — Medina Valley, Weston 4-11-1 — 132. McCollum, Ortiz 0-4-0 — 0, Gutierrez 0-6-1— 0.

RECEIVING — Medina Valley, Garza 2-23, Tschirhart 1-76, FitzSimon 1-33.