Katy Cruises
Katy rumbles past North Shore to advance to program’s 17th state semis
Josh Koch
Dec 12, 2017, 8:25 am
Katy wins in dominating fashion. Photo by Jimmie Aggison
Originally appeared on Vype.com.
HOUSTON – Katy has its winning formula dialed up to perfection.
Be efficient on offense, run the football with authority, and defensively shutdown the opposing team’s best player, while forcing turnovers.
Katy implored that strategy for another week, this time shutting down North Shore.
Deondrick Glass rushed for 92 yards and two scores, the defense forced three turnovers, the Tigers' offense scoring 17 points off of those, and Katy defeated North Shore 31-3 in the Region III-6A Division I Final inside NRG Stadium on Saturday.
“If you play discipline football and play well, you have an opportunity to get turnovers,” Katy coach Gary Joseph said. “We talk to our kids all the time about being unselfish. If they can be unselfish and do their jobs they have a chance to make plays within the system. That’s exactly what they did."
“They had an opportunity to make plays and they made plays. We just made a few more than they did.”
Katy advances to the program’s 17th state semifinals appearance. This is the Tigers’ third time in the last five years to go and the 12th time since 2000.
Katy will face the winner of O’Connor and Lake Travis next week in the state semifinals at Alamo Stadium in San Antonio next Saturday.
North Shore finishes the season at 9-4.
“They’ve been so opportunistic and that’s why they are a great football team,” North Shore coach Jon Kay said. “They do what you’ve got to do to win. Grind you out, they’ve got some playmakers and they can make the big play when it’s time. That defense is as good as I’ve seen.”
Once Katy got going, it was hard to slow down.
The Tigers raced out to a 17-0 lead, fueled by a pair of passing touchdowns by Austin Marshall, in the first 14:07 of the game.
Marshall finished the game 5 of 9 for 92 yards and two touchdowns.
“He did what he needed to do,” Joseph said about Marshall. “He sat there and managed our offense. He completed the play-action pass. He did a good job with that stuff. Kid’s done it all year long, I expected nothing less.”
While Katy was rolling, North Shore struggled.
On its first five drives—totaling 15 plays for 16 yards—North Shore just couldn’t move the ball, punting four times and fumbling it once.
“We struggled handling their front three and we knew that going in they do some great things with their linebackers and they take advantage of some one-on-one situations,” Kay said. “At the end of the day our 11 have to play their 11 and I think they won more of the one-on-one’s today than we did obviously.”
North Shore finally got going with 5:24 to go in the first half.
Sophomore running back Zach Evans sparked the offense with a 13-yard dash to open the drive. Freshman quarterback Dematrius Davis followed suit hitting his first two big pass plays of the game, after starting 1-of-6 for one yard, to get the offense moving.
Evans finished with 51 yards on 16 carries, while Davis went 10 of 23 for 159 yards and one interception.
North Shore got the ball down to the 10 of Katy before settling for a 27-yard field goal by John Villalobos, making it 17-3 at the half.
The second half was more of Katy’s dominance.
Glass got going with a 13-yard and three-yard touchdown runs in the final minutes of the third quarter, giving Katy the 31-3 lead.
In last season’s meeting with North Shore in the playoffs, Glass didn’t play because of a right leg injury.
“I don’t feel like I won it for the team,” Glass said. “I felt like the entire team was playing well. At first, they were making a couple good stops on us but we kept faith in our defense. We kept faith in what coach was telling us that we were going to keep doing. We didn’t change any of our gameplan, we made sure we stayed true to what we came to do.”
North Shore couldn’t mount anymore of a comeback down the stretch to fall in the regional final for the second-straight season.
Despite falling short again, North Shore has an extremely young team, only graduating 23 seniors off this team, that just placed a month of playoff experience under its belt.
“I think people lose sight of the fact that when you play for a regional championship you essentially have another month of practice,” Kay said. “That’s another spring. When you are as young as we are every opportunity, every second of practice you can squeeze in is an opportunity for you to get better.
“We’re just going to have to take advantage of this opportunity that we’ve had over the last month, couple it with our spring and see if we can’t get past this point.”
Katy is now one win away from its 15th state championship game appearance.
“It’s just one week at a time, that’s the only way to take it,” Katy defensive end Michael Matus said.
SCORING SUMMARY
Katy: Seth Small kicks a 42-yard field goal 3-0 (3:58 – 1st quarter)
Katy: Austin Marshall to Jordan Patrick 6-yard TD 10-0 (:35 – 1st quarter)
Katy: Austin Marshall to Trey Brown 59-yard TD 17-0 (9:53 – 2nd quarter)
North Shore: John Villalobos kicks a 27-yard field goal 17-3 (1:09 – 2nd quarter)
Katy: Deondrick Glass rushes in from 13 yards 24-3 (6:32 – 3rd quarter)
Katy: Deondrick Glass rushes in from 3 yards 31-3 (0:18 – 3rd quarter)
What looked like a minor blip after an emotional series win in Los Angeles has turned into something more concerning for the Houston Astros.
Swept at home by a Guardians team that came in riding a 10-game losing streak, the Astros were left looking exposed. Not exhausted, as injuries, underperformance, and questionable decision-making converged to hand Houston one of its most frustrating series losses of the year.
Depth finally runs dry
It would be easy to point to a “Dodger hangover” as the culprit, the emotional peak of an 18-1 win at Chavez Ravine followed by a mental lull. But that’s not the story here.
Houston’s energy was still evident, especially in the first two games of the series, where the offense scored five or more runs each time. Including those, the Astros had reached that mark in eight of their last 10 games heading into Wednesday’s finale.
But scoring isn’t everything, not when a lineup held together by duct tape and desperation is missing Christian Walker and Jake Meyers and getting critical at-bats from Cooper Hummel, Zack Short, and other journeymen.
The lack of depth finally showed. The Astros, for three days, looked more like a Triple-A squad with Jose Altuve and a couple big-league regulars sprinkled in.
Cracks in the pitching core
And the thing that had been keeping this team afloat, elite pitching, finally buckled.
Hunter Brown and Josh Hader, both dominant all season, finally cracked. Brown gave up six runs in six innings, raising his pristine 1.82 ERA to 2.21. Hader wasn’t spared either, coughing up a game-losing grand slam in extra innings that inflated his ERA from 1.80 to 2.38 in one night.
But the struggles weren’t isolated. Bennett Sousa, Kaleb Ort, and Steven Okert each gave up runs at critical moments. The bullpen’s collective fade could not have come at a worse time for a team already walking a tightrope.
Injury handling under fire
Houston’s injury management is also drawing heat, and rightfully so. Jake Meyers, who had been nursing a calf strain, started Wednesday’s finale. He didn’t even make it through one pitch before aggravating the injury and needing to be helped off the field.
No imaging before playing him. No cautionary rest despite the All-Star break looming. Just a rushed return in a banged-up lineup, and it backfired immediately.
Second-guessing has turned to outright criticism of the Astros’ medical staff, as fans and analysts alike wonder whether these mounting injuries are being made worse by how the club is handling them.
Pressure mounts on Dana Brown
All eyes now turn to Astros GM Dana Brown. The Astros are limping into the break with no clear reinforcements on the immediate horizon. Only Chas McCormick is currently rehabbing in Sugar Land. Everyone else? Still sidelined.
Brown will need to act — and soon.
At a minimum, calling up top prospect Brice Matthews makes sense. He’s been mashing in Triple-A (.283/.400/.476, 10 HR, .876 OPS) and could play second base while Jose Altuve shifts to left field more regularly. With Mauricio Dubón stretched thin between shortstop and center, injecting Matthews’ upside into the infield is a logical step.
*Editor's note: The Astros must be listening, Matthews was called up Thursday afternoon!
The Astros are calling up Brice Matthews, their top prospect on @MLBPipeline
via @brianmctaggart pic.twitter.com/K91cGKkcx6
— FOX Sports: MLB (@MLBONFOX) July 10, 2025
There’s also trade chatter, most notably about Orioles outfielder Cedric Mullins, but excitement has been tepid. His numbers don’t jump off the page, but compared to who the Astros are fielding now, Mullins would be a clear upgrade and a much-needed big-league presence.
A final test before the break
Before the All-Star reset, Houston gets one last chance to stabilize the ship, and it comes in the form of a rivalry series against the Texas Rangers. The Astros will send their top trio — Lance McCullers Jr., Framber Valdez, and Hunter Brown — to the mound for a three-game set that will test their resolve, their health, and perhaps their postseason aspirations.
The Silver Boot is up for grabs. So is momentum. And maybe, clarity on just how far this version of the Astros can go.
There's so much more to discuss! Don't miss the video below as we examine the topics above and much, much more!
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