High School Football
Kingwood making history after playoff win
Josh Koch
Nov 28, 2017, 5:59 am
Originally appeared on Vype.com.
That was the last time Barry Campbell, the then-Fort Bend Clements offensive coordinator, strolled the sidelines during a regional semifinal game as a coach.
Fort Bend Clements beat Stratford 31-27 that season and went on to the quarterfinals to fall to Katy.
Campbell, who eventually moved on to take his first head coaching job at Kingwood in 2012, wanted to bring that same success to the Mustangs.
With a 38-30 victory against Clear Lake on Saturday inside NRG Stadium, Campbell got Kingwood back to a place it hadn’t been in 27 years – playing December football.
“Once you reach a goal it’s time to start reaching for the next one,” Campbell said. “We finally got to a point where we wanted to play on Thanksgiving, we got to do it. We wanted to play in December and here we are. We’re going to be playing in December.
“Now we want to win in December. That’s the next goal.”
Kingwood’s last appearance in the regional semifinals came in 1990 under former coach Mike Unger. The Mustangs defeated Alief Elsik 24-12 in the third round that year and didn’t fall out of the playoffs until losing to Converse Judson in the state semifinals.
To get to this point, Kingwood had to knock off a team on its own memorable playoff run.
Clear Lake prior to this season hadn’t been to the playoffs or won a playoff game since 2008. Both of those streaks were snapped last week with a win against George Ranch in the bi-district round.
Kingwood led 14-10 heading into the second half. The third quarter is where the Falcons found their spark off a blocked punt returned for a touchdown by Preston Schaulin.
That paired with a 50-yard touchdown run by quarterback Shae Suiaunoa less than a minute earlier provided a 13-point swing for the Falcons. Once trailing 14-10, Clear Lake was suddenly leading 23-14.
“That really changed the momentum of the game,” Campbell said about the blocked punt. “It was still back and forth at that point but when they got that that’s when they really pulled ahead and made it more than a one-score game.”
Kingwood quarterback Matt Slayton – who finished 10 of 19 for 104 yards, a touchdown and also rushed 15 times for 103 yards and two scores – would get them back in striking distance.
Slayton hit Nolan Powell for a 23-yard touchdown, making it 23-21 with five minutes left in the third.
Suiaunoa made it 30-21 at the end of the third quarter with his second and final rushing score of the game. Suiaunoa finished 12 of 25 for 147 yards, two interceptions and a touchdown and rushed for 111 yards and two scores on 17 carries.
In the fourth quarter it was all Kingwood.
An Aaron Finch one-yard rush, Connal Fisher 37-yard field goal and 25-yard touchdown run by Blake Parr sealed the victory for the Mustangs. Parr’s score came with 1:30 left in the game.
“I don’t know if there is really one thing you can say this is why we won the game,” Campbell said. “Both teams made great plays. We just made one more play than they did. That’s what the playoffs are all about.”
Since falling to Summer Creek 34-7 on October 27, Kingwood has won four-straight games. In each of those, Kingwood either trailed or had just a one-touchdown lead at halftime.
Just like the Mustangs have during this run, they have either held on or come back to win and keep its playoff run alive.
“When you go through the season you’ve got a small amount of time to either dwell on the losses or celebrate the victories,” Campbell said. “Right now we’re letting our emotions go and it’s enjoyable to celebrate these victories.”
Kingwood will face Langham Creek on Saturday at Noon at TDECU Stadium in the regional semifinals.
This is the first time Kingwood has faced a team from Cy-Fair ISD in the playoffs since taking on Cy-Fair in 1987.
“We got to watch them Friday night when they played Katy Taylor,” Campbell said. “They’re going to be spread out. Offensively they scored a lot of points over the course of the season. They’ve got guys that can play anywhere. So it’s going to be a big test for our kids.”
There's no denying that this year's World Series champs (LA Dodgers) have some serious firepower on their roster. And one of the ways they were able to assemble such a talented team involved players like Shohei Ohtani being willing to differ their money.
Just this week, there was some speculation that the Yankees could do something similar when restructuring Gerrit Cole's contract, that would allow them more flexibility in the present.
The Yankees ended up calling Cole's bluff about opting out, and no adjustment was made to the contract.
But this situation got us thinking, would the Astros consider a tactic like this to maximize the roster? At this point, it doesn't seem all that likely. Just last year, the team handed out a $95 million contract to Josh Hader, without any differed money.
The other factor that also has to come into play is the tax threshold. The organization would have to give the okay to go over it again in order to make a splash signing this offseason. Which unfortunately does not sound like the plan right now when listening to GM Dana Brown at the Winter Meetings.
Astros pitcher hires a new agent
Now that MLB free agency is in full swing, most of the attention moving forward will be focused on players like Alex Bregman, Pete Alonso, and Juan Soto.
But for Astros fans, there might be someone else to keep an eye on this offseason and next. Starting pitcher Hunter Brown quietly hired super agent Scott Boras recently.
With Brown still another season away from his first year of arbitration, he should be with the Astros for the foreseeable future.
However, the hiring of Boras does raise some interesting questions. Why make the move now? Certainly, Brown could use some more cash, as he's set to make less than a million in 2025.
Perhaps Brown wants to land some HEB commercials to fatten his wallet. And if Bregman does leave the team in free agency, a spot will open up for another player, in theory. And three of the players in the HEB ads are represented by Boras (Jose Altuve, Lance McCullers Jr. and Bregman).
Jeremy Pena has been stacking cash from Taquerias Arandas for several years now, maybe Brown would like an opportunity to do an endorsement similar to that.
I say all this half kidding, but Brown does look like the future ace of this staff, and I'm sure there are plenty of advertisers that would have interest in Hunter.
There is another element that could have initiated the hiring of Boras. Would Brown be willing to sign an extension early with the Astros similar to the deal the team made with Cristian Javier?
Their situations are actually pretty comparable, except Javier was one year further into his career (3 years of MLB service time) and eligible for arbitration before agreeing to the extension.
If Brown was heading into arbitration this offseason, it wouldn't be surprising at all for the Astros to be considering a long-term deal with him that buys up all his arbitration years. The 'Stros love these types of contract extensions. We've seen them do it with Bregman, the aforementioned Javier, and others.
One of the main differences though between Brown and Javier is their rookie year numbers. Brown only pitched 20.1 innings in his first season (2022). While Javier pitched 54.1 innings his rookie year. However, his rookie season was in 2020, so Javier completed a full year of service time despite the shortened season. Whereas Brown didn't get called up until September 2022.
Another difference is performance. Javier never posted an ERA over 3.55 in his first three seasons. As opposed to Brown, who had a disastrous year in 2023. He made 29 starts, recording an ERA over 5.
It wasn't until May of 2024 that Brown started using his two-seam fastball with great success and becoming one of the most dominant pitchers in the American League.
The Astros had a bigger sample size to judge Javier. However, if Brown has another quality season in 2025, Houston and Brown should definitely be having conversations about an extension. Especially with Framber Valdez being in the final year of his contract in 2025. Hunter could be the unquestioned ace one year from now.
Still, though, there are some concerns with handing out these early extensions. For example, if the Astros had it to do over again, would they still extend Javier?
After receiving his extension before the 2023 season, he went on to post the highest ERA of his career (4.56), and then blew out his elbow in May 2024.
And if we're going by Luis Garcia's recovery timeline from Tommy John surgery, we may not see Javier pitch at all in 2025.
So even with a sample size of three terrific seasons, the Javier extension looks like a miss with the benefit of hindsight. It will be interesting to see if that deal impacts Dana Brown's decision-making going forward.
Especially since Javier was Dana's first big contract extension as the Astros GM.
Be sure to watch the video as we discuss how the Astros can get the most out of their roster, the pros and cons of signing Hunter Brown early, and much more!
*Catch our weekly Stone Cold ‘Stros podcasts. Brandon Strange, Josh Jordan, and Charlie Pallilo discuss varied Astros topics. The post for the week generally goes up Monday afternoon. Find all via The SportsMap HOU YouTube channel or listen to episodes in their entirety at Apple, Spotify or wherever you get your podcasts.
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