The Midland Christian football team is just where they want to be after blitzing San Antonio Central Catholic 41-14 to earn a date with two-time defending champion Dallas Parish Episcopal for the TAPPS Division I state title.
“It’s what everyone dreams about,” Midland senior quarterback Ryver Rodriguez told the Midland Reporter-Telegram. “There’s nothing better than having all your people behind you. This is what you think about when you’re on the playground as a little kid. I’m just grateful for all these people, all my teammates. I know we’re going to get back to work and try to go do our best at state.”
With his 10-2 Mustangs facing a Dec. 4 showdown against Dallas Parish at Waco ISD Stadium, MCS coach Greg McClendon raves it’s just the beginning.
“We’re not done,” he added. “We’re not going to make too big of deal out of this. We expected to come do this. Our mantra all week was, 'they don’t know what’s coming.' They look at that roster and see how big we are and they laugh and they make comments like, ‘we got the easy route now.’ These old yard dogs turned into street dog. They’re hungry; they go out and find their meal.”
Against San Antonio Central, the Mustangs struck early and often, racing out to a 34-7 lead to start the third quarter. As a team, the Mustangs rushed for 337 yards.
“First of all, I just got to give a shout out to the offensive line,” Rodriguez added. “We can’t do anything without them. These past two weeks, they’ve been working their tails off, they’ve been busting up holes. When we have a run game like that, it just opens up so many possibilities. That was part of our game plan. We knew we could throw the ball more and we did, but our offensive line is playing really good for us.”