This Signals the End of Football Season...

Outside of a few rare exceptions (Including one team coached by one of the few [only?] readers of this blog) the quality of basketball in the are is the exact opposite of the quality of football here. So, it's always fun to get to see a football team make a deep run in the playoffs of better yet make it to the state championship game. That minimizes the bad basketball to only a month.

With that said, the Brownwood Lions were the best chance in the area to make a deep run in the playoffs, which they were doing. Their biggest test of the year was going to be against Carthage, the 2-time defending Class 3A state champs. If there was a team that was tailor made to beat Brownwood it was Carthage. They were big and controlled the lines, plus had plenty of speed and could limit possessions.

Carthage kept Brownwood off balance all night and pushed them around in the trenches. Despite Carthage dominating the game, Brownwood was never out of it and had a chance to tie things up on the final drive. And the final drive was the Jaxon Shipley show.

I've said it more than a few time that Jaxon Shipley is the best high school wide receiver I've ever seen play, I think I may have to amend that to say he's the best high school football player I've ever seen. He pretty much took the game over on the last drive making an amazing catch between three defenders on 4th-and-24 to keep things alive. He was getting the ball and everyone in the stadium knew it yet there was nothing the defense could do about it. Brownwood ended up driving down to the 2 yard line and on the last play of the game Carthage tipped the final pass away intended for Shipley to end it. It was a damn good game and almost had a storybook ending. Oh well time for basketball, and if you have a chance to see Shipley playing for the University of Texas next year, go for it. He's going to be a damn good player!