Preview: North Shore Mustangs

http://www.5atexasfootball.com/Gridiron … hShore.htm

Additional Thoughts (not in above preview)

The biggest unknown for the Mustangs going into this season is definitely quarterback play. North Shore’s been able to pass the ball more in recent seasons because they’ve had quarterbacks who could pass well. It remains to be seen whether or not Tillman will be able to make the same plays. Tillman is a good athlete, so he has the ability to hurt people on the ground. Tillman got some mop up snaps last year as a back-up to Jeremiah McGinty (TD Club Offensive Player of the Year).

The two running backs, DeAundre Jones (Sr.) and Tracy Woods (Jr.), are both very talented players. Woods will remind Tiger fans of Aundre Dean with his frame and downhill running. Jones is a scat back who poses a threat to score every time he touches the ball. North Shore missed both of these players to injury in the lead up to the Judson game last year, and that was a big reason the Mustangs failed to generate the kind of offense they had been in previous weeks. Junior OL Trey Hopkins is regarded as one of the top young OL prospects in Texas.

Senior LB Daniel Salinas is the leader on defense. Salinas makes all the calls as the middle backer in North Shore’s 4-3 front. I was very impressed with his play when I saw North Shore play last year. He always seemed to be around the football.

In my opinion, the toughest task for Katy’s offense will be getting North Shore’s front seven blocked. The Mustangs are very quick on defense and play an attacking style. If the Tiger OL is off execution wise, North Shore will set up camp in the backfield. The Mustangs are also very athletic in the secondary. I think the Tigers’ biggest weapon on offense will be the playaction game. As mentioned above, North Shore plays an attacking style and the Tigers can use that against them if they can establish the playaction/misdirection elements.

Katy’s biggest challenge on defense will be keeping North Shore’s speed contained. Katy needs to be prepared to make plays in the open field. The Tiger defense will have to be very disciplined in their gap control responsibilities in order to limit big plays. North Shore tight end Barrett Matthews is a huge threat any time he touches the ball. Tiger defenders will have to go low and wrap in order to get Matthews down. If they try and hit him waist up, Matthews will simply shrug them off and keep going. Matthews is also dominant as a blocker, so he will be a handful. When North Shore passes, they like to hit home runs so the secondary must be aware of that and not lose track of the Mustangs running downfield. North Shore will pass to the tailbacks on screens and flares. The Mustangs get scatbacks like Jones every year, and they like to pass to them in the flat and let them make people miss in the open field. North Shore uses I form and shotgun formations primarily. Their signature play from the I is a lead draw. They like to run the zone read from the Gun.

Katy has an advantage in the kicking game thanks to the return of senior K Raul Balbuena. North Shore lost a 4-year starter to graduation, so they will have a new kicker. However, their soccer program has been very good lately and they usually find someone good there to cherry pick for the football team. As you might expect, North Shore’s return units are very dangerous.

Overall, I think this will be a very interesting game to watch. Both teams can learn a lot from this game regardless of what happens. North Shore has a big edge in returning experience, and they are defending a 70-game regular season winning streak. However, Katy’s obviously not your average program and I’ll wager to guess they’ll be prepared to go to GPISD and put their best effort forward.