Gholson: Tenaha too tough, fast for Munday

ARLINGTON — This was the first time I had covered Munday football this season. So all I really knew about the Moguls was what I had read in this newspaper.

I knew they could really run. They certainly showed that by winning a state championship in track last spring.

I knew quarterback Dee Paul was a stud whose blazing speed got Munday to the Class A state title game.

What I didn't know was how good the kids from Tenaha were.

The Tigers were stronger and better than the Moguls. And maybe just as fast.

All that translated into a 52-28 win for the guys from East Texas here Thursday afternoon at Cowboys Stadium.

You could see this coming in the first four minutes.

Tenaha took the opening kickoff, turned two short passes into 29- and 24-yard gains and had a 7-0 lead in just four plays.

Chavis Gregory dropped Paul for a 9-yard loss on Munday's first offensive play. Octavius Griffith knocked the junior quarterback on his keister for a 5-yard loss on the next play.

And it really never got much better for the Moguls.

"I told the kids at halftime that something is different for us. For the first time this year, we were not going to be able to big-play somebody. We were going to have to be able to grind it out," Munday coach Pat Corcoran explained. "Unfortunately that's just kinda not our M.O. Our offensive line really doesn't fit up to that."

Tenaha's second touchdown came on a 65-yard pass from Reginald Davis to J.R. Hill. The next one was an 86-yard Davis run. And before the evening was over, Davis had scored on an 80-yard punt return and set up another TD with a 74-yard run.

That's the kind of stuff that got Munday here.

Paul did dart 42 yards to help the Moguls get their first touchdown, but for the most part, the Tigers kept the speedy quarterback from beating them with the big play.

"They have a lot of speed, and they wouldn't let me use my speed," Paul said. "Everybody was flying to the ball, which impressed me a lot. I think their defense played a lot better than we had seen on film."

Corcoran said that the Tigers' defense hadn't shown that aggressiveness in the film he had seen of their last few games. Then he got a "bootleg" film of an earlier game this season and saw more of what he saw here.

"They ran sideline to sideline with us and didn't leave any gaps or cutbacks. They really flowed," the Munday coach said. "Their backside defensive linemen really took those things away on cutbacks and things like that. We didn't get the backside sealed off. They pursued down the line and caused those things to not be there."

Even though the first half seemed really lopsided, the Moguls were still in it at the break.

They were only down 24-13 and had the ball first in the second half. One big run, and we've got ourselves a ballgame.

Instead of that one big run, they got one big turnover.

LaDarren Cooks stripped the ball away from Tyrone Neskorik on the second play of the second half, and the ball popped right into the hands of defensive back Keontas Davis.

Reginald Davis made them pay for that mistake with a quick 26-yard touchdown pass that pretty much let everyone here know that Tenaha would be an undefeated state champion and Munday would be the silver medalist.

As good as Blanford Paul is — and this senior is an outstanding Class A defensive tackle — the Munday defense never had an answer for the Tigers, who had averaged 57 points a game in the playoffs.

And Tenaha's defense did a number on a Munday team that had averaged 56 points a game in the playoffs.

"I think our defense is very physical. It was just tonight we were outmanned," Dee Paul said. "Speed-wise, I knew they were that good, but physically, I didn't know they were that good. I think they're a bigger version of us. That's all it was. We know what we have to do now. On Monday, we have to get in the weight room, get some of that power and come back strong next year."

The people in Windthorst and Stamford may not want to hear it, but Tenaha was the best team Munday played this year.

And the Tigers saved their best for last.

They had to.

Sports Editor Nick Gholson can be reached at gholsonn@timesrecordnews.com or 940-720-3447.