Geneva’s rugged football schedule continues this week with the Eagles visiting Shiner St. Paul Catholic.
The Cardinals have won four straight state TAPPS state championships and six in the last seven seasons.
Game time is set for 7:30 p.m. in Shiner.
Geneva is 1-3 and has dropped three straight after winning its opener on Aug. 26 against Austin St. Michael’s (27-20). Since then Geneva has fallen to Randolph (27-21), Austin Regents (47-0) and last Friday to Blanco (26-7).
Geneva fell behind 19-0 and was driving on an incredible 17-play, 10-minute drive but turned it over with an interception that Trevin Young returned for a 100-yard Pick 6 to make it 26-0.
“It was great effort but bad execution,” Geneva coach Julius Scott said about the drive. “We made some mistakes, that happens in games. I don’t like it but that’s a pretty good team over there.”
To its credit, Geneva went down the field later in the game and scored to get on the board. What was interesting about last Friday’s third quarter is that Blanco didn’t run one offensive snap in the period.
Geneva held the ball 10 minutes before the turnover and after the kickoff they started another drive and killed the remaining time off the clock to take the game to the fourth quarter, never allowing the Panthers offense on the field in the third but Blanco still scored in the stanza.
The Eagles scored in the fourth period when Geneva QB Jacob Rosenstiel hit KP FitzGerald on a 36-yard touchdown strike to erase the shutout.
Scott said he liked how his team played hard until the end.
“I told the kids I was just as proud of them tonight as I was three weeks ago against St. Michael’s,” he said about the team’s only win. “We’re playing a lot of folks both ways and we were hanging with them. These Cats are fighting their tail off, they come to work every day and I’m really proud of them.”
Geneva actually outgained Blanco in last week’s game in total yardage (249-243), had more first downs (16-15), more snaps (65-54) and more passing yards (156-65).
Scott said they didn’t beat Blanco but felt they improved as a team after putting up good numbers.
“Everybody wants to win but we’re playing good teams,” he said. “We fought tonight and I’m telling you, we’re playing schools two and three times bigger than us but tonight we got way better.”
Luke Kaiser finished with 4 tackles, 4 assists and a tackle for a loss and George Viña also had 4 tackles, 4 assists and a tackle for a loss.
Scott said the team has to play a smoother game. Last week’s contest was marred by 13 first-quarter penalties by both teams combined.
“I’m very pleased with the effort but we have things we have to clean up. We have penalties that are drive killers,” he said. “We need to concentrate on execution and stay away from negative plays and senseless penalties.”
Shiner St. Paul’s Catholic enters the game at 2-2 with losses to Flatonia (35-0) and Muenster Sacred Heart (30-20) and wins against TMI – Episcopal (38-35) and Legacy Prep Christian Academy (49-6) last week.
Scott said the Cardinals may be 2-2 but knows they are a confident team with all those state championships under their belt.
“They execute very well and are fundamentally sound,” he said. “They’ve won four state championships in a row.”
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