By Thomas Sellers Jr.
A single point separated the Germantown Red Devils and Houston Mustangs in the regular season.
Since the 14-13 win by Germantown back in September, the Red Devils continued their run in 2023 to a 12-0 record. James Thomas and his Houston Mustangs regrouped and rolled off 9 wins a row entering Friday night’s rematch.
The Mustangs left the Germantown Red Devil Stadium owners of 10 straight victories, a Class 6A Quarterfinal 30-10 win and bragging rights in the Battle of Germantown.
“I love this team,” Thomas declared moments after the win. “We’re getting ready to head up to Nashville and it should be great next week.
“My defense showed up tonight,” he added. “I am so proud of my guys. We played all three phases tonight. I felt like we played our best game this year. Germantown is a great team over there.”
After a scoreless first quarter, both teams traded field goals to make the score 3-3. Houston (11-2) grabbed the advantage over the Red Devils before halftime when Mustang quarterback Chandler Day threw a backdoor screen to Damon Sisa for a 22-yard touchdown. Houston was ahead 10-3 going into the locker room.
The Red Devils (12-1) fought to keep their unbeaten mark and season alive with a scoring drive to open the second half. Germantown marched the ball down the field to the one-yard line. Cordero Walker did the honors with the TD run to deadlock the game at 10-10 with 8:51 left in the third quarter.
Houston had a quick response when Day connected with Shawne Jones for a big gain inside the Germantown red zone. On the next play Day hit Andre Allen on a slant to make the score 17-10.
“Shawne Johnson really stepped up and made some big catches, big plays,” Thomas noted. “Chandler Day commanded the ball and controlled the offense the entire night.
“Damon Sisa ran hard,” he added. “People didn’t know, but he wasn’t healthy all season. He was battling injuries and played through them a lot. Now he’s fresh and back to his normal self for this playoff run.”
Sisa displayed his MVP form by taking over the Mustang offense with a 16-yard touchdown run to make the score 24-10 near the end of the third quarter.
Sisa’s touchdown was set up by a Chyco Williams II interception. Thomas said Williams, Allen, Karlos Humphreys and Ladeadrick James were awesome in the secondary all night. He also praised the seven in front of the quartet.
“We got a couple of sacks on them tonight,” he said. “We’ve got some turnovers in the secondary. Owen Waggener plays both sides of the ball and got that last one to ceil the deal. He’s just a warrior playing H-Back for us. Then he plays middle linebacker for us. He barely comes off the field. He’s the cog of our team and an unsung hero.”
Waggener dropped back in coverage and snatched a Germantown pass out of the air with 8 minutes and 25 seconds left in the game.
The Mustangs iced the game when Jones was on the receiving end of a Day 22-yard pass to make the final 30-10. Now Houston has to prepare for a trip to Brentwood after the Bruins were victorious 27-20 vs. Ravenwood.
“I have been around a lot of teams and teams that face adversity and look it right in the face, they come out better on the other end,” Thomas said. “We were 1-2 at one point of time. There were a lot of people pointing fingers at us.
“They didn’t know if we were doing the right thing,” he concluded. “I said, ‘Just keep going. We’re a good football team. Let’s just stay with the process. We’re going to be good.’”
