Moving to the quarterfinals
12/7/2011 1:02:00 PM | Football
The Bearkats know it all too well and hardly need any reminding that their second-round playoff victory over Stony Brook was as tough as they come.
But as it looks ahead to this week's quarterfinal matchup against Montana State, Sam Houston also hopes to learn some valuable lessons from its 34-27 come-from-behind victory over the Seawolves.
"Everybody that's in the playoffs has a good football team and has the ability to win," said Sam Houston head coach Willie Fritz following Tuesday evening's practice. "I think it was a good experience for us because we weren't quite sure what to expect.
"It's playoff football now. There's more intensity and more at stake. Mistakes are magnified. We didn't know much about the team we were playing. I thought (Stony Brook) was a good ball club. You can say it, but you've got to experience it first because everybody in the playoffs is going to be good."
Coming into the third quarter of Saturday's second-round playoff game with a 10-3 deficit and managing just 73 yards of offense, the Bearkats turned things around and forced three consecutive three-and-outs. Sam Houston then took advantage of good field position and scored 14 unanswered points in the third quarter to retake the lead at 17-10.
A see-saw battle ensued in the fourth quarter as Sam Houston and Stony Brook exchanged field goals and then touchdowns. The Seawolves eventually tied the game at 27. The Bearkats then marched 83 yards on 10 plays for the go-ahead and eventual game-winning 7-yard touchdown run by running back Tim Flanders, milking five and a half minutes off the clock.
Sam Houston's defense stood tall, forcing four straight incompletions to seal the Bearkats' first playoff victory in seven years - the last time SHSU appeared in the postseason.
"We'll take every one we can get by one point," Fritz said. "We haven't had a whole lot of close ballgames this year. This was good for us to play a game that came down to the very end."
As Sam Houston looks forward to facing Montana State and possibly advancing to the semifinals, winning their first playoff game also takes a huge weight off the Bearkats' shoulders.
"Just as an inexperienced team, we're all really young. Most of us are pretty young. Just getting the playoff victory under our belt was big," Sam Houston quarterback Brian Bell said. "None of us had ever really been in the playoffs before. Just finding a way to win and getting that experience was big for us in hopefully games to come.
"It pretty much taught us that none of this is going to be easy. Nobody said it was going to be easy. We're just going to have to come more focused and more prepared each and every week."
Knowing that one bad day or even a few ineffective offensive or defensive series can spell the end of their season, the Bearkats realize that there is an even smaller margin for error now.
In the first and second quarters against the Seawolves, the Bearkats had a few key incompletions that could've resulted in touchdowns and also had harmful penalties that either took away a Sam Houston score or extended Stony Brook possessions.
"That, I think, was a little bit of a wake-up call for us. In the playoffs, you've got to play for four quarters," Fritz said.
The defense, which has been one of the Bearkats' strongest aspects of their game this season, also picked up a few valuable lessons after Stony Brook gained big chunks of yards on Sam Houston's secondary.
The Seawolves rallied for a pair of fourth-quarter touchdowns to erase a pair of seven-point deficits to push the Kats all the way to the end.
"Like the coaches tell us, we've got to play one of eleven and we all have got to play the right gaps and right assignments," defensive lineman Jarrett Brown said. "Every team from this point forward is good. This is a whole another season."
Playoff game general admission tickets for $15 are on sale now on line at www.gobearkats.com and at the Sam Houston athletic ticket office all week. The ticket office, located in the Ron Mafrige Field House at Bowers Stadium, will be open from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. Monday through Friday.
Thanks to the contributions of area Huntsville and Conroe businesses, Sam Houston State students will receive a $5 discount on the normal NCAA Playoff ticket price of $10. The $5 student tickets will be on sale in the mall area in front of the Lowman Student Center Wednesday through Thursday from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. and at the SHSU athletic ticket office in the field house.
For more information about tickets, call the ticket office at (936) 294-1729.
