TAPPS Division I all-state

Seven Nolan football players were among the 96 players named to the 2013 TAPPS Division I all-state football team.

Houston St. Thomas had 12 players selected to the teams. Houston St. Pius X, San Antonio Antonian and Austin St. Michael’s each had nine players. Tomball Concordia Lutheran had 8, followed by Nolan and TCA-Addison with seven players each.

There were first-, second- and honorable mention teams named. Each team included 32 players.

The complete team is here: http://tapps.net/wp-content/uploads/FootballAllStateDivI2013-2014.pdf

Here are the Nolan players listed:

FIRST TEAM DEFENSE
PLAYER	SCHOOL	POS.	CL.
Brennan Murnane	Nolan Catholic	LB	Sr.
Miles Murray	Nolan Catholic	LB	Sr.
FIRST TEAM OFFENSE
Charlton Nguyen	Nolan Catholic	OL	Sr.
SECOND TEAM DEFENSE
Max Walker	Nolan Catholic	DL	Sr.
Stephen Jolissaint	Nolan Catholic	DB	Sr.
SECOND TEAM OFFENSE
David Authier	Nolan Catholic	OB	Sr.
HONORABLE MENTION OFFENSE
Nick Boudreaux	Nolan Catholic	TE	Jr.

Breakdown by schools (1STD = First-team defense; 1STO = First-team offense; 2NDD = Second-team defense; 2NDO = Second-team offense; HMD = Honorable mention defense; HMO = Honorable mention offense

TOTAL	SCHOOL	1STD	1STO	2NDD`	2NDO	HMD	HMO
12	Houston St. Thomas	2	0	3	4	1	2
9	Houston St. Pius X	1	3	1	1	2	1
9	San Antonio Antonian	2	2	0	0	4	1
9	Austin St. Michael’s	1	2	2	2	0	2
8	Tomball Concordia Lutheran	1	1	2	1	1	2
7	NOLAN CATHOLIC	2	1	2	1	0	1
7	TCA-Addison	0	3	0	2	2	0
6	Plano Prestonwood	1	1	2	2	0	0
5	Dallas Bishop Dunne	3	0	0	1	0	1
5	San Antonio Central Catholic	1	0	2	1	0	1
4	Argyle Liberty Christian	2	2	0	0	0	0
4	Brownsville St. Joseph	0	0	0	1	1	2
3	Dallas Bishop Lynch	0	1	0	0	2	0
3	San Antonio St. Anthony	0	0	1	0	1	1
3	Beaumont Kelly	0	0	1	0	1	1
2	Corpus Christi John Paul II	0	0	0	0	1	1
96	TOTAL	16	16	16	16	16	16

Nolan 24, Prestonwood 21 — special teams

Nick Boudreaux isn’t usually on the hands team for kickoff returns. And the junior was about 25-30 yards away from where  Prestonwood tried an onside kick attempt with 3:34 remaining in the state championship game.

But Boudreaux hustled over from his spot on the front line — positioned closer to the Nolan sideline than the Prestonwood sideline where the kick ended up. Boudreaux found the football rolling around amid a mass of mostly Prestonwood players and recovered it to help secure the victory.

Coach Joe Prud’homme said Boudreaux had to replace the injured Patrick Rich on the hands team.

Because of Rich’s injury, Pierce Braden also had to step in and hold for kicks and he did a fine job.  Grant Muehlstein made 3-of-3 extra point attempts and was 1-of-2 on field goal attempts.

After the missed field goal attempt before the first half ended, deep snapper  Jeremy LaGroue, Braden and Muehlstein practiced about 20 snaps and holds. All of this took place in the locker room before the second half started.

Other standouts on special teams:

• Kevin Choate had a nice 31-yard return on Prestonwood’s kickoff after its first score. It set up Nolan in good field position for its initial drive. Choate made several smart decisions on punt returns. He let three punts bounce rather than risk picking up a bouncing ball while outnumbered. He also made a nice tumbling fair catch in the second quarter on a punt, probably saving 10-15 yards in field position.
• LaGroue did his usual steady job of delivering the ball well. LaGroue also hustled and downed a Muehlstein punt at the Prestonwood 9 before the end of the first half.
• Andrew Riethman did a solid job on kickoffs, averaging 51.6 yards on five kicks.  My observation was that several of the kicks were directional kicks as well, probably sacrificing some yardage to limit the field for the returner.
• Kick coverage was very good, even allowing for the 37-yard return to open the game. Prestonwood’s other four kickoff returns went for 23, 20, 18 and 15 yards.

A look at the kicking games on Tuesday:

PRESTONWOOD	CATEGORY	NOLAN CATHOLIC
4/142	kickoffs/total yardage	5/258
35.5	kickoff average	51.6
5/113	kickoff returns/total yardage	4/61
22.6	kickoff return average	15.3
5/166	punts/total yardage	4/110
33.2	punts average	27.3
4-0	punt returns/total yardage	5-0
—	punt return average	—
0	fair catches	2
3/3	extra points/attempts	3/3
0/0	field goals/attempts	1/2

Nolan 24, Prestonwood 21 — offensive line/tight ends

The Vikings ran the ball almost 80 percent of the game (55 rushes in 69 plays). And why not?

The offensive line of left tackle Eric Jones, left guard Will Elmer, center Jose Pina, right guard James Hill and right tackle Charlton Nguyen paved the way for a big night for Luke Alves (36 carries, 153 yards) while Jacob Walden, David Authier, Patrick Rich and Pierce Braden combined for almost another 100 yards.

The Vikings used a lot of 2- and 3-tight end sets to great effectiveness as well. Nick Boudreaux, Jeremy LaGroue and Johnathon Muraski often formed eight-man fronts with the offensiive line and then the defense still has to contend with B back Authier barreling into the pile. The Vikings were particularly effective running between the tackles.

On the go-ahead touchdown drive in the third quarter, two plays stood out. On third and 1 from the Prestonwood 45, Walden ran the wedge play up the middle for nine yards. NINE on a play probably designed to get 1-2.

Then on Alves’ touchdown run over RG Hill, Boudreaux, Authier and Nguyen had nice interior blocks to open the hole.

The wedge was also utilized on Walden’s 1-yard touchdown run which put the Vikings up by 10 points.

Though the Vikings completed only 3-of-14 pass attempts, pass protection seemed solid and one of the completions was the 79-yard TD to Authier. On the interception, It did look as though Walden’s arm was hit as he was throwing.

The offense averaged 36.1 points and rushed for 3,990 yards this season. Here’s how the offense and running game stacked up this season.

Best rushing totals in school history:

RK.	YEAR	SEASON TOTAL		RK.	YEAR	AVG. PER GAME
1.	2010	4,025		1.	2013	285.0
2.	2013	3,990		2.	2011	270.8
3.	2011	3,791		3.	2010	268.3
4.	2012	3,437		4.	2005	246.9
5.	2005	3,210		5.	2012	245.5

Championship thoughts — the O-line

(Photo by Dick Kirby)

Offensive line deserved a lot of credit in that win. 279 yards rushing (5.6 avg.) and 21 first downs. Prud’homme was hit a couple of times right after releasing a throw but mostly had time to pass. The majority of the game was LT Eric Jones, LG Nate Adams, C Joe Pina, RG Ryan Messer, RT Charlton Nguyen. TE Nick Boudreaux and TE Jeremy LaGroue. That’s 2 seniors (Messer and Adams), 3 juniors (Jones, LaGroue, Nguyen) 1 sophomore (Boudreaux) and 1 freshman (Pina). Bodes well for the future. Offensive line coach Deason does an outstanding job with that unit year in and year out. Some O-line thoughts:

• The first three rushing TDs went to the left side behind Adams and Jones. B-back Authier had nice kick-out blocks on two of the scores.
• On the Montez 28 TD run in the second quarter, Will Elmer snapped the ball in place of Pina, who lost his helmet the previous play and presumably had to come out because of that. Impressive that there was no problem with the snap on that play.
• The fourth rushing TD came off right tackle Nguyen and right guard Messer. Both kicked their guys inside and Montez read it well.
• The final drive was a clinic in running the option. I counted five options plays on the winning drive — accounting for 38 yards and melting away the clock on that final possession.
• For the year, I had Nolan with 3,437 yards rushing — third best in school history. And the offense averaged 348.9 total yards per game — eighth best in school history.