VYPE Live High School Football Playoffs: Fort Bend Marshall vs. A&M Consolidated
Fort Bend Marshall (10-1), the 4th-ranked team in the state in class 5A, clashes tonight with the team one notch above them in the rankings at #3: 11-0 A&M Consolidated. Listen to the game live on vypefortbend.com starting at 6:45PM, with Roger Smith and James Kowalewski announcing.
There's rain in the Friday forecast as the two teams anticipate their meeting at Cy Fair ISD's Pridgeon Stadium in the 2nd (area) round of the UIL 5A-Division II football playoffs. It's a re-match of their 2nd-round meeting the day after Thanksgiving last year. The Buffs won that one in Tomball, 49-31, en route to their first-ever appearance in the state championship game. Aledo beat Marshall, 55-19, and it was the 15-1 Buffs' only loss in 2018.
The Tigers led District 10-5A (Div. 2) in offense with 416.5 yards per game. They averaged 45.4 points per game during the regular season and blew out Longview Pine Tree, 42-14, in their playoff opener last week. QB Gage Pahl has thrown for 2,128 yards, 27 TDs and only four interceptions. On defense, AMC surrendered only 11.8 points and 246.7 yards per game during the regular season.
Perhaps Consolidated's biggest strength on defense is intercepting passes. They've had 19 picks in their 11 games: Jamarquis Stewart, Kerry Brooks and Makel Williams have three each, and two other Tigers' defenders have two. However, just as he did in last year's playoff meeting, Marshall QB Malik Hornsby goes into tonight's game having thrown no interceptions. He's thrown 21 touchdown passes in 11 games.
Devon Achane, the Buffs' lightning-fast senior running back, scored four touchdowns in last week's 48-14 bi-district triumph over Port Neches-Groves. Achane had 150 all-purpose yards in the game, and has 1,394 rushing yards in 2019, a 12.8 yards-per-carry average and 25 rushing TDs.
Next week, the winner of the Marshall-Consolidated showdown faces the survivor of the Saturday afternoon Huntsville-Crosby battle.
