Feb 04, 2012
Dawson's defense steps up again to keep Eagles perfect
October 6, 2009
LA MARQUE — The old adage that offense wins games but defense wins championships is proving to be true as the No. 3 area-ranked Dawson Eagles traveled to face traditionally rich La Marque and returned home with a monumental 28-21 win over the Cougars to remain perfect at 5-0 and in the hunt for the District 24-4A championship.
Against Manvel, the Dawson "D" made a goal line stand to post a 21-20 win in the district opener for both teams.
But going to La Marque and beating the Cougars on their own home turf is a major stride in such a young football program. But it was a statement in how much the Eagles have grown since the last year's game with La Marque.
Dawson led 27-26 last year late in the game only to watch the Cougars pull out a 33-27 win. But this year's Dawson team wasn't going to allow that to happen again.
It was also a special time for head coach Eric Wells who played for the Cougars and became an assistant coach before moving to Pearland.
“I was a student and a coach here so this is great,” he said. “It’s great to come home. The funny thing is when I played here we were on this sideline. When I coached here, we were on this sideline. Now the home field is over there, so I still haven’t lost on this sideline.”
Dawson struck paydirt first when wide receiver Piaget Gauthier made an incredible catch between two La Marque defenders for a 28-yard touchdown from quarterback Darian Lazard.
However - La Marque answered with a 13-play scoring drive capped off by a two-yard run by Timothy Wright to tie up the game at 7-7.
The two teams traded punts before Dawson's David Farris broke through the line to block a La Marque punt giving the Eagles the ball at the 33.
It only took six plays for the Eagle to strike again as Lazard used his speed and nifty moves to evade the La Marque defenders for a crowd-pleasing 33 yard scoring run for a 14-7 lead.
With only 40 seconds left in the first half, La Marque tied up the game on a 23-yard scoring pass from Emmanuel Williams to Logan Hutton.
It didn't take Dawson long to set the tone for the second half as Lazard fired a 38-yard strike to Marcus Vaughn setting up the Eagles at the La Marque two-yard line. Akeem Blackshire bulled his way across the goal line to give Dawson a 21-14 lead.
But La Marque wasn't going to give in this district tug-of-war.
Early in the final stanza, La Marque got a 45-yard punt return by Michael Gilmore. Williams scored on a one-yard sneak to tie up the game for the third time at 21-21.
But the Eagles set their sights on the goal line for a fourth time which turned out to be the game-winner with Blackshire scoring his second touchdown of the contest for a 28-21 lead with 3:42 left in the game.
That's when the Dawson defense made sure that La Marque wasn't going to penetrate their end zone with the late goal line stand keyed by defensive back Dominique Charles' leap in front of a receiver to bat down a potential scoring pass. The final play for La Marque from the Dawson seven-yard line resulted in an incomplete pass.
Dawson is 5-0 overall and 2-0 in district while La Marque drops to 2-3 on the season and 0-2 in league play.
Xavier Brown led Dawson’s rushing attack with 64 yards on 16 carries, while Lazard added 48 yards on 16 rushes. Lazard also completed 7-of-10 passes for 118 yards. Vaughn pulled in four of those passes for 49 yards.
The season doesn't get any easier as Dawson will host No. 7 state-ranked Angleton, a 48-33 winner over Friendswood, at The Rig this coming Friday, October 9 at 7:00 p.m.