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Tag: Trey Mongauzy

Vipers Survive 1st Round 14-13 over Bridgeland

Written by Steven Ryan on . Posted in HIGH SCHOOL FOOTBALL.

Vandegrift has played a number of close games over its two consecutive perfect regular seasons. Six of its wins, in fact, have been decided by a touchdown or less. With that said, it should be no surprise the Vipers are built for the fourth quarter. That showed true Friday, as Vandegrift scored back-to-back touchdowns in the final period to shock Bridgeland for a 14-13 comeback win at Monroe Stadium in Austin.

“I’m not sure if there’s any one moment that changed, but our guys’ consistent fight, I think you’ve seen that over the years. We’re never out of the game,” said Vandegrift coach Drew Sanders. “I’m just impressed with our fight. I always am. We’re never, ever, ever out of a game, and it just proved it once again tonight, and we’re happy to celebrate with a gold ball.”


“It’s good to have that experience in our belt,” senior linebacker Jax McCauley added about the recent history of close wins. “It builds a great team, having to face a little bit of adversity, so we were used to that coming in. This team never quits and that’s what I love about this team. We just keep fighting until the very end.”

The first three quarters weren’t pretty as Bridgeland dominated possession and took a 13-point lead that felt larger. Before Vandegrift began its comeback, the Bears had run 71 plays to the Vipers’ 20 and were crushing them in the total yardage department (327-90).

But the Vandegrift defense was in prime bend-but-don’t-break mode and had seven fourth-down stops to keep Bridgeland from pulling away. Then, with the Vipers down to their last breaths, the offense came alive.
First an 11-play, 76-yard drive ended with senior quarterback Dru Dawson tossing a 29-yard touchdown pass to sophomore wideout Blake Youngblood (6 catches, 82 yards) on a fake wide receiver screen to make it 13-7. Then, Dawson put the dagger through the heart with a 29-yard touchdown pass up the seam to senior Trey Mongauzy (4 catches, 72 yards) with 1:27 remaining to cap a 7-play, 75-yard scoring march.

“We made second-half adjustments,” McCauley said. “Coach Sanders is a great coach. He came into the locker room. He talked to us about what we have to do better and we made adjustments, dug down deep, and found a way to stop them.”


“It was a crazy game but we stuck together and that’s the main thing. We never gave up. Great overall win,” added Dawson. “We kept playing together and we kept trusting the play calls. We really just came down to executing our stuff, playing wishing our game, and our coaches put us in good position to move the ball, and we’re just clicking on all cylinders that last quarter.”


The one-point differential was possible because of a blocked extra-point by McCauley near the end of the first half, which Sanders pointed out as one of the most important plays in the game.


“One of the things I’d like to call attention to is we blocked the extra point right before half,” Sanders said. “We were favored. Everybody’s telling us we were good, whatever, and then we’re down it’s really easy to pout, and for our guys to come and fight and block that extra point. It ended up being the difference in the game so I really think that guaranteed is one of the turning points.”


“Coach Sanders called a block middle and Bridgeland is a unique team,” McCauley said. “They take a step sideways on the blocks instead of stepping straight and I just found a seam and just hit it there.”

Vipers beat Raiders

Written by Steven Ryan on . Posted in HIGH SCHOOL FOOTBALL.

This story has been written before, and will likely be written again. Vandegrift’s mighty defense went up against a high-scoring offense, and like it usually does in these situations, shut it down. The Vipers used a solid game plan, maximum effort and near-flawless execution to keep Vista Ridge (4-1) off the scoreboard for the first two-and-a-half quarters in a 31-12 win Friday at John Gupton Stadium in Leander, TX.

“We knew we’d be depending on our defense tonight,” said Vandegrift coach Drew Sanders. “We felt it was strength versus strength because they came in averaging over 40 points a game and for us to do what we did tonight, shut them out in the first half really I thought set a tone to our guys. We had a great week of work. We didn’t play particularly well last week in a win over Hendrickson and everybody kind of got down on us. I think the kids took that personal, came out and played really well tonight.”

The outcome might’ve been different if not for some costly mistakes by the Rangers. Vista Ridge marched down the field on its opening drive before Vandegrift stiffened up right before the goal line. Facing 4th & goal from the 1, the Rangers surprised the Vipers with a perfectly drawn up pass play. The execution fell short, however, as the wide receiver dropped a ball that hit him right in the numbers. On the ensuing possession, Vandegrift punched the reeling Rangers right in the mouth with junior running back Bowen Lewis (23 carries, 170 yards, 1 TD) breaking loose for a 48-yard score.

“We worked all week on our train check,” Sanders said, “which is the adjustment to their big, heavy set, and we executed it to perfection, and so I was really pleased to see that. It was first & goal from the 1, and it just shows a lot of guts on our defense to, first of all, do what you’re coached to do and then stop them four downs in a row. Huge credit to our defense, just unbelievable heart.”

The Rangers also had two back-breaking mistakes on special teams and a pair of lost fumbles, while Vandegrift played a clean game with zero turnovers and only two penalties. Vista Ridge had a deep snap sail over its punters head to set-up a five-yard touchdown run by sophomore running back Ryan Sheppard to open the second quarter. 

“That’s kind of what our defense does, it makes plays, and then our offense is opportunistic, and it’s also very specific and organized, and they do a great job of making the plays count,” Sanders said. “We’re not a super explosive offense, but we’re a very efficient offense that gets things done and it’s a recipe for winning ball games… I don’t know how people view us, but I think as I look at my own team I see us as a team that plays really sound, fundamental football. We don’t make many mistakes. We play good defense, we play efficient offense, we play solid special teams, and I think we’re a tough out for anybody we play.”

A lost fumble later in the period gave the Vipers another short field, which they took advantage of as senior quarterback Dru Dawson (8-for-13, 82 pass yards, 2 TDs, 48 rush yards) hooked up with senior wide receiver Trey Mongauzy for a 14-yard score. Vista Ridge opened the second half with another botched punt snap. The Vipers scored three plays later with Dawson finding Mongauzy (3 catches, 46 yards, 2 TDs) again to make it 31-0 and send the more casual fans scrambling to their cars.

“We get a great week of work in. We trust our coach’s game plan. They work really hard to put a great game plan in and we stay locked into the game. Good things happen when we stay locked in,” said senior defensive end Matthew Graham. “We (the defensive line) are not the biggest, but we play really hard, we believe in each other, we believe in our D-line coach, who’s an awesome guy, and we’re relentless. We always find a way.”

Rodney Vincent Vista Ridge Head Coach Talk with us on The Friday Night Countdown before facing the Vipers Defense.

Vipers shut out Timberwolves 17-0

Written by Steven Ryan on . Posted in HIGH SCHOOL FOOTBALL.

No. 2 Vandegrift started its season right where it left off. The Vipers delivered a dominant defensive performance, just like they did so many times last year, in a 17-0 shutout of No. 6 Cedar Park at Monroe Stadium on Friday in Austin.

“It’s impressive,” said Vandegrift coach Drew Sanders. “My defense surprised even me tonight because we replaced a lot of guys. We didn’t have everybody back. We replaced several guys on the defensive line, both corners, replaced a safety and replaced a linebacker, and for us to come out and play like that is just total belief in our system, and they really played with great effort.”

Vandegrift held Cedar Park to 140 yards on 49 plays for 2.9 yards per play and completely stuffed the ground game for two yards on 24 carries. Going back to last year’s matchup, the Vipers have kept the Timberwolves off the scoreboard in seven of eight quarters.

Cedar Park didn’t even cross midfield until the fourth quarter and needed a fake punt to do so. Junior defensive back Kaleb Lewis had two interceptions, the second of which came in the end zone late in the game to extinguish the Timberwolves’ best scoring threat.

“Our coaches really drilled it into our head to stay in coverage and a lot of those two plays were (Cedar Park quarterback) Ryder (Hernandez) scrambling around and I just kept my eyes on him and read his eyes, and when he threw it I was just sinking into place,” Lewis said. “It was just super exciting because I get to trust all those guys and I really trust them and you can tell with how we all play and communicate and I was just in the right position because we trust the coaches and they gave us good play calls.”

Vandegrift leaned on two players for almost all of its offensive production with junior running back Bowen Lewis and senior wide receiver Trey Mongauzy combining for 252 of the Vipers’ 275 total yards. Mongauzy broke the Vipers out of an early funk by breaking free for a 59-yard touchdown catch in the second quarter and finished with 10 grabs for 125 yards. Lewis iced the game with a 54-yard scoring burst in the final minutes while posting 127 yards on 23 carries.

“That’s a play we ran against Klein Collins in the second round (of the playoffs) last year and I caught it for a lot of yards. (Cedar Park) is super aggressive and they tried to undercut, so just putting a double-move corner-post on them, we knew it was going to work,” Mongauzy said of his score. “Just a lot of studying. Throughout the game, we were finding holes in their defense and we kinda just attacked them. We found good rhythm and were just hitting everything.”

Vandegrift follows its resounding season-opening win with a Thursday night road game at Killeen Ellison next week. Cedar Park will hope to rebound with a home game against Round Rock Cedar Ridge on Friday.