08:37 AM CST on Saturday, December 10, 2005

By Ethan B. Szatmary / Staff Writer

TYLER — The roads on the way to Tyler from Argyle were choked with SUVs decked out in shoe polish, cheering on their hometown boys.

Argyle’s presence in Tyler was evident at the Rudy’s Country Story and BBQ, two miles away from Trinity Mother Frances Rose Stadium where two buses pulled off the road over two hours from game time, and red and black-clad fans packed the joint, gnawing on rib bones as they dreamed about their boys devouring Newton.

“Where’s your dad?” one father asked a friend of his daughter.

“He went hunting this morning,” she answered.

“Doesn’t he know where he’s supposed to be?” the father answered with disbelief.

Outside the stadium, it was more of the same, with buses lined up row after row more than an hour before the game started — most of them still filled with fans waiting to brave the game-time temperature of 37 degrees.

“There’s two types of people — the ones that are just happy to be here and the ones that think, man, we can do this,” said Toby Slough, father of sophomore reserve Ross Slough. “Oh yeah, I think we can do it. That’s the great thing about 2A high school football — on any given night, anything can happen.”

Once the Argyle fans got inside the stadium, they found out that anything can happen, as their boys put together a furious comeback attempt.

The Argyle fans refused to leave in the second half after their boys fell behind 28-7 at halftime, and many of them remained as the boys lingered on the field after the game, cheering them on and trying to comfort them after such a hard loss.

“Todd Rodgers has changed this town,” Slough said. “He’s established a culture that is unbelievable for the kids that are in our high school.”

Watch the hair

Argyle borrowed a page from Southlake Carroll and its whole team got dye jobs before Friday’s state championship.

However, unlike the Dragons who go peroxide blonde for the entire playoffs, the Eagles went with jet black to match their uniforms.

Celina vs. Newton?

By halftime of Friday’s Division I state championship, the question of who would win between Division II and No. 1-ranked Celina and Division I and No. 2-ranked Newton began circulating through the press box.

When this question was posed to 2004 Argyle graduate and former all-state wide receiver Mike McBride, he didn’t hesitate, and McBride knows a thing about playing the Bobcats from his days in 13-2A.

“Newton—no doubt,” he said. “They’ve got too much speed for Celina.”

In his defense, McBride hadn’t seen the second half yet.

Newtongood on 4th down

With Newton already up 7-0, Argyle had a chance to stop Newton on a fourth-and-1 from the Argyle 35, but fullback Jermaine Nash put a nice juke move on to get to the 33 and pick up the first down.

On the next play, Newton quarterback Darrell Jenkins kept the ball on the option and reversed field 21 yards to the Argyle 11.

Then, Argyle buckled down and held Newton to a fourth-and-5 attempt from the 6-yard line. This time, Newton went to tailback Toddrick Pendland, and he got stopped at the 1-yard line but still picked up the first down.

Pendland struck again in the second quarter, scoring on a draw play on fourth-and-23 from Argyle’s 23-yard line.

Argyle got it straight in the second half, and stopped Jenkins on a fourth-and-4 at his own 21-yard line with 3:13 left to keep alive its hopes of a rally.

What goes around

In last week’s state semifinals, Argyle got up 28-6 on Early and had to hold on for a 28-20 win. In the state championship, Argyle experienced almost the exact opposite, falling behind 28-7 before rallying to lose 28-20. 

Argyle uses Early play

Last week against Early, the Longhorns repeatedly hurt Argyle with a direct snap to its running back.

In the third quarter, Argyle ran the play, and senior running back Jeff Martz broke free for 15 yards.