Argyle to collide with powerhouse Newton in state championship

09:37 AM CST on Friday, December 9, 2005

By Ethan B. Szatmary / Staff Writer

ARGYLE — At the beginning of the season, one team was dreaming about getting to the state championship, and the other expected to return there. Dreams and expectations came true.

DRC/Gary Payne

Argyle running back Jeff Martz (42) runs the ball as Pattonville Prairiland’s Dayne Sessums tries to bring him down during the second quarter of their area round playoff game on Nov. 18 at Wilkerson Sanders Stadium in Rockwall. Argyle (11-3) is set to take on Newton (12-0) for the Class 2A Division I state championship tonight at 7 in Tyler.

Newton (12-0), a school with two state titles and 30 playoff appearances under its belt, lost to Boyd in the 2004 Class 2A Division I state championship, 17-14. Newton started the season ranked No. 1 in Class 2A by the Associated Press, and the expectation for Curtis Barbay’s boys was they were going back to state in 2005.

The first day of two-a-days in Argyle back in August ended with a crowd of sweaty boys, shrouded in red, huddled together in a bunch. They broke the huddle with one word — “State!” It wasn’t the cheer of a team that has been there but one that dreams of making it to the pinnacle of Texas high school football.

Dreams and expectations collide tonight when Newton meets Argyle (11-3) in the Class 2A Division I state championship at 7 p.m. in Tyler’s Rose Stadium.

Now that it’s here, Argyle isn’t fantasizing about going to state, it’s thinking about winning it.

“They’re a good team. They lost in the state finals by three points. They’ve been ranked first or second all year,” Argyle senior running back Jeff Martz said of Newton. “But, we have nothing to lose. We want to take something they have. We just have to go out and play our hardest and see what we can do. We’re not scared.

“You still have to play the football game.”

Newton gives ample reason for Argyle to be concerned, if not scared. Newton has outscored its opponents 554-109 on the season, and the closest things to a challenge it has seen were a 35-21 win over Jasper during non-district and a 26-6 win over Hughes Springs in the playoffs.

Ask Argyle head coach Todd Rodgers or any of his assistants how to assess Newton, and they all respond quickly with one word: speed.

Newton doesn’t have one swift runner — it has a flock. Four different Newton players average 8.4 yards per carry or better.

Senior Toddrick Pendland has rushed for 1,086 yards and 22 touchdowns on 109 carries and caught 14 passes for 357 yards and five touchdowns. Junior quarterback and safety Darrell Jenkins has cruised to 817 yards and 14 touchdowns on 86 carries and leads the team with eight interceptions. Senior running back Jermaine Nash has 788 yards on 93 carries and three interceptions. Sophomore Justin McLemore has been able to accumulate 49 carries for 486 yards and six touchdowns during mop-up time.

With so many options, Barbay likes to run every which way, but he will also mix up defenses.

“We throw a lot on first down,” Barbay said. “We do a lot of play action because we’re able to run the ball so well.”

In addition to Pendland, both Terrence Freeman and Meredith Diggles average better than 20 yards per catch. Freeman has 12 catches for 246 yards and four touchdowns, and Diggles has caught nine passes for 314 yards and four touchdowns.

Argyle is not powerless to stop Newton. The Argyle defense has gone up against potent running and passing attacks from athletic teams — and beaten them soundly. In the bi-district playoffs, Argyle faced two of the area’s top 100 recruits in Scurry-Rosser running back D’Marcus Lang and wide receiver Phillip Burley. The Argyle defense harassed Lang into 53 yards rushing, and Burley only had two catches for 37 yards. Argyle pulled the same number on Troy’s 1,400-yard rusher, Shawn Dawaghrah. He had only 54 yards on the ground in Argyle’s 32-0 regional final win.

Still, nobody has stopped Newton this season. Its lowest point total is 21 against Deweyville during a hectic stretch to recover time lost due to Hurricane Rita. Argyle knows it needs to score.

“Our defense can do a good job of holding them down, and our offense just has to out-score them,” senior quarterback Will Peyton said.

Argyle’s spread offense is a direct contrast to Newton’s. Peyton spreads the ball around to his receivers to open the run up for Martz and everybody gets a piece of the pie.

Martz has rushed for 2,017 yards and 24 touchdowns, Peyton has thrown for 2,598 yards and 18 touchdowns, junior receiver Brice Bode has 1,156 yards receiving and nine touchdowns, senior tight end Victor Gill has 540 yards receiving and five touchdowns and senior receiver Seth Anderson has come on strong at the end of the year with 429 yards and three touchdowns receiving.

“We like the offense that we run,” Rodgers said. “We think we can score on anybody in three plays. They like the style of offense that they run because it burns the clock, and they play ball-control offense. We play a possession offense, and we want as many possessions as we can get.”

Barbay is just as confident in his defense stopping Argyle as he is of his offense running on Argyle.

“Our plan is to get to him [Argyle quarterback Will Peyton] all night and make things miserable for him,” Barbay said.

The key to the game, Rodgers said, is counteracting Newton’s speed on both sides of the ball with Argyle’s strength — its size. For a 2A school, Argyle has a beefy all-senior offensive line that is a big reason why Martz broke the 2,000-yard barrier. Gill stands 6-5 and has the leaping ability of the basketball player he is, and Bode has a fearless knack for going airborne over the middle and coming down with the ball. Defensively, mammoth 6-2, 300-pound defensive tackle Nathan Martinez demands double teams.

“It’s going to be speed versus size. We have performed well on the defensive line in the playoffs, and I think that is a strength,” Rodgers said. “Our size with our offensive receivers is definitely a strength. It’s real. Who’s to say who is going to prevail? Who’s to say that speed will prevail?”

And who’s to say that the team with expectations beats the team that dreams?

ETHAN B. SZATMARY can be reached at 940-566-6869. His e-mail address is eszatmary@dentonrc.com .