Published: September 29, 2007 02:29 am      

Waxahachie’s control of clock was key to win

Controlling the line of scrimmage and time of possession is an old fashioned trick that worked for the Waxahachie Indians Friday night in the District 15-4A opener for both teams.

In the first half the Indians defense gave up a total of 8 yards of offense to the Tigers while gaining 235 yards of total offense of their own.

But what really told the story Friday night was the Indians ability to take drives and run time off the clock.

Waxahachie controlled possessions for 18:04 in the first half while only allowing the Tigers just 5:56 in the first half to get anything done.

“That’s our game plan every week,” Waxahachie coach David Ream said. “I am kind of an old fashioned coach, but when you have the ball and you eliminate the other team’s ability to do anything with the ball.”

The Indians first two possessions took a total of 15:52 minutes in the first half.

The Indians first drive was 14 plays for 73 yards and took 6:55 off the clock starting from their own 28-yard-line.

The longest play of that drive was a 14-yard run from running back Sam Gaglinano from the Waxahachie 42 yard line.

On Waxahachie’s second possession the Indians built a drive that went 20 plays for 76 yards and took 8:57 off the clock before a 29-yard field goal from Colton Dobbins.

“They controlled the line of scrimmage that is for sure,” Tigers coach Dave Henigan said.

“You got to hand it to them, they deserved it and took it to us.”

The Indians came out in the second half and picked up where they left off.

With the Tigers getting the ball first, the Indians held the to a 4-down-and-out that took just 1:24 off the clock.

Waxahachie took over on the Corsicana 49-yard line and built another drive that lasted 4 plays for 49 yards and 1:34 off the clock.

At that point in the game the Tigers had 2 yards of total offense.

“I think our defense really played better than I have seen them play all year,” Ream said.

“We did a good job of holding them to 3-and-out drives, but they managed to put up some points in the second half.”

Corsicana finally put a drive of their own together late in the third quarter when Omarius Hines ran in a 3-yard touchdown on a drive that lasted 8 plays for 58 yards and took 2:10 off the clock.

But Waxahachie’s ball control again plagued the Tigers.

With 4:24 left in the third quarter, the Indians held the ball for 3:30 before punting from their own 43 yard line.

After a quick three-and-out from the Tigers, the Indians put together another long drive that took 4:15 off the clock early in the fourth quarter.

“I don’t want to make excuses, but we were playing without three of our best defenders and we dug ourselves a big hole early in the game.”