Smoking For Jesus wins San Marcos Academy’s 6-on-6 tourney
NOTE: The Smoking For Jesus Ministry School football team is hosting the Christian School of Castle Hill at 6 p.m. Friday, June 24, on the Eagles home field, RR 2342 in Burnet.
The Smoking For Jesus Ministry School football team won the San Marcos Academy 6-on-6 tournament June 18 thanks to posting a 6-1 record.
The Eagles defeated Rochelle 44-20 in the championship after Rochelle beat them in pool play 18-6. Smoking For Jesus beat San Marcos Academy 8-6 in the semifinals after posting a 48-0 win against them in pool play. Other victories were against the Christian School of Castle Hill 30-0, Texas School for the Deaf 14-8 and Cherokee 22-14.
Head coach Charles Frazier, Sr. said the blowout wins against Castle Hills and San Marcos Academy may have given his players a false sense they’d win every game that way.
“I told them, ‘Don’t get comfortable with this,'” he said. “By the time we got to Texas School for the Deaf, the intensity picked up. That’s when we started to play well.”
Games in pool play had a 24-minute running clock. But when bracket play started, the format switched to two 12-minute halves with a five-minute halftime. The Eagles spent as much time as possible under tents and drank plenty of fluids to stay hydrated.
Frazier said he thought his players may have gotten “overconfident a little bit” with wins against Castle Hills, San Marcos Academy and Texas School for the Deaf before playing Rochelle the first time. So when the two teams met for the championship, the coach told the players only the quarterback was to talk in the huddle and to “go play our game.”
“We were hitting on all cylinders,” he said. “(Senior quarterback) Issac Legier was definitely in the zone. He was locked down. He hit every receiver to try to put them in the best possible situation.”
Smoking For Jesus scored a touchdown and a two-point conversion for the win against San Marcos Academy though some thought the Eagles were awarded a touchdown they didn’t get. Frazier said his receiver went into the end zone without getting tagged, and the official, who was standing on the opponents’ sideline, saw it the same way. But San Marcos Academy believed the defender tagged the receiver. The touchdown stood and the Eagles got a turnover to seal the win.
“It got real competitive real quick,” the coache said. “Our defense really stepped up.”
Going into the tournament, Frazier wanted to see the players’ chemistry on the field, particularly between the quarterback and receivers, and how his younger players would respond with only three seniors on the 2022 squad. The coach’s favorite play was when Legier had to make a play where he directed senior receiver Jonathan Frazier to roll left for a touchdown pass.
“He threw a perfect dime in the end zone,” the coach said. “It was amazing to see them connect with one another. It was incredible. I wanted to see what kind of connections my guys had. I only have three seniors on the team. (My younger guys) in pressure stepped up huge.”
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