ROCKDALE—With less than a minute left to play and the score tied at 19 in their Pool Play opener, Rockdale’s Jose Castillo was able to undercut the route of a Madisonville receiver to get an interception, which ultimately led to the Tiger seven-on-seven squad winning the game, 26-19.
After their battle with MHS, the Tigers were anything but finished. The Blue-and-Gold won three more and clinched what is their ninth trip to the State 7-on-7 Championships since 2007.
“We just didn’t overthink it, we just went out and played,” Rockdale High School head coach Jacob Campsey said. “But (after Madisonville), we played with a kind of confidence that I haven’t seen in a long time.”
“It was really kind of special to watch it all unfold,” he said.
Tiger ballers went on to get a comfortable victory over Class 4A La Grange (35-20) to get past the second round. Momentum continued to build in their matchup with district foe and 2021 Class 3A-I state champion Lorena, who had the majority of their receivers and running backs from their state team on the field Saturday.
“I think the big one was Lorena,” Campsey said. “That was a really fun one, talk about having your confidence at an all-time high.”
Like their opening game with Madisonville, Rockdale defeated Lorena by a seven-point margin, beating the Leopards, 33-26.
To win Saturday’s State Qualifier Tournament and move on to state, the Tigers took down 2021 Class 3A-II state champion and new district foe Franklin, 33-20. Campsey said that his players won convincingly.
“Going into that championship game against Franklin, we just continued,” he said. “I think at one point, we were up 26-7 at the half, so it wasn’t ever close throughout the game.”
“The guys just played lights out all day long and you could see the confidence being built as the day went on,” he added.
STATE—The next stop for the Tigers is College Station, where the Texas State 7-on-7 Championships will take place.
Rockdale, who is classified as a Division II school, will begin play on Thursday, June 23. If the Blue-and-Gold keeps winning, the title game is scheduled to take place on Friday, June 24.
According to Taylor coach and former Rockdale offensive coordinator Brandon Houston, who helps coordinate the state tourney, games won’t be announced until right before the tournament.
This is the ninth time Rockdale has qualified for state in 7-on-7, and the first time they’ve qualified since the summer of 2017, when they had Torry Locklin and Jaquayln Crawford. Locklin now plays at the University of Kansas and Crawford plays for the University of Arkansas.
This is also the first Rockdale state qualifier to advance since they reduced the number of qualifiers from 64 to 32 teams.
The Reporter will post game times for Rockdale on our social media when they are made available to the public.
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