Pearland throttles South Houston 68-7; playoffs next

Pearland throttles South Houston 68-7; playoffs next
    For the 25th straight year, the Pearland Oilers will advance to the playoffs after closing out the 2024 football season with an 8-2 mark to finish in second place in the District 22-6A standings.
    The Oilers haven’t missed the post-season since 1999. In 2000, Pearland beat Deer Park 35-13 in the Astrodome for their first playoff win in 50 years. But they haven’t missed the playoffs since that time. Only Katy and North Shore have more consecutive years of making the playoffs.
    Pearland (8-2) will host the Fort Bend Travis Tigers (5-5) on Friday, November 15 at 7:00 p.m. at The Rig on the first round.
    FB Travis lost their first five games of the season to start 0-5 but won the next five district games. Their two league losses were to District 21-6A champion Ridge Point and district runner-up Hightower. The Tigers finished third in the district at 5-2.
    Pearland enters the bi-district contest at 8-2 overall and 7-1 in district behind league winner Shadow Creek (9-1, 8-0). The Oilers are in the 6A Div I with Dobie while Shadow Creek and Manvel are in the 6A Div II bracket.
    The Oilers are coming off a 68-7 pounding of South Houston in the regular season finale and seem to be peaking at the right time as the playoffs begin.
    Pearland will be depending on several players on offense to lead them into the post-season starting with junior QB Jake Westmoreland who is the field general on the field. Westmoreland is 79-of-130 passing for 1,397 yards and 19 touchdowns and one interception. He also has 148 yards on the ground on 26 carries and four TDs.
    The leading rusher is Tate Chisolm who has 137 carries for 955 yards and 13 touchdowns while catching six passes for 93 yards and three TDs.
    Sophomore running back Ryan Miller has 35 carries for 284 yards and six TDs. Backup QB Steven Craft has 18 carries for 218 yards and two scores. Craft also is 15-of-28 passing for 208 yards and one TD.
    The leading receiver is junior WR Jordan “The Jet” Hernandez who has 52 catches for 908 yards and 13 touchdowns. WR Nicolas Fernandez has seven grabs for 209 yards and one score. WR Luca Sanchez has 10 catches for 129 yards.
    The Oilers are averaging 217 yards rushing and 161 yards passing for each game as well as 42.3 points per game.
    Pearland closed out the regular season with a 68-7 pasting over the South Houston Trojans to end their season.
    Offensively, the Oilers completely dominated the district contest with two scores in the first quarter and three scores in the second period for a 35-7 lead at intermission.
    Pearland added a touchdown and a field goal in the third to bump the score to 45-7 entering the final period.
    The fourth quarter saw Pearland score three touchdowns and a safety to make the final score 68-7.