The 55th meeting of this age-old gridiron showdown, the ‘Border Battle’, originated when the neighboring City of La Porte began playing football in 1921 and the City of Deer Park in 1940, but the rivalry did not begin until 1946. Deer Park won the first meeting, 8-0. Thanks to a 15-game win streak between 1975 and 1991, La Porte lead the all-time series, 28-25-1. The old oil towns have grown up rooting against one another – divided as proud alumni from Deer Park Deers or the La Porte Bulldogs! Attendance is usually about 10,000 ticketed spectators, and both teams are very competitive in their regions. The game presold the entire stadium capacity of 11,000, and sold an additional 3,000 standing-room only gate tickets – the largest crowd in the feud’s history!

MVP

Cobra Jones

La Porte

SCHOLAR ATHLETES

Tommy Mesa

Deer Park

Tommy is a 2 year varisty football and 2 year varsity track letterman. He is a member of the National Honor Society, PALS, and FCA where he will be a group leader. Tommy also excels in choir, where he is in the swing choir group.

Eric Kendzior

La Porte

HALL OF FAME

Bryan White

Deer Park

Bryan played wide receiver for Deer Park from 1992-1994. In 1992 Deer Park ended a 22 year losing streak to La Porte by Deer Park scoring a touchdown with 2 minutes left in the game. In 1993 the Deer Park and La Porte played a televised game but lost 13-10 that year. In Bryan’s senior season Deer Park traveled to La Porte for the second game of the year. The game became a non conference due to district restructuring. This year Deer Park was the favorite to win over La Porte for the first time in many years. Bryan had just come off a huge game from the week before with 6 touchdowns (4 receiving, 2 Punt Returns) and 250 receiving yards. In the La Porte game Bryan had one 39 yd receiving touchdown in the third quarter.

Todd Schoppe

La Porte

Todd Schoppe played center for the La Porte High School Bulldogs during his years in high school, and was named as an Academic-All American. Todd decided to stay close to home and chose to play for the University of Houston under legendary coach Bill Yeoman, and decided to focus on becoming a teacher/coach after college. The rivalry games between La Porte and Deer Park have always remained his most memorable.

GAME SUMMARY

Deer Park tried to consume a 17-point deficit over the final 10 minutes, scoring two touchdowns with the help of a suddenly resurgent passing attack but the Deer ran out of time and timeouts, enabling the Bulldogs to lead from start to finish in the 55th meeting between the two. MVP player Cobra Jones (#46, Bulldogs) had an impressive performance, returning two kickoffs for touchdowns.