Pearland Dominates Second Half to Get Win Over Katy Paetow

Pearland head coach B.J. Gotte took over the reins of the Oilers football fortunes in 2022. In 2021, he closed out his fourth season as the head coach of Katy Paetow that included a Class 5A Div I state crown.

Katy Paetow opened their doors in 2019, and Gotte was the school’s first head football coach.

However, in 2023, Gotte felt it was time to take on a new challenge and that’s when he came to Pearland who was in desperate need of a new leader.

Gotte is beginning his fifth season at the helm of the Oilers, and he prepared his team against the Panthers as he always does each week and the results was a convincing 38-14 non-district win to improve to 2-0 on the season.

The first half proved to be a back-and-forth battle with the Oilers getting a 37-yard field goal by Holden Macneish as time expired at the end of the second period giving Pearland a 17-14 lead at intermission.

The Oilers forced the Panthers to punt on their first possession setting up the Pearland offense at their own 20-yard line.

Pearland used a seven-play, 80-yard drive to score when senior WR Grayson George took a pitch and threw a pass to QB Kalab Smith on a flea-flicker play resulting in a 20-yard scoring toss with 3:09 left in the opening quarter giving the Oilers a 7-0 lead.

Katy Paetow began their second possession at their own 25 following the ensuing kickoff and got a 73-yard run to the Oilers two-yard line on the first play from scrimmage.

Two plays later, the Pearland defense forced and recovered a fumble at the one yard line.

Unable to move the ball, the Oilers were forced to punt giving the back to the Panthers at the Pearland 42.

Paetow wasted little time when Z’vion Greer scored on a 33-yard dash to tie the game at 7-7 with 10:18 left in the second quarter.

Pearland began their next possession at their own 48 and found paydirt on an 8-play drive capped off with a great 10-yard run by senior RB Ryan Miller giving the Oilers a 14-7 lead with 4:24 remaining in the first half.

The Panthers took just over two minutes to even the score at 14-14 when Cayden Ayro scored on a 5-yard run with 2:09 left in the second frame.

The Oilers used the final minutes to set up a 37-yard field goal by Macneish for the 17-14 halftime lead.

The second half was a different game as the Pearland defense shutout Paetow for the rest of the game while the Oiler offense got in gear to score 21 unanswered led by junior running back Royce Swan who had led the ground attack with 24 carries for 209 yards and one score.

Pearland scored once in the third quarter on a pass from QB Smith to senior TE Karon Johnson covering 24-yards for a 24-14 lead with 9:59 left in the third.

The Oilers stretched the lead to 31-14 in the fourth frame when Miller got loose on a crowd-pleasing 52-yard scoring jaunt.

Pearland put the dagger in the game when Swan scored on an exciting 17-yard run to post the 38-14 final score with 4:37 remaining in the game.

Joining Swan in the ground attack was Miller who had 76 yards on six carries and one score while Will Torres had four totes for 62 yards.

Macneish hit 5-of-5 PATs and one field goal.
Smith was 10-of-16 for 94 yards and one TD.
Pearland’s offense had 360 yards rushing and 102 yards passing for a total of 462 yards.

Pearland’s defense held the Panthers to 144 yards rushing and 69 yards passing for a total of 213 yards and two scores.

The Oilers (2-0) open up District 19-6A action on Thursday, September 10 at Pasadena Veterans Stadium against the Dobie Longhorns (1-1) at 6:30 p.m.