1999-12-12

By Philip Forester / Special Contributor to The Dallas Morning News

ABILENE - Before the season, Ryan Sienty and a handful of his Commerce teammates got together and formulated marching orders for the 1999 season. They came up with the acronym WAR, which stands for "Want a Revenge."

Thanks to Saturday's 30-0 mashing of the previously unbeaten Crane Golden Cranes Saturday in the Class 3A Division II semifinal at Shotwell Stadium, the Tigers will get their wish. Commerce (15-0) will move on to face Sealy (14-0), the team that beat the Tigers for the 1995 and 1997 championships. The old foes will meet at 7 p.m. Saturday at Texas Stadium for the title.

"It's amazing that it's Sealy every year," said Commerce coach Steve Lineweaver of the five-time defending champions, who advanced to the title game with a 27-14 semifinal win over Robinson on Friday night. "You just know you have to go through Sealy to win the state championship."

The win over Crane undid what had been a golden season for the Cranes (14-1), who had allowed just 137.3 yards and 6.0 points per game for the first 14 weeks of the season. Commerce had eclipsed that yardage total by the first play of the second quarter. For perspective's sake, the Golden Cranes did not allow their 24th point of the season until Week 8 against Greenwood. The Tigers had that by halftime.

"We knew Crane would be a challenge for us, because they had stopped some pretty good teams this year. They had shut out six teams," said Sienty, who ran for 90 yards and a score from his fullback position - the same spot he occupied two years ago as a sophomore when the Tigers suffered a 28-21 state title loss to Sealy.

"We just came out today and were hoping to play smash-up football," Sienty said.

The Tigers ground out 280 yards of offense on the day - 221 of it in the first half. But it was the Commerce defense that proved to be the deciding factor. The Tigers forced five turnovers from a team that had lost the ball only 11 times this year - including three interceptions from defensive back Greg Washington. Crane managed only 173 total yards - just 70 on the ground.

"What we wanted to do today was shut down their running game and then make them go to the next option, the pass," said Washington, a senior whose brother, Kerrie, played for the 1995 state-finalist team that lost to Sealy, 21-20. "We wanted this rematch so bad."

Sienty capped off the opening drive of the game with a 5-yard touchdown run to give the Tigers a 6-0 lead. Chad Anderson then threw the first of his two touchdown passes, a 35-yard strike to Brodrick Kelley on a hitch route, to give Commerce a 14-0 lead. After a Sienty field goal, Anderson and Avin Johnson hooked up on a 26-yard touchdown pass just before halftime.

Anderson closed out the scoring in the fourth quarter with a 1-yard sneak to put the game away and give the Tigers their wish - a chance for revenge.

Philip Forester is a Garland-based free-lance writer.