There are six-man blowouts and then there are BLOWOUTS

By JAIME ARON / AP Sports Writer

DALLAS (AP) - The score was Watauga Harvest Christian 105, Fort Worth Christian Temple 13. And that was just at halftime.

Even in the wacky world of six-man football, this game - which, mercifully, ended at halftime - was unique.

"We knew we were going to beat them, but we didn't know it was going to be like this," said coach Brig Thompson, whose school is playing football this year for the first time.

"It's not like we were doing anything to run up the score. I just couldn't keep my guys out of the end zone. I used every person on the bench and was ready to pull some people out of the stands."

Thompson tried attributing the blowout to the fact last Saturday's game was played on artificial turf. It was the first time his team played on a plastic rug, and he figured they just really took to it.

After some prodding, he finally admitted: "There was some talent difference between the teams."

Some?

-- Harvest Christian scored 15 touchdowns in 20 minutes (two 10-minute quarters). The first eight touchdowns came in the game's first five minutes.

"I looked up at the clock with about five minutes left in the first quarter and we were up 64-0," said Thompson, whose team eventually led 87-0 before being scored upon.

--The touchdowns accounted for only 90 points. The rest of the scoring came on three safeties, four extra-point kicks (worth two points each) and one extra-point conversion run (worth one point).

They missed the other 10 extra-point tries.

-- Harvest Christian had only 19 offensive plays, and scored on eight of them. The other seven touchdowns came on defense or special teams, prompting Thompson to observe: "Whenever you score almost as many touchdowns on one side of the ball as you do the other, you're going to really wax somebody."

-- Ten of Harvest Christian's touchdowns were scored by Alfred Latu. Four were on punt returns, four on receptions, one on a kickoff return and one on a run.

-- This was the fourth time in nine Harvest Christian games that the 45-point mercy rule was invoked. Other games were halted with scores of 52-6, 51-6, 71-20 and 64-0; another game that wasn't stopped finished 96-55.

But Harvest Christian didn't win all of those. Top-ranked Abilene Christian High School won the 71-20 game.

"It didn't feel too good, but they deserved it," Thompson said. "I'm glad the clock ran out (in the first half) or else they would've gone to 100 the way we were playing."

-- There won't be an encore.

Granbury Oak Trail Christian was supposed to be this weekend's opponent, but they forfeited Monday. It's not what you think.

"They were down to seven players and two of them got hurt last weekend," said Thompson, who team is 6-3 but will miss the playoffs because of a 2-2 district record that places it third.

As of Wednesday, Thompson was still trying to find someone to play this weekend. He doesn't have many options - there are only 20 private high schools in Texas that play six-man football, and 89 public schools.

Harvest Christian just joined that group this year. The private school opened last year and fielded basketball and baseball teams, but waited until this fall to begin playing football.

Had there been enough players, the school would've played traditional 11-man. But with only 12 players there wasn't much of a choice.

None of the guys had ever played six-man before, but after seeing videos of it they couldn't wait. Same with Thompson, who had never even been to a six-man game much less coached one, before this season. Smartly, he hired an assistant who had coached at a district rival.

Six-Man is different from 11-man in more ways than five fewer players per side. The field is 80 yards long and 40 yards wide, it takes 15 yards to get a first down and there must be a clean exchange in the backfield before the ball can cross the line of scrimmage (in other words, the quarterback can't take a snap and run).

The wide-open game lends itself to high scores, yet the 100-point barrier is still a milestone. Thompson said losing coach Jim Allen even told him that he understood the urge to go for it.

"How many times in your life will a team have a chance to get 100 points?" Thompson quoted Allen as saying.

However, both coaches had a problem with the way it happened.

Harvest Christian had gone up 99-6 with just over a minute left when, on the ensuing kickoff, they basically let Christian Temple return it for a touchdown.

"Our kids were afraid they weren't going to get the ball back, so they just watched him go by," Thompson said.

The players later admitted their mistake, and even wanted to apologize to Allen and his team in person. Instead, Thompson agreed to let the team captain write a letter that all his teammates signed.

"I also have a special regimen of punishment," he said, laughing. "It won't be a pleasant experience."