ESPN RISE

It's December, which means Katy (Texas) High School football coach Gary Joseph sounds like he's a few thousand miles past due for a oil change. But that's a good thing for the Tigers who, as usual, have more miles to travel ahead in the playoffs.

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Katy coach Gary Joseph is ready for another run at the state championship.

Katy boasts five state football championships, including last year's 16-game unbeaten run straight through the Class 5A Division II bracket. This year's Tigers opened with two losses, and they closed the regular season with a defeat that denied them a district title for the first time since 2002.

But that has been practically forgotten on the heels of three convincing postseason wins. After dominating Dickinson 38-7 on Saturday, the Tigers (10-3) will travel to Rice University in Houston to face La Porte (8-4) on Saturday afternoon. Katy is playing for a regional title for the 12th time in 13 years.

"We've gotten better every week, and that's the big secret for us," Joseph said in his raspy voice. "That's the only way we've been able to survive this thing. If we can continue to do that, we'll be in the ballgame this week."

Katy returned only three starters from last year's squad, which was barely challenged in the 2007 playoffs; its smallest margin of victory was 16 points. That team sent six players on to college football, five to major colleges. This team starts three sophomores on defense, plays six regularly and might not have anyone posing for cameras on signing day in February.

No problem, said Joseph, who has compiled a 65-7 record since replacing 22-year head coach Mike Johnston in 2004.

"The one thing I was careful not to do in this thing is try to compare 'em," Joseph said. "This team is a team in its own."

But it took a little tweaking early. The Tigers opened with a 10-6 loss to Galena Park North Shore, the perennial power that hasn't lost a regular-season game since 2000. Then there was a 47-0 pasting at the hands of The Woodlands.

"We felt like the North Shore game we played pretty well, from a team standpoint," Joseph said. "We had opportunities to win. We didn't feel as desperate as we did after The Woodlands game."

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Katy RB Will Jeffery has been a big contributor to the Tigers' rushing attack.

An off week helped the Tigers regroup, and they took a three-game winning streak into district play, which was an entirely new animal this year. For the first time, all six schools in the Katy district -- which includes more than 16,000 high school students just beyond Houston's west side -- are classified in 5A. District 17-5A is only the Katy schools, which means four of six reach the postseason.

Three programs from the Katy school district reached the third round of the football playoffs for the first time. Cinco Ranch, which only lost once during the regular season, was defeated last weekend by unbeaten Fort Bend Hightower 24-21. And Katy Taylor, which came into the playoffs without a post-season win since 1986, fell to unbeaten Pearland 35-7.

The Tigers rode the running of senior Michael Webber (979 yards on 137 carries) and junior Will Jeffery (840 on 107), plus the passing of senior Parker Ray (1,287 yards) to seven consecutive victories. Katy faced Katy Cinco Ranch for the district championship with both already having clinched playoff berths.

Cinco Ranch won in overtime 27-21 for the Cougars' first win ever over the Tigers, and also their first district title. For Joseph, the immediate challenge was to make sure his players responded properly to the Cinco Ranch loss without the benefit of an off week.

"As far as making a playoff run, it really didn't really mean anything," he said. "We talked about how Converse Judson had gotten to the state-championship game last year [in 5A Division I] with three losses. And the Pflugerville team we played [in the Division II final] was there with three losses, so anything was possible.

"We lost the game against Cinco, but we didn't lose our pride. I think our kids expected to make a playoff run."

La Porte also opened the year with two non-district losses, and was 1-4 overall before closing with a run of four wins to finish third in District 22-5A, plus three more in the postseason. And the running has primarily been done by 220-pound junior Kendrick Perkins in an I-formation similar to Katy's. Perkins has rushed for 1,693 yards, including 226 yards and three touchdowns in last weekend's 27-17 victory over Houston Madison.

"When we played Flower Mound Marcus, we faced a back like La Porte has," Joseph said. "If we can execute and not turn the ball over, I feel we'll be able to match up pretty well with them."

If so, the voice will need to crank out more mileage.

Jeff Miller is a freelance writer and can be reached at miller.jeff55@gmail.com.