By STEPHEN MONAHAN, Sports Editor
Gainesville Daily Register
Lindsay —
The Sacred Heart Tigers and Lindsay Knights are coming off stellar performances from Week 0.
The Tigers whipped up on Petrolia 40-6 while the Knights disposed of Tom Bean 35-19, giving both teams some added confidence heading into the second week of non-district play.
“It was good to get that first win especially with a real young offensive line and they executed the game plan well,” Sacred Heart coach Dale Schilling said. “Defensively, we flew around to the ball. We did have some first game mistakes, few fumbles, penalites, but I think we can get it all corrected by this week.
As for Bounds, he was glad to get a win, but after watching the game back, he knows there are some glaring mistakes that need to be corrected.
“It’s always good to be 1-0, that’s always good for the kids morale and have a reward for the hard work they put in,” Lindsy coach Cody Bounds said. “We have a long ways to go. Going back to film, we didn’t look very good. We’ve got to get back to work and we’re trying to do that this week.
Both teams sport a big-play athlete at their skill positions. Sacred Heart boasts senior quarterback Matt Hesse who rushed for 152 yards and threw for 116 more through the air, combining for four total touchdowns (three rushing) against Petrolia. On the other side, Lindsay looks to the speedy and elusive Robert Arend at running back. who rushed for 151 yards and two scores against Tom Bean.
Coach Bounds knows that containing Hesse will be a challenge for his squad.
“They have some unbelievable skill kids and some linemen that will get after you, and if not the best quarterback in the county,” he said. “They have athletes all over the place. It’s going to be difficult to say the least.”
And the same goes for Schilling and the Tigers when it comes to containing Arend and the rest of the Lindsay running backs.
“It’s a great opportunity to have,” Schilling said. “It’s good for both schools and both communities. The fans are going to like it. It’s good to get them back on the schedule. We did scrimmage them (in the past), but it’s not the same as playing them. “We’ve got to take it up another notch on our belt because they are a good team. They’ve got speed and are well coached. We are going to have to play lights out to play with them.”
Collinsville at Era, 7:30 p.m.
ERA — Era and Collinsville are coming into Friday’s match-up with similar mindsets: avenging losses from the previous week.
Era, which played well on defense and special teams against Blue Ridge last week, according to coach J.D. Henderson. But the Hornets failed to click on offense due to lack of execution, a few illnesses and the oh-so-hated injury bug, resulting in a 20-0 loss to the Tigers.
“I thought we played really good defense for most of the night,” Henderson said in retrospect. “We gave up an offenive touchdown on a fumble in the first half. In the second half, we gave up one deep pass and one long run, other than that we played pretty good defense all night.
“We played good special teams, we blocked a punt and blocked an extra point, which are things we try to do every week. Two-thirds of our part of the game we played well. Offensively, we are just not in sync right now. We’re so thin on numbers, when you lose one kid, it actually changes what we can and can’t do. We had to do some things that we haven’t spent a lot of time working on. We couldn’t get in a rhythm. We are going to have to do better there if we want to win any games.
As for Collinsville, the Pirates lost out to Class 2A Howe 26-12, which could have been a result of a numbers game and conditioning. The Pirates hung close until the second half, scoring on a rushing touchdown by Chris Carney and on a 40-yard return after a blocked field goal attempt by the Bulldogs.
Henderson said he feels the Pirates will be geared up for Friday’s game, so his Hornets will need to provide some offensive support to compete.
“They’re a really good football team and they got beat last week too,” Henderson said of the Pirates. “They probably feel like that’s an upset, so they’re going to be ready to play, so we’re going to have to be ready to play. They’re really good up front. They play a really aggressive style of defense. We have to play good defense and make plays on special teams and execute better to give ourselves a chance.”
FW All Saints at Callisburg, 7:30 p.m.
CALLISBURG — In his seventh year as the head coach of the Callisburg Wildcats, Jerry Bomar may not have seen a worst performance by a Wildcats offense last week.
Totaling just 81 yards of offense, the Wildcats lost out to Class 3A Bonham in the season opener 8-0.
But just because the result was ugly, that does not mean the effort was lacking.
“We’re real disappointed,” Bomar said. “I knew Bonham would play hard and they have a good defensive team. I never thought that we would play as poorly as we did offensively. Other than one drive, our defense played well all game. We dug ourselves in a big hole and (we) didn’t know how to get out of it. We played about as bad as you can play in the game, but we gave good effort and I was proud of that. We’ve just got to move forward.”
Now it’s up to quarterback Colton Holder, running back Clay McKenzie and the offensive line to find a spark against a tough private school in Fort Worth All Saints Espiscopal Friday night.
Otherwise, the coaching staff may go back to the drawing board.
“What I want to see, is I want to see us grow up a little bit and see improvement,” Bomar said. “As long as I see improvement then I think we are on the right path. We can’t be stagnant and if we dont improve then we will have to take some drastic steps after the game. If we play well I think we’ve got a shot in the game, we’ve just go to get some confidence early.”
These two programs have met in the past, splitting both contests.
Bomar knows to take the series lead under his regime, the Wildcats will need to continue to play solid defense and find a way to move the ball offensively against a very athletic team.
“They are going to have to get after it because All Saints is a better team than Bonham,” the coach said. “They are a big private school and have big numbers.
“They have outstanding talent. They beat us once and we beat them once. They’re solid and have good athletes. They played really well. They’re tough to beat. They throw it, run it and play good defense. They are historically a top-flight program.”
Muenster at Nocona, 7:30 p.m.
MUENSTER — First-year coach Brady Carney and the Muenster Hornets got that early monkey off the coach’s back by beating Ponder 34-13.
Now it’s time to move forward and improve as the non-district schedule plays on.
“It was exciting,” Carney said of his first win as a head coach. “But at the same time there’s things we did in the first game that concern me that we need to improve on.
“I felt like we came out with good intensity in the first half. It just took us awhile to adjust to the new things they were doing to us.”
The offense clicked early, that’s for sure.
The Hornets scored twice on just four plays. The first? A 67-yard touchdown pass from quarterback Tyler Anderle to Andy Flusche.
The second score came on a 65-yard touchdown by Chase Hammer, the first of two in the game for the Hornets’ running back.
Anderle finished with 180 yards through the air and tossed three touchdowns while Hammer rushed for 118 yards. On the receiving end, last year’s area leader in receiving Jason Luke took over where he left off, hauling in six catches for 123 yards.
Now the test comes against Nocona, who is coming off a loss last week.
Carney said if his team can continue that momentum, ease up on the mistakes and maintain their intensity for four quarter, the Hornets could be 2-0 at the end of Friday night.
“It’s another 2A program which is always concerning because of the numbers,” said Carney of Nocona. “They’re a younger team. They’re big up front, they’re physical, got some speed and are very athletic.
“It’s going to be a battle. If we go in and play a good football game we’ve got a chance to win.”
Valley View at Tom Bean, 7:30 p.m.
VALLEY VIEW — The Valley View Eagles showed resilience and patience last week, pulling away in the fourth quarter for an 8-7 win at home against a stacked Gunter program.
“The good thing about it is that you stay with your game plan and thats what we did,” Kloiber said. “We did a good job of being patient. Going in we knew Gunter was going to be good defensively.
“We didn’t do a good job opening up our passing game, so we’ve got to get better in that. Our quarterback’s got to pull the trigger some. You can’t complete a ball unless you throw.
“Defensively, we just played base defense all night. A team like a wing-T team, you’ve really got to believe in your game plan because you can make mistakes. You’ve just got to be real, real discipled to sit in there and play base. The kids did a really good job all night in believing what we’ve been coaching.
While that’s a confidence-boosting start, first-year coach Kurtis Kloiber and the Eagles are going back to the drawing board a bit against Tom Bean.
“First and foremost, the difficult thing playing Tom Bean after Gunter is we were playing some smash mouth football and this is the first time we’ll see a spread-type offense,” Kloiber said. “We are trying to get adjusted in practice this week.
“Obviously, there’s a ton of pressure on our secondary. Gunter scored their touchdown on a pass play and we’ve just got to be real disciplined in the secondary.”
Scott Willis threw for just 20 yards on 4-of-15 passing for the Eagles against Gunter, but he did come through in a big way, scoring an 8-yard touchdown run late in the game to help propel his team.
If the passing game stalls again, the Eagles could expound on the Tomcats inability to stop the run after they gave up 336 yards on the ground and five touchdowns in a loss to Lindsay last week.
“They had a little bit of trouble against Lindsay stopping the run,” said the Valley View coach. “Going into the game our game plan is always to run the ball and we’re going to continue to do that.”
Whitesboro at Frisco Lone Star, 7:30 p.m. Tonight
WHITESBORO — The Whitesboro Bearcats are coming into Week 1 on short notice.
After falling to the Decatur Eagles 35-20 on Friday night, the Bearcats turn around and lose a day of practice by having to face Frisco Lone Star tonight at Frisco Memorial Stadium.
Now the Bearcats tussle with the Frisco-Lone Star Rangers, an up-and-coming 3A program out of District 11-3A. The Rangers are coached by first-time coach Phil Fuller, who was previously the defensive coordinator at Frisco High School before accepting the position at Frisco.
An advantage for Whitesboro tonight could be its senior experience.
