District 9-4A has provided some peculiar results in just two weeks of action. Just when one team is down, they defeat the defending district champions. If your team is having success, look out, they could fall to a school with a losing record.
Lion coach Tucker Carter was asked if Friday’s results of Huffman Hargrave over Little Cypress-Mauriceville or Vidor defeating Bridge City surprised him.
“To be honest, just talking with the coaches in the district before the season, everybody pretty much felt it was wide open, so not really. Some of the scores, yeah, you're like, ‘That's a little more one-sided than you would think.’
“But right now, anybody can beat anybody, and anybody can get beat, so it's kind of fun. To me, it's not even the fact that they're beating each other, it's just the wild swings and score differences. Vidor can lose 41-7 one week and then the next week they're beating one of the best teams in the district. There's definitely not a lot of margin for error, because everybody is kind of a week-to-week matchup – who matches up well with who. It's been interesting.”
Two weeks in, the Lions are the only team without a loss in district play. Friday was their fourth consecutive victory, something that has not been accomplished at the school since the 2020 district championship season. The coach did say his team’s win over Liberty meant a little extra.
“For sure, just because we've put a lot of weight on (district), talking to the kids about how these are games you want to be in. Like, this is why you play here. You play here because you want to play in big games. You want to play in games that matter. You want to play in games where someone tests you and you either have to rise or fall.”
The playoffs are not discussed as a team, as they have instead opted to focus on the goals in front of them.
“We definitely address the elephant in the room as a staff and have a certain level of urgency,” Carter said. “But, we're not talking about anything but the week we're on all year long. I mean, there is no looking forward. This is the meat of district play, where the intensity rises each week and it matters. Everybody's good and everybody's beat us (last season). The mentality is, ‘We're the underdog every single week.’”
Little Cypress-Mauriceville (4-2, 1-1) was having the success typical for a program usually found at the top of the standings. Yet, Huffman Hargrave, which had just one win, surprised the Bears with a 28-21 upset. Just the week before, LC-M defeated Vidor 41-7. They have also taken down Orangefield, Jasper and Woodville. This week, the Lions will visit in hopes of handing them a second consecutive loss.
“They're stylistically pretty similar to us, as far as a power spread type of look. The quarterback is extremely explosive. We saw that last year. He made a ton of plays against us. They're physical up front. They've got some guys that can have one-play touchdowns if you don't fit (gaps) right. We've got to get lined up, get communicated, stop the run, try to impose our will on them, and be an attack defense and not a react defense.
“They'll throw it. The quarterback is pretty well rounded. He's made a lot of plays in the passing game. When he gets pushed off of his spot, he's tucked it away and made some big explosives. We've got to try to contain him.”
Defensively, the Bears have impressed, allowing an average of around 18 points per contest.
“They're an even front, with four down linemen. They are probably more similar to Rusk than anyone we've played, just from the standpoint of physical on the D-line. They're pretty sound on the back end. It's very evident on film that they're coached very well to get to the football.
“There's not a lot of tackles that they're making that are one-on-one. It's five, six, seven, eight guys (getting to the ball carrier). We've got to make them think, move around, and attack some weaknesses.”
Carter feels as though the Lions have made huge strides in digesting game plans and translating them to on-field success. That will be a must over the next few weeks.
“It’s our ability to have attention to detail in meetings, and present different things week to week to our opponent. I feel like we've been able to not just sit in one defense or one offense, and we've been able to week to week make adjustments, implement those, and execute those at a much higher level with our kids understanding what it takes to win. That is whether the weight room, meetings, practice, pre-game, and then game.
“Week to week, the presentation has got to look different when you're playing good football teams. If you line up and it looks the same from a pre-snap presentation, it's going to be difficult, because people are well-coached in this district. We've built a framework of the offense and defense, and now I've had the ability to adjust week to week to make it look different and still play what we play. Our kids are able to play fast and know what to do and how to play within our system.”
