SEAHAWKS versus BADGERS

One of the biggest games going on this week is the U.S. 77 rivalry between Bishop High School and Riviera-Kaufer.

Last week, Bishop conquered Santa Rosa 24-7 and Kaufer lost 40-0 to Hebbronville. At 2-2 in district the Badgers will capture the third and final District 32-2A playoff spot with a win. The 1-3 Seahawks, however, are not totally out of the postseason hunt.

“Looking at it in different ways, there is still a small chance for us,” Seahawk Head Coach Arturo de la Rosa said on Monday. “If I am not mistaken, Santa Rosa needs to lose to San Diego and we need to beat Bishop by 15 points.”

As always, De la Rosa is more concerned with his boys playing their A-game rather than their opponents.

“It is like I have always said, we just have to play good football,” De la Rosa said. “Just looking back at last week, the kids played well but we threw some interceptions and lost the ball a couple of times. We played good football and you look at the score, we messed up and of course our second half performance is what kills us a lot of the time but we just need to show up and play Bishop hard and keep things together for four quarters and if we could do that, we might be alright.”

Badger Head Coach Larry Vincent knows what it is like to be in De la Rosa’s position. Last year, Bishop missed the playoffs after a team they needed to lose - so that the Badgers would advance to the postseason - instead won their district finale. This year the Badgers are in the driver’s seat rather than the passenger’s

“That is nice for the kids, last year we told them that they had to go out and play hard and win and then we have to depend on somebody else,” Vincent said. “At least, at this point and time, we told the kids straight up ‘we win and we’re in’ and nobody can take anything away from us. There is no doubt and there is a certain sense of confidence as far as knowing that it all depends on us and we do not need to worry about anyone else.”

Vincent is hoping his boys maintain the hard nosed mentality they adopted since losing to San Diego 8-7 a few weeks ago.

“We need to continue doing the things we have been improving on lately,” Vincent said. “We need to maintain our intensity, play physically on both sides of the ball and playing all out for four quarters. These last two weeks we have found that little switch there that has allowed us to play that way; these kids are playing with confidence and our thing is if we play longer and harder than our opponent, we‘ll beat them.”

PRIDE

Santa Gertrudis Kingsville Academy High School’s varsity football team hosts Bruni in their season finale at Javelina Stadium at 7:30 p.m. on Friday.

The Pride are coming off of their first varsity win in school history after Santa Maria was unable to field enough players and forfeited last week.

That victory, and the off week, was both sweet and sour, Head Coach Wally Moon said.

“It was beneficial in that it helped some of our guys heal up nicks and get a little bit better,” Moon said. “But it also hurt us in that we did not play, we have been showing progress and Santa Maria was a team we had a legitimate shot at beating. So it had its upside and downside for us.”

Moon is pushing his players to leave it all out on the field Friday night with most people expecting Bruni to win by a cake walk.

“I told the guys today ‘It’s the last game especially for the seniors so just go out and play as hard as you can because nobody expects you to do anything because Bruni is pretty good’,” Moon said.

To beat the Badgers, the Pride will have to harass their big man on campus.

“Bruni’s quarterback is easily their best football player,” Moon said. “If you are going to stop Bruni, you are going to have to stop him. He runs and throws well, is a good all around player, and is probably Bruni’s best tackler at linebacker.”