Fresh off a heat check loss to the Tom Bean Tomcats, the Tioga Bulldogs look for their second district win in a matchup against the Whitewright Tigers on Friday.
The Tigers enter the contest hungry, looking for their first district win after being steamrolled by Tom Bean 69-6 in their district opener Sept. 26.
“They’re good at what they do offensively,” said Zach Birdwell, Tioga athletic director and head football coach. “Coach [Gary] Roland has had a lot of success in lots of places. He won a state championship with this offense at Gunter and was really successful in his time at Rogers, so we know we’re going to roll into this matchup with an offense that has a ton of answers to different things and is going to give us a bunch of different looks, so we’re going to have to be very sound on defense.”
The Tigers offense is led by quarterback Colt Yancey, who threw for 1,570 yards and 20 touchdowns last season, put up 41 points in their win over Valley View, but was held to 6 points by Tom Bean’s defense.
Prior to their 63-point loss to the Tomcats, the Tigers’ defense held their opponents to an average of 10 points in their wins over Boles and Valley View.
Birdwell said execution will be key on both sides of the ball for the Bulldogs.
“We’re going to have to be very sound on defense by alignment a lot of the time this week,” he said. “If we can line up to the formations correctly, the play is going to be won or lost before the ball is ever snapped, and then, offensively, we’re going to look to continue to do our thing, continuing to attack what they give us and fine-tuning this new offense with Greeley [McAden] at quarterback.”
He added that despite the tough loss to Tom Bean, the Bulldogs are focused on doing everything they can to live up to their brand of football.
“Our kids are ready to get back to work and respond, so we’re looking at that R factor this week,” Birdwell said. “We’re a big believer that how you respond to adversity says a lot about who you are as an individual and who you are as a team, so we’re looking for a big response this week to get our season back rolling up to our standard.”
Tioga and Whitewright will get things underway at 7 p.m. Friday at Bulldog Stadium.