With their midseason bye week in the rearview, the (3-3) Tioga Bulldogs hit the road for a battle to determine their district’s top dog with the (6-2) Alvord Bulldogs.
Alvord enters the contest on a four-game winning streak, with their most recent victory coming in a 41-6 road win over Whitewright on Oct. 17.
“They’re sitting at the top of the district for a reason,” said Zach Birdwell, Tioga athletic director and head football coach. “They’re a well-coached and a very talented team that’s playing really good football at a really important time of the year. They’re good at what they do, so we know we have our work cut out for us this week.”
Alvord’s run-heavy offense is led by running back Zane Fuentes, who has accounted for 779 yards rushing and 15 touchdowns and is averaging 45 points a game this season.
“Their offensive and defensive lines are extremely good at what they do,” Birdwell said. “Offensively for us, we have to take care of the football. We had two interceptions and a fumble against Tom Bean, and that ended up costing us, so we have to make sure we don’t beat ourselves offensively.”
The Bulldogs, led by quarterback Greeley McAden, who has totaled 2,400 yards of offense and 32 touchdowns, come in averaging 47 points per game.
Despite the numbers, Birdwell emphasized that deciding the winner of the matchup will be simple for Tioga.
“Fuentes has taken over that lead role, and he’s coming off of some big games,” Birdwell said. “Slowing him down some and being a bend-but-don’t-break type defense, not giving up the big play and making them put long drives together is big for us. … At the end of the day, when you play a big-time team, it’s going to come down to a couple of plays, and we have to make sure we win them.”
Tioga hopes to defend last season’s district championship, and a win over Alvord would put them back in the driver’s seat to make that happen.
“We’re in a very unique and blessed situation here,” Birdwell said. “… Everything we want to accomplish within the district is still attainable. It’s still stuff we can control, and it’s there for us to go take, so our message to the kids is simple: ‘Let’s go take it back.’” Tioga and Alvord’s game was rescheduled to Thursday at 7 p.m. due to adverse weather conditions.
The results were not available by press time.
