The 4-4 Tioga Bulldogs football team will hit the road to end their regular season against 2-7 Nocona on Friday.
Nocona enters the game riding a two-game losing streak, getting shut out 51-0 against Tom Bean on Oct. 24 and falling 40-30 to Whitewright on Oct. 31.
“It’s a team that’s well coached and that’s playing hard, and when you have a team [like that], they can find ways to win, but for us it doesn’t matter who we play,” said Zach Birdwell, Tioga athletic director and head football coach. “We’re going to play to our standard, and at this point in the year, going into the last week of the season, there should be no other way that we play.”
Nocona enters the matchup with a 1-4 district record and an average of 15 points per game over the last five contests.
Defensively, Nocona’s defense has surrendered 54 points per game outside of its 18-0 win over Trenton, which is its lone district win of the season.
With Tioga locked in as the fourth-seeded team heading to the playoffs and Nocona already eliminated, Birdwell said the Bulldogs will focus on staying healthy and allowing some of their younger players to gain playing experience.
“Any guys that maybe haven’t gotten their shot yet this year, they’re going to get their shot on Friday,” he said. “We’re going to try and find out if there are any guys that can help us in the playoffs that haven’t played as much so far this year. We’re also looking to clean up some things. We need to clean up the penalties, and we need to clean up turnovers.”
He added that despite the new faces that may be on the field on Friday, the Bulldogs will be ready to play their standard.
“Regardless of who is or who isn’t out there playing, we control the energy and the effort that we’re playing with and, ultimately, the confidence and the violence that we play with,” he said. “Those are things we can control, so those are the things we’re going to be looking for from our guys and playing our brand of football.”
