Published: October 06, 2008 12:51 am            

Start of a new season

Coaches ready for tough District 20-3A

By SCOTT TYLER

H-P Sports Editor



Competitive. Evenly-matched. A dogfight.

Those are the words that three District 20-3A coaches used to describe their district.

District 20-3A play begins Friday night and the feeling around the district is that it will be a tight race for the three playoff spots.

“It is going to be a dogfight,” Fairfield head coach Darrell Piske said. “When you look at this district, they are all pretty good team.”

In the first year after the latest realignment, Palestine, Westwood and Fairfield stayed in the same district with Athens and Brownsboro joining in from the north and Crockett from the south.

“Our district is going to be very competitive and it is going to be hard for any of the teams to go through district without a loss,” Palestine head coach Booker Bowie said. “Week in and week out it is going to be a battle.”

While there are several district that have a balance of power shifted towards a few teams, the District 20-3A coaches don’t believe that is the case with their district.

“A lot of times, everyone figures who is going to be on top and who will get the playoff spots,” Bowie said. “Not in this district. Every week will seem like a playoff game.”

The coaches expect the season to come down to the last week before everything has been decided.

“In Brownsboro and Athens’ district last year, I know the competition for a playoff spot came down to the last two games,” Westwood head coach Kevin Anderson said. “I believe that it will be the same way with this new district.

“On any given Friday night, anything can happen.”

Coming into district, only two teams have a winning record — Brownsboro at 4-1 and Athens at 3-2. Palestine, Westwood, Fairfield and Crockett have losing records but the coaches know none of that matters starting next week.

“Athens, Palestine, even us, have all been playing some pretty good schools,” the Anderson said. “And once district starts, the slates are clean.”

Here is a glance at how the six District 20-3A teams have fared coming into the start of district.

Athens — The Hornets started the season strong, winning their first three games before dropping their last two — Mexia and Chapel Hill.

“Athens got beat by two good teams,” Piske said.

In their first three wins against Wills Point, Mabank and Bullard, the Hornets have averaged over 27 points a game on offense and the defense had two shutouts.

The strength of the Hornets has been in the running game led by Stephen Blackmore, who has rushed for 307 yards and five touchdowns, and Randall Gamble, who has rushed for 306 yards and one touchdown.

Athens has used a two-quarterback system during non-district play with Taylor Jackson throwing for 282 yards and three touchdowns and Travis Barkley having 242 passing yards and two touchdowns.

Brownsboro — The Bears got off to a very strong start winning their first four games by a margin of over 27 points.

Brownsboro stumbled at the end of non-district, letting a 41-19 third-quarter lead get away in a 47-41 loss to Rains. Even with the loss, the Bears have scored over 40 points a game and before Rains, Brownsboro had not allowed more than 20 points a game.

The Bears have had strong performances in both the passing and running game.

Brownsboro quarterback Zach Bailey, who threw for over 2,000 yards last year, started the season splitting time but after taking over full time, he has had thrown for over 300 yards in two games and has 10 touchdowns on the season.

Running back Cameron Warren has rushed for over 100 yards twice this season including a 130-yard performance against Kemp in the season opener. He had five touchdowns on the season.

Crockett — The Bulldogs were one of the pre-season favorite to win the district, but Crockett has gotten off to a slow start, going 2-3 in non-district play.

“Crockett is Crockett,” Piske said. “You expect that they will be right there.”

The struggle for Crockett in non-district play has come on the offensive side of the ball but the Bulldogs have been without standout running back Tyler Tabor, who suffered an injury in Crockett’s first game of the season against Coldspring.

The Bulldogs have only scored 13 points a game this season and reached the 20-points mark only once.

Quarterback Anthony Harris has been most of the offense for Crockett with four rushing touchdowns coming into its final non-district game against Kirbyville.

Fairfield — The Eagles have had an up and down non-district season, swapping wins and losses every other week.

Through the non-district season, Fairfield has seemed to get stronger under first-year head coach Darrell Piske.

On offense, the Eagles are led by quarterback Dalton Piske had rushed for 319 yards and three touchdowns and has thrown for 476 yards and four touchdowns.

Palestine — The Wildcats have the least number of wins heading into district play but Bowie is not highly concerned with that.

“We played some quality opponents,” Bowie said. “We will be ready when district starts and everyone is 0-0 starting next week.”

After starting the season with a 58-35 win over Rusk, the Wildcats have lost four straight to Navasota, Van, Jacksonville and Kilgore. In three of those games, Palestine allowed over 40 points which spurred the Wildcat coaches to scrap their defensive plans and change to a cover-two look.

Palestine had some success with the new defense, allowing 21 points in three quarters to Kilgore.

Bowie said the key for district will be winning the turnover battle and being more consistent.

The Wildcats are minus-four in turnovers this season. Palestine has turned the ball over 16 times while the defense has 12 takeaways.

“In district, we will be playing close games and we cannot have the turnovers,” Bowie said. “In addition, we need to be able to force some turnovers.”

In regards to consistency, Palestine has had its problems on third downs on both sides of the ball. The offense has only converted 28 percent of its first downs and the defense has allowed a first down on 41 percent of third-down plays.

“We have to be more consistent moving the ball on offense and getting drives going,” Bowie said. “And on defense, we have to do a better job stopping the big plays.”

Westwood — The Panthers got off to a slow start, dropping their first two games to Chapel Hill and Bullard, but have rebounded with two wins in their last three games.

“It looks like Westwood is gelling at the right time,” Piske said.

In those final three games, Westwood was without starting running back D.J. Morrow, who rushed for over 1,600 yards last year.

Sophomore quarterback Tevin Watson has stepped in and leads the team in rushing with 275 yards and six touchdowns. He also has shown the ability to throw the ball effectively, completing 57 percent of his passes for 613 yards and five touchdowns.

Scott Starr stepped in for Morrow — who is expected to be back for the start of district — and averaged over 5 yards a carry for an offense that has scored an average of 30 points in the last three games.

The Westwood defense will head into the start of district after a stellar performance against Groesbeck. The Panthers allowed only a field goal and had nine sacks including four by Sam Dunnam and three by Rodney Watson.

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Scott Tyler may be contacted via e-mail at styler@palestineherald.com

        

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