Apaches one win away from playoff berth

GONZALES — Normally the Apaches have been the ones with their backs against the wall, fighting their way through a tough game as the underdogs.

Tonight the roles are a bit reverse as Gonzales (2-6, 2-1) host the Robstown Cottonpickers (1-7, 0-3) since the home squad is picked to be the overwhelming favorite to win.

Or at least that’s what it says on paper. But head coach Kodi Crane knows, the game of football isn’t played on paper.

“This will be [Robstown’s] best shot,” Crane warned. “They have to win if they want a chance to be in [the playoffs], they have to win out. So yeah, this will be their best shot.”

“Anybody who watches football, you see [upsets] every single week,” he continued, “whether it’s pro, college or high school. It is there every single week. It’s just about the process and getting better.”

Getting better may always be the goal for the Apaches, but with a win tonight, Gonzales can clinch yet another playoff berth and put them in line for a top-two seed out of district.

Even having to face Robstown’s “best shot” the Cottonpickers come in to the game with their struggles as they haven’t won a game since their non-district matchup against the now 1-7 Corpus Christi West Oso Bears.

Under new head football coach Richard Kattner, the Pickers have struggled to find an identity on offense and their lack of consistency on the field has been one of the reasons why the loss column outweighs the win column.

“They’ve done some really good things,” Crane said, “they [just] haven’t done it for four quarters yet.”

Nevertheless the Apaches know that the biggest key in keeping Robstown winless in district is limiting their biggest weapon, junior José Molina.

Molina is listed as a quarterback on the roster but will appear all over the the field. He’ll be moved out wide and sometimes back at running back with sophomore Austin Kwiatkowski taking snaps under center.

“[Molina is] electric, he’s dynamic,” Crane scouted. “They get the ball to his hands. He is a dynamic football player, individually maybe the most dynamic we’ve seen all year. He’s good, he hurt us last year.”

The Apaches struggled to bring him down last they played Robstown, giving the Pickers some success offensively. Tonight, Crane hopes to contain him by adding some wrinkles to his defense as well as identifying where Molina is on the field and why he’s there.

Once they identify where the dynamic athlete is, the Apaches will have to understand their assignment and, as Crane puts it, play with leverage.

“If he’s running the ball we have to have an outside player, we got to have inside players and then as we’re going we got to have cutback players and alley players and where do you fit into that whole scheme on each individual play whether it’s a counter play whether it’s a sweep play whether it’s an inside-midline veer player, it’s where do you fit into it?”

Whenever Molina is lined up where he’s not taking the snaps, Kwiatkowski can and will be able to throw and run the ball himself. Though not as quick and shifty as Molina, the sophomore quarterback is solid enough to pose a threat.

One big target they’ll be able to throw to is #85 Javier Hernandez, a 6-foot-1 tight end that is great at blocking and using his body to catch the ball.

Crane describes it as a basketball move where Hernandez would use a block-out type of move to snag catches. Although he’s not extremely fast, the big tight end is hard to bring down.

On defense, Robstown will be showing a four-man front with a cover three secondary.

Generally speaking, a cover three defensive scheme deploys three deep defensive backs to cover their respective third of the field.

“Their number one objective is not to get beat deep,” Crane said. “They played Rockport last week and you can look at the tape and they didn’t get beat deep.”

Robstown’s defensive backs play a backed off cover three, meaning the Apaches will want to implement a physical running game as well as a quick passing game to take advantage of some space in the short to intermediate distances.

“They do a good job of [stopping deep plays] but that gives up the 8 to 10, the 15-yard play, the 20-yard play,” Crane said, “and [Robstown has] given some of those up.”

Simply put, the Apaches’ offense is made to beat defenses like Robstown’s, so if they can execute on their plays, points will be scored.

Robstown is in trouble of mathematically being eliminated from the playoffs with a loss. So they’ll bring out their best, as Crane said. Last season the Cottonpickers added some gadget plays like a halfback throw for a touchdown and even recovered an early onside kick. But with a playoff berth on the line, the Apaches know not to overlook any team.

“All we think about is the end,” Crane said. “No matter if we’re playing the third-ranked team Navarro in the state of Texas or Robstown or anybody else, the only thing we can control is us becoming better as a football team throughout the course of the game. Win or lose, for us to be where we want to be at the end of the season, we’ve got to continue to get better.”

Tonight’s game is at home at Apache Field, with kickoff scheduled at 7:30 p.m.