Apaches take on improved Beeville Jones team in district finale

Posted

GONZALES — A playoff berth may be locked up for the Apaches, but the district finale between Gonzales and Beeville A.C. Jones is very much an important one for both teams tonight.

For the Trojans, a loss can potential drop them out of the playoffs completely.

For the Apaches, a loss can drop them from second to fourth in the district, which is the difference of facing a third-place team in the bidistrict round versus a district champion.

“[This game is] important on a lot of levels,” Gonzales head football coach Kodi Crane said. “Our seeding is still big time up for grabs, we can be anywhere from two to four.  So we want to go in as positive as we can on seeding. We want to peak our football team at the first of district and at the start of playoffs and that’s what we always say. So yes, to go in, to improve our football team from where we end Friday night is big time important.”

As football coaches tend to say, if their squad finishes the game a better team than they were at the beginning of the night, then it’s a success. But for playoff purposes, that success is going to have to show on the scoreboard if the Apaches want an easier road to postseason glory.

For District 15-4ADI, the tiebreaking procedures are clearly laid out. If three teams have the same record, they determine the top seed through point differential amongst those teams. All that means is if Gonzales is tied with Beeville Jones and Rockport-Fulton, the Apaches’ 55-0 win over Robstown, for instance, will have no effect in the tiebreakers.

After a “points champion” is determined, the remaining two teams are seeded via head-to-head.

According to Crane, if the Apaches lose they will most likely fall to the fourth seed.

All mathematics aside, to get away from any confusion on the seeding, the easiest thing the Apaches can do is to simply win and they will land the second seed. In order to do that, they’ll have to limit a Trojans’ offense that will be featuring two tall outside receivers.

“They got two phenomenal move-in kids that didn’t play against us last year, one of them is from Angleton, the other is from San Antonio I believe,” Crane said. “#22 [Demontario Anderson] and #2 [Waydale Jones], they are outstanding outside receivers. They’re long, they throw them the fade, they go up and catch it.”

Anderson is listed as 6 feet 3 inches tall while Jones is at 6 feet 4 inches tall.

Those two threats, along with running back #3 Ryan Peña who played quarterback last season will get things going for the Trojans.

What remains a mystery for tonight’s game is which Trojan will be playing quarterback.

At the start of the season, Beeville’s Nick Gonzales, donning the #7 jersey, was named starting quarterback. Gonzales sprained his ankle against Robstown in Beeville’s first district game of the year and he hasn’t played since.

Due to an injury to their backup quarterback, the Trojans called up #12 Justin Gomez who has started the past three games.

According to the Beeville Bee-Picayune’s Kevin J. Keller, who has followed the team throughout the season, a decision has not been made on who will be lining up behind the center for tonight’s game, though it’s believed that it may be Gonzales.

Nonetheless, Gomez has done a good job, according to Crane’s scouting, and he has the ability to throw those deep balls to the tall receivers Trojans have on the outside.

“He is pretty accurate on the deep balls,” Crane noted. “Saying that, he has a pretty wide window to throw it into with those guys.”

If there is one objective Crane wants his defense to succeed in, it is to limit the Trojans into a one-dimensional kind of offense.

“If we can take away their run game, now we know that we can go do some different things to stop their pass game.”

Last week, Rockport-Fulton took down Beeville 45-7 due to many Trojans’ mistakes. The Pirates scored 28 points off four Trojan turnovers last Friday night. If the Apaches can take advantage of those mistakes, Gonzales can lock up that second seed with a win.

Despite the mistakes that have plagued the Trojans, Crane believes that their opponent is very much a “scary football team.”

“Before the season I said I felt like Beeville was going to be the most improved team and at this point I still do,” he said. “They’re a scary football team because they have the ability to be really good.”

Last season the Trojans finished the year out of the playoffs at 3-7 overall, 1-4 in district. This year they come to this game 4-5 overall, 2-2 in district.

With a playoff berth possibly on the line for the Trojans as well as a favorable seeding on the line for the Apaches, tonight’s game is indeed a critical one to end the regular season.

Tonight’s game is at Beeville at Veterans Memorial Stadium, with kickoff set at 7:30 p.m.

Comments