Mustangs have chance to knock off rivals

NIXON — The Mustangs have found themselves in a good spot for their final game of the season. Nixon-Smiley (4-5, 2-2) takes on another rival in Stockdale (5-4, 3-1) with a chance at coming out of District 15-3AD2 as runner-ups.

“There’s a lot of familiar with both groups,” Mustangs’ head coach Carlton McKinney said. “They’re going to play hard. They’re right now in second place and they don’t want to relinquish that, especially to us.”

Last Friday, the Mustangs took down Poth, then a one-loss team, as they blew out the Pirates in the second half.

“We were dialed in and not making mistakes,” McKinney noted. “[When we do that], we have a chance to be a pretty good football team and that’s what happened Friday.”

The Stockdale Brahmas will rely on top offensive players Josh Rangel and Joel Marquez to score points. As McKinney described it, the Brahmas want to put Rangel and Marquez in “as many advantageous positions” as possible.

Meanwhile on defense, Stockdale has shown a split look though going up against Nixon-Smiley, the Mustangs are anticipating a nose guard as well.

“They’ll have a few wrinkles this point in the year,” McKinney said. “You pretty much have video on everyone. It’s just a matter of us executing.”

Nixon-Smiley will need to make sure they eliminate mistakes and not turn the ball over. As long as they don’t give up big plays, the Mustangs have proved to be worthy contenders.

“[Stockdale is] going to be aggressive,” McKinney warned. “[But] regardless of what happens, they’re in the playoffs. It’s just about positioning and seeding for them.”

Meanwhile, the Mustangs now control their destiny but a loss may very well knock them out of playoff contention. According to the district tiebreakers, if the Mustangs lose, they can be knocked out if both Poth and Natalia win their respective games. Poth holds Dilley (the district leaders) while Natalia hosts Karnes City (a team without a district win).

But as long as the Mustangs can continue to stay healthy and mistake free, they have a legitimate chance at beating anyone, McKinney mentioned.

“I think that’s one of the reasons we played well, because [of health],” he said. “Colby [Newman] and Joey [Mendez] played really well [after rehabbing injuries].”

Tonight’s game is at Stockdale with kickoff set at 7:30 p.m.