Rivalry night

SHINER — It’ll be rivalry night yet again in Shiner as the Hallettsville Sacred Heart Indians (6-2, 1-0) make their way to Shiner to take on the St. Paul Cardinals (1-7, 1-0) in TAPPS District 3 Division IV play. Both teams won their district opener two weeks ago before a bye and now face off as the lone district unbeatens.
The Cardinals ended their seven-game losing streak with a 34-13 victory over Central Texas Christian. Despite their record, St. Paul Head Coach Jake Wachsmuth believes the team were “really close in three games earlier,” but just weren’t able to close out victories.
“All of a sudden you get over the hump,” Wachsmuth added. “We made a couple plays we weren’t making [before]. You just keep working at it, eventually believe and get there.”
This week they take on an Indians’ offense ran by quarterback Sam Brown, a two-year starter. On defense, Sacred Heart runs a 4-3 with aggressive safeties.
“They’ve given us different things over the years,” Wachsmuth said. “They’re going to be pretty solid up front.”
Playing a familiar opponent year-after-year comes with its challenges. Teams try to balance between doing what they do best versus changing things up to have a different look.
“We’ve played them and we’ve done multiple things to win,” Wachsmuth explained. “I was telling the kids we’ve had games where we’ve been able to run, games where we had to throw, games where we had to mix it up, games with normal stuff, games with empty for a lot of the time. They know what we do and sometimes going in you have a plan but you know, sometimes things that you think are going to be good they’ve adjusted to and vice versa. I think the thing we try to do is kind of plan for all scenarios.”
Kickoff is set for 7:30 p.m. on Friday in Shiner.