Tough schedule prepares Apaches for playoff challenge

GONZALES — When you come out of the district fourth in the standings, the path to a playoff victory is tough. Just look at last year as an example, where only two district champions in Class 4AD1 and 4AD2 lost their bi-district game against the fourth-place team.

But the Apaches (5-5, 2-3) hope their tough schedule has prepared them for this challenge against a Lorena team that went three-rounds deep last season.

“The five teams we played [in non-district], only one of them didn’t make the playoffs,” Gonzales’ head coach Kodi Crane said.

The Apaches have played Orange Grove (7-3, 4-1), Austin Crockett (1-9, 1-5), Geronimo Navarro (10-0, 4-0), Cuero (10-0, 5-0) and Uvalde (7-3, 3-2).

But going up against the Lorena Leopards (7-3, 5-0) is going to be a tough task. The Apaches will have to play near-perfect football to take down the District 9-4AD2 champs.

“They’re extremely disciplined, extremely-well coached,” Crane warned. “They’re a very good football team.”

Offensively, the Leopards spread look will rely on #2 Jacob Spivey, who is listed as a wide receiver but has taken snaps in the backfield and under center.

“They’re trying to get the ball in his hands,” Crane scouted.

Their quarterback, #7 Cole Baker is another player to look out as he’s known to attack both with his arm and his legs.

“[Lorena has] a kid a lot like La Grange that can go and play tight end and then split out and be very effective playing wide receiver too,” Crane said. “#9 Zach Pierce, he’s a good enough athlete where he can put his hand on the ground and play tight end or spread out and play outside.”

The Apaches’ defense will have to stop Lorena’s vertical passing game as well as take away the quarterback running and look out for play action.

“That’s where they do a great job with.”

On defense, the Leopards are usually an odd-front, placing a nose guard down with their “50 look.”

“They’re a zone-quarters team, don’t get beat deep, don’t give up the big play, make you work for everything you get type of team,” Crane said. “But [they] can get after you on selected plays too.”

For the Apaches to succeed, they’ll need to take advantage of their many athletes as well as succeed in their quick-passing game.

“It’s going to be hard to get vertical shots on them,” Crane acknowledged, “it’s just the way they play. But they do leave some of the underneath stuff open that we’re going to have to do a good job with converting it, moving the chains, throwing it, catching it and getting up field.”

The most important battle for Crane will be the one at the line-of-scrimmage where the Apaches have seen improvement over the weeks.

“Those guys have got to be dominant football players,” Crane said. “I think that’s where our biggest advantage is in this football game.”

The Apache head coach gave credit to both his offensive line unit and his defensive front for their level of play the past few weeks, citing their game against Giddings as a bright spot for the offense.

“It took them a little while to fully gel, to communicate, to understand, but I feel like as we’ve progressed, they’ve done that and they’ve done a good job with that and I think the top end of that was rushing for over 300 yards against Giddings.”

Only two fourth-place teams in all of Class 4A were able to get out of the bi-district round in 2015. The Apaches had a great week of practice, according to Crane, and will need every bit of that greatness Friday night when they take on Lorena. If Gonzales wants to be one of those teams to take down a district champ in the first round, they’ll have to rely on their offensive and defensive front.

Gonzales’ game against Lorena is at Round Rock at Dragon Stadium, with kickoff set at 7:30 p.m.