Most football teams play only one season per calendar year, but not Lometa.

The Hornets begin their second season tonight. At least, that is how they are looking at it.

Lometa will play its first game since Sept. 26 tonight when it travels to face Grand Prairie Eagle Advantage Academy at 7:30 p.m.

"It's like a whole new season," head coach Wendell Bradley said.

The Hornets took an unexpected and extended vacation after having their game against Star two weeks ago canceled due to lighting and then spending last week on a bye.

Although Lometa was idle for two weeks, the squad certainly was not inactive.

In addition to practicing, the Hornets have been working on intangibles like team unity and lead- ership in hopes of breaking out of their current three-game losing streak before beginning district play next Friday against Prairie Lea.

"A lot of times, once you get into the season you just do the best you can [with the intangibles] or you let them kind of slip and slide," Bradley said.

Some focus also was directed toward the fundamentals of the game and polishing up areas where the team has struggled, including defensive skills.

While Bradley would prefer to have an additional game under his belt, he believes the time off has been beneficial to his team.

"It gave us a week to stop and look back and refocus on some of the rough spots; not just physically and not just in football skills, but in team chemistry as well," Bradley said. "It's helped us refocus. We were kind of in a slump and didn't realize it.

"Looking back at the last three weeks, we expected to be 5-1 at this point, not 2-3."

Outside of a 62-14 loss to Richland Springs, the Hornets fell in a pair of close contests to Cherokee (38-36) and May (43-36).

The time away from the field has kept Lometa from getting valuable in-game experience, which led Bradley to believe his team might have a gathered a little rust along with sone rest during the break.

"It's just one letter, one vowel difference [between rest and rust]," the coach said with a laugh. "I know we're going to have a little rust, but we are pretty much healthy.

"We're going to have a few miscues, but I also expect to see a team that is coming back on track and looking forward to the possibilities down the road and not dwelling on the past."