Lampasas quarterback Colton Perkins will spearhead the Badgers’ offense attack against Austin Travis tonight. The senior’s play will also be influential defensively as Lampasas hopes to hold the ball and limit the Rebels’ time of possession. PHOTO BY MICHAEL KUEHNE Last Friday, the Badgers found a way to win.

Tonight, they hope to do it again.

If they defend their turf in the home-opener against Austin Travis, the team will have its first twogame winning streak to start a season in the last five years.

The last time Lampasas opened a season with consecutive wins was 2005, when the Badgers defeated Elgin and Austin Reagan. In fact, if the Badgers beat Travis, it would be only Lampasas’ third winning streak over the same span.

The most recent came last season when the Badgers beat district foes Dripping Springs and Marble Falls in consecutive weeks. In 2005, Lampasas went on to a 5-0 start to the season before losing five straight games to conclude the season.

While Lampasas head coach Joey McQueen would be content merely to string together a pair of wins, he knows his team must improve in certain areas to do so.

“That was a great win for us, especially because we have young kids,” the coach said of the lastsecond 27-26 victory at Manor. “We made mistakes, but they are correctable mistakes.

“It is just little mistakes like running the wrong way on a play or something. We had some movement on our line and got some procedure penalties, but we also got them to jump offsides three or four times.”

The team’s weekly goal is to receive less than 25 yards of penalties per game. Against an experienced Manor squad, the Badgers finished with eight penalties for 55 yards.

This week, Lampasas faces another veteran Class 4A team in the Rebels.

Travis returns 15 lettermen to its roster, including nine starters with five on offense and four on defense.

The most notable returning players are seniors Jonathan Sterling and C.J. Herrera. Quarterback Sterling is a balanced threat who accounted for 165 of the Rebels’ 234 total yards of offense in their opening-night 24- 21 win over Elgin.

In addition to completing 12 of 18 passes for 143 yards and a touchdown, the 6-0, 180-pound signal caller recorded another touchdown and 22 more yards on the ground.

“He’s a good quarterback,” McQueen said. “He can run the ball even though he doesn’t do it a lot, and when he drops back [to pass], if he is flushed he can act like he’s going to run and then pull up and hit somebody on a post play.

“He is very talented.” In 2009, Sterling finished with 1,246 total yards of offense.

Running back Herrera, who is fully recovered from injuries that plagued his 2009 campaign, posted 73 rushing yards on just 13 carries against Elgin.

Two-way force Adam Solis, who plays corner back and a multitude of offensive skill positions, adds depth to the offense, and offensive tackle Luis Jaramillo (235 lbs.) comes up from the Rebels’ 2009 district champion junior varsity team.

“Team wise, they are not as fast as Manor, but they have some good athletes and some good receivers,” McQueen said.

In just one contest, five different Rebel receivers have caught passes. Solis, who is also a senior, had the most impressive showing last week by catching six passes for 92 yards and a touchdown.

As usual, McQueen feels his best defense is his offense, especially this season as the Badgers are adapting a large contingency of their roster to varsity-caliber competition.

“We want to control the football and keep it away from them,” the coach said. “Our defense is young, and until they get more experience, they are going to give up some big plays every once in a while.

“By not letting them have the ball, that helps our defense.”

If the Badgers’ plan woks, fans will most likely see a lot more of the grinding ground game that put them in position to beat Manor on the game’s final play last Friday.

Led by junior fullback Secody Howard’s 22-carry, 89-yard performance, Lampasas ran the ball 74 times against the Mustangs for 280 yards.

Howard entered the evening with an ankle injury and was used sparingly in the second half after it began to tighten up and affect his ability to cut. He is questionable again this week but should see some playing time.

Bothered by the injury, Howard ran the ball just four times on the Badgers’ dramatic victory-clinching drive at Manor as Blaine White, Colton Perkins, Tanner Swinford and Marcus Kehoe all chipped in.

Quarterback Perkins capped off the drive by scoring on a goal line play as time expired. It was the senior’s third rushing touchdown of the evening as he collected 39 yards running.

Along with his 60 passing yards, Perkins totaled 99 yards of offense. Before the season began, McQueen challenged his quarterbacks to total 100 yards of offense each game.

“We found another yard in there somewhere [for him],” McQueen joked. “I’m proud of Colton, he ran the ball hard.”

Junior running back Justin Maldonado is considered questionable for the game after missing the season-opener with a high ankle sprain suffered in the team’s final scrimmage.

While it will be difficult to top last week’s dramatic come-from-behind victory, McQueen is looking forward to playing in front of the home fans.

“I think there is going to be a lot of excitement in the stadium tonight,” the coach said. “It is going to be awesome.

“Plus we are still carrying over [excitement] from opening our new school. It is crazy around here when you win.”