For one final time this season, the Badger football team will head on the road to complete the non-district schedule as they take on Lorena Thursday night.
The former 3A Division I powerhouse made the jump up to 4A Division II last season and struggled, finishing with a 2-8 record and missing the playoffs.
However, the Leopards are back in 2025 with a high-powered offense that hasn’t scored less than 38 points in any of their four games so far.
On Thursday, Lorena could present a challenge for the Badgers and their defense that has been very solid in slowing down offenses through five weeks.
Head coach Troy Rogers spoke on the effectiveness of the Lorena offense and how the Badgers aim to limit that.
“They’re a traditional powerhouse, and we’ve had battles with them in the past,” Rogers said. “It’s always good to play these teams like that. They’re going to be well coached, they’re going to be disciplined, and they’re going to give you all the stuff that you need to see. They’re going to fight for four quarters.”
Rogers added that the Leopards have played some tough competition in non-district, but the one constant has been their ability to put up points on the opponent.
“Their offense, what kind of sticks out to you is just the amount of points they’ve been scoring against the people they’ve been scoring them against,” the head coach said. “So yeah, we’re going to have our work cut out for us for sure.”
Handling Lorena’s offense
He said Lorena is going to run about 20 different plays over the course of the game. They run a lot of plays over and over and do that well, which gives them consistency on offense. He also was complimentary of Lorena quarterback Jaxon Blancett, noting he is very accurate and a crucial part of their offense.
The Leopards do a good job of spreading the ball around and getting the eligible pass catchers involved.
“They throw it to all of the eligible receivers, and they do it well, and they’re patient,” Rogers said. “The quarterback does a really good job of sitting in there and getting to his next progression.”
For a Badger defense that has performed well through five games, this matchup will present another challenge.
“We always respect our opponents, and we study them on Mondays,” Rogers said. “We’re going to do everything we can to get to know them and get to understand how they do it, why they do it. And then it turns into all about us.
“That’s what this game is going to be -- it’s going to be about us,” the coach said. “I think our kids are up for it. They know when 7 p.m. on Thursday gets here, it’s going to be about flying around and having fun, and I think we’re going to see that again.”
For the Badgers offensively, they will look to take care of the football again and run an efficient offense. The running game the past two weeks against Wimberley and Waco University was very effective, freeing up Bryson Roberts at quarterback and making his life easier.
Rogers explained how Lampasas can continue to be successful on offense against Lorena.
“Trying to get that consistency going early … moving the chains when we need to move the chains, protecting the football which we’ve done for two weeks now,” he said. “That’s going to be the key to it moving forward is protecting the football.”
Rogers said one thing his offense hasn’t done to the level he would like is turning possessions into points. The head coach wants his team to score points when they get the ball inside the opponent’s 30-yard line, and they haven’t taken advantage of those opportunities enough this season.
Thursday night challenge
The Badgers have played a few Thursday night games in recent years, but any time the schedule changes there are some challenges.
“I like the Thursday games,” Rogers said. “The whole reason we set it up for a Thursday this year at Lorena is because we both start district next week, and it gives us one extra day to rest, to prepare or however you want to look at it.
“To me, when we’re going 10 straight weeks, having this Thursday game is vital to get that one extra day throughout the season to let our kids rest and get ready for the district schedule.”
Rogers added that the coaching staff and the players are still able to get in everything they need to prepare for Lorena, and they will be ready to go.
Dave Campbell’s Texas Football has the Badgers as a fairly big, 18-point favorite over Lorena.
The game is scheduled to kick off at 7 p.m. in Lorena.