It will be a Thursday night kickoff for the bidistrict round when Lampasas and San Angelo Lake View meet in the playoffs.
The game will be played at Lake View in San Angelo. The hope for a neutral site to meet in Fredericksburg fell through after the Battlin’ Billies also qualified for the postseason.
When asked about the Badgers’ opponent, head coach Troy Rogers said Lake View is an explosive team with a high-scoring offense.
“They’re explosive, and it’s a much-improved football team from last year,” Rogers said. “They have 17 starters back from last year. They’ve won more games this year than they have in about 20 years or so.”
In their three district games, the Chiefs scored 42, 76 and 28 points as they went 2-1 with wins over Pecos and Big Spring, and a loss to Andrews.
“They don’t do anything fancy in the spread offense, but they have a good quarterback, good running back and good receivers,” Rogers said.
The Badgers are coming off their bye week after playing 10 straight weeks of football. They have had the opportunity to get healthy, get some rest and focus on themselves without an opponent on their minds.
“I thought it was really good,” the head coach of the week off. “We talked about how it was an ‘all about us’ week and not really focusing on an opponent. We had kind of a selfcare week … overall we had a really productive week.”
Along with the Chiefs not getting fancy on offense, they do the same thing on defense. They play mostly out of their base shell, which is largely a 4-2-5, and don’t throw many exotic looks at the opposition.
The plan for success on the offensive side of the ball for Lampasas is going to be pretty simple: establish the run and don’t turn the ball over.
“Obviously, we’re going to have to protect the football and control the line of scrimmage and establish our run game,” Rogers said.
He added that he thinks the Badgers have done a good job of controlling the line of scrimmage and running the ball all season.
“We have to stay on track … last game against Marble [Falls] our third-down percentage was horrible, and our fourth-down percentage was worse,” he said. “We didn’t execute in the red zone, and we can’t do that [this week].”
Lake View does not do anything exotic on either side of the ball, Rogers said, and that traditionally is a sign of a team that is confident and comfortable in its ability because they don’t have to try to trick their opponents to have success.
They play in a way that is focused on not outsmarting or confusing themselves and giving away easy points to the opponent.
“They’re not overly big,” Rogers said. “Their front has good-sized kids on it, but they just play football, and we’re going to have to play better football.”
The Badger defense will have to focus on limiting the big play, which is something Lampasas has struggled with at times this season.
Lake View will try to hit some big plays over the top. The Badger defense must maintain eye discipline, with each individual doing his job and not trying to do the job of someone else.
“We have to have great communication and be on the same page, because these guys can hurt you,” Rogers said.
The common opponent this season between the Badgers and Lake View is Burnet.
The Chiefs lost their game to Burnet 46-36 in a back-and-forth affair, while the Badgers won over Burnet 28-23. Both teams played the Bulldogs at home.
The Badgers will go on the road for this playoff game, and Rogers and his team seem to relish the opportunity to travel to new places and compete in new venues.
According to maxpreps, Lampasas and Lake View last met in the regular season in 2011, but Rogers said he has never played in San Angelo. The whole West Texas swing the Badgers have had to play in the past two years after being placed in Region I has all been new to him.
The game is scheduled to kick off at 7 p.m. Thursday in San Angelo.