After one of the toughest losses Badger Field has seen in the 11 years of Troy Rogers’ tenure as Lampasas head football coach, the Badgers will hit the road this week and stare down a clean slate.
Friday will feature an away game in San Antonio against Central Catholic, a TAPPS private school located just two blocks from the city’s famous Riverwalk. The school was founded in 1852 and quickly became one of the largest allmale private secondary schools in the state, as it continues to be today.
The Buttons played their first football game in 1936 against Houston’s St. Thomas.
This week’s meeting will be the first between the schools.
“We’ve never seen them,” Rogers said of this week’s matchup. “We don’t know anything about them, and I kind of like that. I like getting some of that new blood on the schedule where you don’t have much idea about them. And the good thing about this week, which is different from the last two weeks, is that we’ve actually seen game film, and we haven’t seen that in the previous two games.”
Rogers added that the last two weeks posed a new challenge to the coaching staff as they set out to prepare the Badgers for each week’s opponent. This week, with three games’ worth of film from Central Catholic, the job is far clearer.
“They could always tweak it up, but we’ve got three games on them,” Rogers said. “We’ve seen what they like and what they’re good at, and they like to throw the football and they’re good at that. They’ve got a good offensive line that blocks well. They’ve got a big quarterback who likes to run the ball.”
Based on the Buttons’ previous games this season, there are a few key players who are likely to play a primary role in Friday’s game. Quarterback Easton Walker is a senior who made his debut as the starter this season. So far he has averaged over 200 passing yards and nearly 60 rushing yards per game. He’s thrown for 11 passing touchdowns and collected two rushing touchdowns.
“He’s the guy who makes it go,” Rogers said. “I don’t say they’re one-dimensional, but you’ve got to start with the quarterback. If you can get the quarterback uncomfortable, that’s a good thing. But you’ve got to tackle him, and that’s something that we’ve continued to work on.”
Other Buttons athletes who may play a role in the game are senior wide receiver Antonio Guevara. Guevara averages over 80 receiving yards per game for about 13 yards per reception. He is listed at 6-3, 180 pounds so he may be a challenge to bring down, similar to the challenge some of Pflugerville Connally’s athletes offered.
In Rogers’ evaluation of last week’s game, he cited tackling on first contact as something he would like the Badgers to improve upon this week.
“Everything that we do drills is based on things that show up on film,” the head coach said. “So being able to watch film and get better and understand the importance of doing your job. And we say do you job, but they have to know what the job is. If they motion here and go here, it changes the formation, changes who’s number one, who’s number two -- that changes your job. This week we’re getting more reps and getting better at things.”
Another issue Rogers cited was selfish penalties, like the personal foul in the fourth quarter on one of Connally’s final touchdown drives of regulation.
“We talk about that,” Rogers said. “You’ve got to be able to control your emotions in the moment. There’s going to be pressure in a football game. It’s hard to mimic that until you do it, so hopefully they learn from it and we can get better from it.”
The heartbreak of last week’s loss was due partially to three missed extra-point attempts from the Badgers’ first-year kicker Jeremiah Santo.
“We opened our kicking job up,” Rogers said. “We’ve had multiple guys kicking. Jeremiah, yesterday, was so much better. The coaches talked to him and got him figured out a little bit. He was rushing it. I mean that last overtime kick, I think he kicked the ball before it even hit the tee … Hats off to him, he came out to play football his senior year. There’s a lot of new for him.”
Even with the miscues that contributed to last week’s loss, Rogers continues to be confident in the Badgers’ capabilities to win football games in big moments, no matter the stakes. According to Rogers, the best way to accomplish that is to simply play the next play without dwelling, without losing focus, all with the purpose of earning the right to win.
Kickoff at Central Catholic in downtown San Antonio will be at 7 p.m.