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Tim Juarez evades an Evant defender during district play. MEGAN LUSTY PHOTOGRAPHY | COURTESY PHOTO
Leakey (9-1) and Lometa (7-2) enter this week’s bidistrict playoff after both had a bye week.
Prairie Lea forfeited to District 16-1A champ Leakey, while the District 15-1A runner-up Hornets finished district play a week earlier.
The playoff game is scheduled for Nov. 13 at 7:30 p.m. in Fredericksburg. The winner will advance to face Water Valley or Baird.
The Leakey Eagles have many of the same players they did when they faced Lometa in a scrimmage last year. Their head coach, Shannon Williams, is a familiar opponent for Lometa head coach D.T. Torres, as Williams formerly led the Zephyr Bulldogs.
Key Eagle players include Hunter Williams, Abel Montoya and Roger Garcia.
Williams, the coach’s son, is a linebacker and running back, but the Eagles give him the option to throw often. He has 1,178 passing yards and 1,337 rushing yards this season, according to maxpreps.com.
Montoya, a quarterback, is the Eagles’ second-best passer, and fullback/nose guard Garcia is second on the team rushing list.
Garcia left a recent game with an injury, and it was unclear if he would play this week, but Torres is preparing as if he will.
Leakey’s players as a whole are not as big as Jonesboro’s or Evant’s, but the Eagles are athletic.
The kicking game is a potential weakness. The Eagles have a tendency to kick short of the end zone and to attempt onsides. If the Hornets capitalize, they could have good starting field position.
Leakey’s only loss came in week four, a 98-97 loss to the Rankin Red Devils. Rankin was missing several starters, but the score shows the Eagles’ offensive firepower.
For the season, Leakey averages 55.5 points per game offensively while allowing an average of 23.7 points.
Torres considers the Eagles’ back-to-back wins against tough private schools in mid-season to be their biggest achievements.
Bulverde Bracken Christian and Fredericksburg Heritage combined for an 8-3 record. Leakey beat Heritage by seven points and Bracken Christian by 17.
“Those two games were close games for them, and they were outsized,” Torres said, “but they used their speed and their quickness. They showed a lot of toughness.”
None of Leakey’s district opponents had a winning record, so Torres hopes Lometa’s strength of schedule will be an advantage for the team.
The Hornets are healthy, aside from one season-ending injury that occurred several weeks ago. Dyllen Workmon returned to action toward the end of the regular season and was back to his normal playing time in his last game, Torres said.
Lometa’s last playoff victory came in 2011 against Oakwood. That year, the Hornets were eliminated by Abbott in the third round.