Aledo faces Arlington Lamar in final game of regular season

The final week of the regular season awaits for the Aledo Bearcats, who have won five straight games to improve to 6-3 overall and 5-1 in district.

The Bearcats will face the Arlington Lamar Vikings, who come into the game with a record of 5-4 overall and 3-3 in district, good for fourth place.

The Vikings are averaging 31.4 points per game on offense while giving up an average of 28 points per game defensively.

Offensively, Vikings quarterback Brian Williams has thrown for 1,352 yards, 12 touchdowns, and three interceptions. Running back Tayrone Thomas has been another key contributor for the Vikings on offense, rushing for 1,487 yards and nine touchdowns on 204 carries. Wide receiver Tyshawn Rollins leads the Vikings in receiving yards with 372 and touchdown receptions with three.

Aledo head coach Robby Jones emphasized playing good football, along with the defense’s health, as reasons why the Bearcats’ defense can play well against the Vikings’ offense.

“What’s going to help us is that we’re getting our defensive line back this week,” Jones said. “[Arlington Lamar] runs a lot of zone options, and it requires you to be sound in all three phases of defense. You’ve gotta take the dive, the quarterback, and the pitch, so we’ve got to make sure that we’re playing good assignment football. If we do that, we’re going to do well in this game.”

Defensively, the Vikings have found strength in their pass rush, totaling 27 sacks on the season. Defensive lineman Isaiah Boins leads Arlington Lamar in sacks with nine and tackles for loss with 21. Linemen Adrian Davis and Dylan Rippie are second and third in tackles for loss with 15 and 14, respectively. Arlington Lamar’s found success in the turnover game as well, intercepting five passes while forcing four fumbles.

Jones aims to establish the run in order to help the offense do well.

“We’ve gotta go out and establish the run early, that’s always something that we try to do,” Jones said. “We don’t want to put ourselves in situations where we have to throw the ball on every play, because it gives [the Vikings defense] the opportunity to get pressure on the quarterback, like they’ve been able to do. We need big games out of [Wyatt Dorsey and Izzy Roberts] this week.”

Aledo clinched a playoff spot last week with its 61-0 win against Arlington Sam Houston. The Bearcats will likely be playing the Keller Central Chargers in the first round.

Jones anticipates a tough challenge, and praised the Chargers’ overall team make-up.

“In the last 10 years, we’ve probably beaten our first round opponents by 60 points on average, but that’s not gonna happen with Keller Central,” Jones said. “Keller Central is a really good football team. They’ve won the state 7-on-7 tournament, they’ve got really good athletes in the secondary and at receiver, their quarterback’s a dual-threat guy, and they’ve got a really good running back as well. It’s gonna be a very tough matchup in the first round.”

Before the playoffs, however, Aledo will play Arlington Lamar in its final regular season game at Tim Buchanan Stadium on Nov. 6. Kickoff will be at 7 p.m.