Editor’s note: The time and date of the Thursday bi-district game between Aledo and Saginaw was before our press time for the printed edition of The Community News. However, many of our readers receive it online on Thursdays.
Following a dominant display in the regular season, the No. 1 Aledo Bearcats look to take their show and elevate its quality into the postseason. The Bearcats’ first test will come in the bi-district round after they put together another undefeated district championship season.
“We’re pleased with how the regular season went. Of course, anytime you go 10-0, it’s a special season,” Bearcats head coach Robby Jones said. “Transitioning into the playoffs, there’s always a little bit more of a spark on Monday morning when the playoffs start because you’re seeing that, okay, now we’re to the point of the season where we wanted to be. We’re in the playoffs and we get to make this playoff run, and hopefully it’ll end up in Cowboy Stadium.”
With the players flying around the field with more enthusiasm and purpose, the Bearcats’ next goal will be to hoist a UIL record-extending 13th state championship trophy into the air inside of AT&T Stadium this December. In order to do that, Aledo will need to extend its active win streak from 10 to 16 games, and the Bearcats seem to be on the right path as a continually-improving football team.
“The most impressive thing to me is the improvement that we made from the beginning of the year to where we are now,” Jones said. “I think we are a much better football team now than we were when we played Denton Guyer in Week One. We’ve got some explosiveness we’ve developed on offense, and the defense started the year playing lights out and has continued to get better and better. I’m just really proud of the work that the kids have put in and where they are right now. We aren’t exactly where we need to be by the end of the year, but we’re getting close.”
Aledo ended the regular season with an average of 50.3 points per game scored against 6.6 points per game allowed. The Bearcats look to overwhelm their bi-district opponent, the Saginaw Roughriders, but will need to be cognizant of some key playmakers of an improved Saginaw squad.
“Defensively, they are a 3-4 defense and the best guy they have is Isaac Bukasa. He’s 6-foot-4, long, athletic and they bring him on a lot of stunts as an outside linebacker – he wreaks some havoc,” Jones said. “He could cause some problems for us defensively, then offensively, they like to throw the ball. They have a 6-foot-6 quarterback Joshua Greek, a coach’s son, that is going to try to test our secondary a little bit, which hasn’t had a whole lot of tests going on during the regular season. We’re excited to see how those guys respond to that and also see if they can hold up against our pass rush.”
Playing at Tim Buchanan Stadium, Aledo hopes to get a jolt from its home fans one more time and to follow its formula they have adhered most of the season – start fast and don’t look back.
“The goal going into the game is to have a fast start, to have the energy and excitement going into the game, to get the crowd excited and to go out and play as well as you possibly can,” Jones said. “Lincoln Tubbs has been a difference maker for us at quarterback, and he needs to continue that. We can get the ball out to Kaydon Finley, who a lot of high school defenses can’t guard, so we’ve got to get him the ball. In our running game, (Kaden) Winkfield and (Brady) Powell need to get going early, so we can get Jeremiah (Johnson) and Rudy (Moya) some carries. We expect the guys that have been making plays for us all year to continue to do that for us.”
The Bearcats (10-0, 8-0) will host Saginaw (7-3, 6-2) at 7 p.m. Thursday at Tim Buchanan Stadium.
Comments
No comments on this item Please log in to comment by clicking here