JACKSONVILLE — Fans attending Friday’s game between Jacksonville and Texas High — 7:30 p.m. at the Tomato Bowl — could be treated to an offensive showcase from both teams, if the results of the Indians’ and Tigers’ respective season openers last week are any indication.

The Indians (0-1) removed the wraps off its new offense a week ago against Carthage and the reviews have been pretty good — the Tribe, despite falling to the now No.2-ranked (Class 3A) Bulldogs, 41-26, put a fair amount of points on the board while racking up 267 total yards (193 passing, 74 on the turf) of offense.

The fact that six-different receivers (Daryl Minifee, Tevin Garland, Ledarius Session, Tanner Chancey, Jonathan Session and Andrew Black) had a least one catch each served to keep the Carthage defense guessing all night and it appears Texas High will find themselves in the same boat this week.

While on the subject of the Tigers, Texas High (1-0) proved that they could light the scoreboard as well by recording a  47-41 double-overtime victory over Vidor, a team that has just four starters back from 2009 and is not projected to contend for a playoff spot out of District 20-4A.

Jacksonville head coach Steve Wells admitted that the final score was a sort of eye catching, but that the Indians still have plenty of respect for the Tigers, who are ranked No. 22 in this week’s  Class 4A state rankings.

“The final score was somewhat of a surprise, but Texas High is (still) a very talented ball club,” he said.



Texas High Tigers

What’s the best way to describe the Tiger offense?

Like it or not, according to Wells, Texas High’s offense is “almost a carbon copy of Carthage’s.”

Indian fans will surely remember that Bulldog offense that racked up 485 total yards on Jacksonville a week ago.

And, just like the Bulldogs featured last week, Texas High can be expected to rely on three key players on the offensive side: Their power running back (Kody Sutton), skilled quarterback (Levi Saxby) and a strong (and fast) wideout in Logan Preston.

“The key for us is to stop Sutton,” Wells said. “He’s a strong athletic kid. When we played them last year (state Class 4A bi-district game) he was their No. 1 threat and he still is this year.”

Saxby, a senior, got his first varsity start last week after serving as Nate Sorenson’s back-up for the past couple of years — Sorenson is now playing on Saturday’s for Oklahoma State University — so, having a first-year-senior starter piloting the offense is a new experience for Texas High.

Wells said the Tigers like to throw the ball to Preston (tight end) in crunch times and that the Indians expect him to be heavily involved in the Tigers’ offense on Friday.

“Bottom line...we have to know where Sutton and Preston are at all time and be able to stop them,” he said.

Another playmaker for the Border City boys is wideout Brandon Welch.

Statistically, Sutton shredded the Vidor defense for 264 yards and three touchdowns last week while Saxby went 13-of-19 through the air for 253 yards and 3 TDs. Welch caught 6 passes for 120 yards and was on the receiving end of a 62-yard touchdown hook up from Saxby.

Defensively, the Tigers, who are anchored by their nose guard Jonathan Hurt (290-pounds) are “very athletic and run well to the ball,” according to Wells. “They definitely have some athletes on defense. Hopefully we can do some things on offense that will give us success.”



Jacksonville Indians

Wells states that two areas the Tribe’s defenders have been working long and hard on in practice are in doing a better job of tackling and not getting beat deep.

“We felt like we had a chance to win the Carthage game, but we made too many mental mistakes and we let them beat us deep three time,” he said. “You just can’t do that and expect to win. We’ve spent a lot of time this week talking to the kids about how mental mistakes mean you beat yourself, and I think that they understand that.”

The mental mistakes also plagued the team on offense according to Wells, who can notch career win No. 50 if the Tribe can get by the Tigers this week.

“We showed signs of being a good team offensively on Friday night,” he said. “But we have to eliminate the mental breakdowns to where we can be even better. We can’t stop ourselves on offense by having penalties and making mental busts and expect to do well”

As a result of graduation and the pre-season shoulder injury to Tradarreon Moreland, the Tribe’s receiving corp is extremely inexperienced.

Making the young pass catchers’ job even more challenging are the decisions that they often must make at the line.

“Our offense this year is set up with read routes which means we can change the play at the line based on what the (defensive) coverage is,” Wells described. “Our receivers and quarterback have to be on the same page and they have to come off the ball hard and fast on every play; we’re been working on that this week (too).”

The optimist in Wells did mange to find a silver lining in the cloud of defeat that occurred on the home grounds last week.

“I think last week’s loss will help us down the road because we have about nine 10th graders and one 9th grader playing on varsity and the week-to-week experience will only make them better,” he said.