STORY BY: KEITH KANE
It may look like a David vs. Goliath match-up on paper, but Bryan Vikings Coach Ross Rogers hopes it has the same result as the Biblical story.
It’s the 2-6 Bryan Vikings against the 4-3 Woodlands Highlanders with The Woodlands in the thick of the District 14-5A championship race and the Vikings needing to win out to slip into the play-offs. The Highlanders’ three losses came against some of the best teams in the state, Dallas Skyline, Katy, and A&M Consolidated while the Vikings are coming off of three consecutive losses where they’ve given up a total of 143 points while scoring 49. Plus, The Woodlands is coming off a bye week in which they went into with the momentum of a 49-21 win overLufkin.
“They’ve got numbers,” says Rogers about The Woodlands’ football program, “They suit out a lot of kids. They’ve got big linemen.” Rogers has high praise for the Highlanders’ quarterback, Blaine Gillespie, whoRogerssays can really throw, and their sophomore running back, Patrick Carr. “He has a lot of speed and quickness,” says Rogers. “He might go along there and not make a play or two for the first three or four carries and then he’ll pop one and he’ll be 60 or 70 yards down the field.” The Highlanders also have a talented wide receiver in the form of Jayme Taylor who has already been recruited to play football in college.
Defensively, Rogers says The Woodlands will play a standard 50 defense with cover four in the secondary. The Vikings’ coach says “they let their safeties run out of the secondary and try to make plays, if they need to. The do a lot of different things.”
About the Vikings’ chances against The Woodlands Rogers says, “If our offense will go out and move the ball, which I think we can against this group, I think we’ll help ourselves with our defense as well.”
The Vikings and Highlanders will kick off Friday night at 7:30 pm in Woodforest Bank Stadium in Shenandoah with the game to be broadcast on 1150 The Zone beginning at 7:00 pm.