Along with facing Azle on the Hornets’ home turf Friday, Sept. 15 at 7 p.m., the Aledo Bearcats have another opponent to battle as they enter their second District 3-5A Division I contest, head coach Robby Jones said.
“Complacency. We won two big games to open the season and opened district with a win over a quality opponent. Now, we’ve got to be careful not to let down,” Jones said.
The Bearcats are coming off a 38-13 home victory against Justin Northwest last Friday, while Azle was losing 49-7 at Denton Ryan in a game that started Friday, Sept. 8 and ended Sept. 9 because of a thunderstorm delay.
The Bearcats’ two predistrict contests were a 50-35 home win over Dallas Parish Episcopal and a 48-45 victory at Denton Guyer.
Despite the lopsided score against Ryan, Jones believes the Hornets (1-2) are closer to the team that defeated Grapevine 14-13 in a defensive battle two weeks ago.
“Coach (Devon) Dorris is defensive guy,” Jones said. “They go with a 3-4 and slide into a 4-2. He did that at Boswell.
“Chad Jones, their offensive coordinator, was at Boswell when we had a couple of good games with them.”
The Hornets are rotating quarterbacks with Canaan Kaznowski and Austin May seeing the bulk of time. Between them, however, they have completed 22 of 50 passes with one touchdown and four interceptions.
Running Back Haegen Hughes leads the Azle rushing attack with 174 yards through three games. However, he has also had trouble finding the end zone with no touchdowns on the ground and one receiving.
But Jones believes there is more than meets the eye.
“They have big splits to open holes in the running game, and they’re running back is pretty good,” he said.
After two weeks of high-scoring offensive play, Jones saw a stepback in last week’s win over Northwest in which the defense scored twice and set up another TD.
“We didn’t play well offensively, and our kids saw that video,” Jones said. “We’ve had some great practices and they are focused again. I expect more this week, and so do they.”
For the first time this season the defense was dominant as they forced the Texans into three turnovers that all resulted in points. Safety Boogie Owens returned a fumble 53 yards for a TD and had an interception that set up another score.
Also, defensive end Cooper Cyphers returned an interception 49 yards for a TD.
“The defense showed what they are capable of doing,” Jones said. “They showed their ability to take over and dominate a game.”
Now, the plan is to put that together with the explosive offense of the first two games, Jones said.
Though the season is only three weeks old, the Bearcats are calling upon depth because of some injuries.
Among those who have impressed in backup roles have been running back Kaden Winkfield and RJ Blake. Earlier this season Winkfield rushed seven times for 45 yards against Dallas Parish Episcopal, while Blake carried seven times for 27 yards against Northwest.
Others to watch on the depth chart this week include safety Lamel Swanson, who has been moved up from the junior varsity, along with linebacker Kutter Harrell, who was moved up last week and will stay up this week, Jones said.
“Football is a difficult sport. It’s physical, and even tough little injuries happen. We just to put people in place to make plays,” Jones said. “We have quality backups.”
Linebacker Ky Howington is expected to return to action this week after missing last week’s contest because of a shoulder injury. He has 7.5 tackles this season, including one for a loss.
Also, wide receiver Kaydon Finley is expected back in limited action after an ankle injury sidelined him last week. He has three catches for 25 yards this season.
After playing the first two games in some of the hottest weather ever experienced for this time of year, teams are finally getting fall-type weather this week. And Jones said his team could not be any happier.
He noted opening the doors during an indoor workout because it was raining and how cool the breeze coming was. He said some coaches even had hoodies on.
“The kids are tired of how hot it’s been,” he said. “This week is so great to see, a very nice change.
“We should see less cramping Friday night.”
As of press time, some forecasts called for as much as a 50% chance of rain Friday night.
It is official, when the Aledo Bearcats return home next week to face Saginaw in homecoming, they will be playing in Tim Buchanan Stadium. Actually, they already have played there twice, but now it officially has the name in place.
A sign bearing the new name of the stadium sits above the east entrance. The name of the stadium was changed to honor Buchanan after the legendary coach retired earlier this year.
The Bearcats have dominated the all-time series with the Hornets by a 12-2 margin. The series dates back to 1946, when the Bearcats eked out a 7-6 victory. Two years later the Hornets won 19-7, followed by Aledo wins 48-0 and 19-6 in 1949 and 1950.
Then, the teams, despite being less than a half hour apart, did not play for five decades. When they met again, the Bearcats won 44-13 in 2000 and the Hornets got their last victory in the series in 2001.
The teams also met for the only time in the playoffs in 2004. Aledo won 48-35 in the area round.
Since then, the Bearcats have completely dominated the Hornets, winning the past seven meetings by an average score of 55-4. In last season’s 55-20 Aledo win at Buchanan Stadium, the Hornets scored twice as points than they had in the previous six meetings combined.
It hasn’t been that long since the Hornets had success in a season. In fact, they reached the playoffs four straight seasons from 2018-21, compiling a record of 37-10 and reaching the second round three times.
The Bearcats remained atop the Class 5A Division I state rankings in Dave Campbell’s Texas Football this week. District foe Denton Ryan moved up a notch from No. 7 to No. 6.
Aledo is also the only non-6A team to be ranked in the state’s top five throughout all classifications this week in Maxpreps rankings. The Bearcats are No. 5, behind only defending 6A Division I champion Duncanville, defending 6A Division II champ DeSoto, Houston North Shore and Humble Atascocita.
Nationally, the Bearcats are ranked 33rd, ironically one spot ahead of Atascocita. Duncanville is eighth, North Shore ninth and DeSoto 14th.
Denton Guyer, whom the Bearcats defeated 48-45 on Sept. 1, is ranked 43rd nationally.
Last week's results
Aledo 38, Northwest 13
Burleson Centennial 40, Saginaw 13
Denton Ryan 49, Azle 7
The Colony 48, South Hills 7
Brewer (0-2) open
This week's games
Friday, Sept. 15, all games at 7 p.m.
Aledo at Azle
The Colony at Centennial
Ryan at Saginaw
Brewer at Northwest
South Hills bye
Standings (overall record in parentheses)
Aledo 1-0 (3-0)
Centennial 1-0 (3-0)
Ryan 1-0 (2-0)
The Colony 1-0 (1-2)
Brewer 0-0 (0-2)
Northwest 0-1 (2-1)
Azle 0-1 (1-2)
Saginaw 0-1 (0-3)
South Hills 0-1 (0-3)
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