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10-4A FOOTBALL PREVIEW: Pirates, Wranglers look to stay on course
By DEVIN HASSON, dhasson@starlocalnews.com
Poteet and West Mesquite entered the 10-4A season as two of the favorites to win the district championship.
Last week, each took on an upstart that was coming off a strong run through non-district play and ready to stake their own claim as a contender, but both the Pirates and Wranglers took care of business to reaffirm their standing among the upper echelon of 10-4A teams.
This week, Poteet and West Mesquite will once again be favorites as they take on a pair of teams who suffered district-opening losses and are mired near the bottom of the standings.
The Pirates improved to 4-0 on the season last Friday with a 43-14 victory over Carrollton Newman Smith and will now turn their attention to Forney (1-3) on Friday at 7:30 p.m. at City Bank Stadium.
It was actually a close game at halftime, with Poteet clinging to a 9-7 lead before they blew the game open in the final two quarters.
Quarterback Tanner Ramsey rushed for four touchdowns, giving him eight on the season. Ramsey has thrown for 694 yards and seven scores, as well.
James Swindle rushed for 94 yards last week and now has 275 on the season. Buck Rodges had a quiet evening last week, but still leads the team with nine catches for 231 yards and four scores, while Rodney Douglas, who also has nine catches, showed off his playmaking on a 38-yard touchdown catch-and-run.
The Poteet defense was once again solid, allowing only 34 yards on the ground and forcing three turnovers. The special teams also chipped in with a blocked punt to set up a score.
Forney is coming off a 42-7 drubbing at the hands of Highland Park last week. The Jackrabbits were held to just 184 yards of offense and their lone score came late in the fourth quarter.
Forney quarterback Jack King has completed less than 50 percent of his passes for 538 yards but has thrown six interceptions.
Clayton Chadwick has done a little of everything for the Jackrabbits. Chadwick has rushed for 269 yards, is the leading receiver with 18 catches and stepped in at quarterback, attempting 10 passes last week.
Poteet knows that despite the records, Forney will present a challenge, so they are hoping to keep pushing forward and take another step toward returning to the playoffs.
“There are a lot of positives we can take away from this week (Newman Smith), the most important is that we won,” Poteet head coach Randy Jackson said. “I have to watch the film but I feel good, they didn’t run the ball against us, which was positive, but we did give up some deep balls. We’ll look at it, coach them up and get them ready for next week.”
West Mesquite must also throw out the records when it hosts winless Terrell (0-4) on Thursday at Mesquite Memorial Stadium.
The Wranglers got off to a dominating start against Carrollton Creekview last Thursday before holding on late for a 32-26 victory.
Raashaan Reason had his first breakout game of the season, opening the game with a 93-yard run from scrimmage and finishing with 214 yards on just 14 carries.
Chason Virgil threw for two touchdown passes last week and now has 882 yards and seven scores for the season.
The defense was stout early on, and while it gave up some points in the second half, it stood its ground when it needed to.
“Anytime you can win, especially in district, it's a positive," West Mesquite head coach Mike Overton said. "Our emphasis for Terrell is improving ourselves. Our biggest thing is that we have to be more disciplined penalty-wise in critical situations. Against Creekview, we were in a close game and we allowed them to continue drives on third and fourth downs by making penalties. We have to eliminate that and get our defense off of the field.
"The good thing is we've shown that we can fight through adversity if we get down. Our guys have proven they can do that."
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