In a tale between two teams with history on coaching ends, there can only be one who emerges with a victory.
Eric Pichardo, along with some of his coaching staff, decided to leave Bowie’s coaching staff during the off-season to become the head coach of the Austin Panthers.
However, it was not a bitter goodbye, as head coach for the Bowie Bears Robert Padilla was happy of the new accomplishment of his former partner.
“Half of the coaches went there (Austin),” Padilla said. “We’ve been through that before. We all went to Austin and then Bowie. It’s bittersweet. We want them to do well all the time except this week.”
Similarly, Pichardo agrees with Padilla, and wants the best for his former team.
“Spent eight years there (Bowie). Kids on both teams know we coached there,” he said. “These kids here accept the fact that we came from there. We want them to win every game except this one because these are our kids now. At one point we were one, and now we are two.”
And now the two will square off in one of the most important games for their respective seasons in terms of playoffs. Austin (3-4, 1-3 1-5A) is coming off two key losses to El Paso High (23-18) and Burges (25-7), yet was kept in playoff contention with Bowie’s victory over El Paso High last week.
“A win would mean that we’ve already gone one year ahead of our schedule,” Pichardo said. “Bowie is the defending district champions. Usually you have three years to get your program rolling. If we win, we have already gotten ahead of the schedule.”
Adrian Broaddus/TexasHSFootball.com
After the Bears (5-3, 1-3 1-5A) faced the hardest stretch of their season, with losses from Burges, Andress and Chapin, they bounced back with a key win over El Paso to keep their playoff hopes alive.
“We’ve kept talking about winning out to maybe get that last playoff spot, but now we’re focused on this week and this week only,” Padilla said. “Trying to be 1-0 after every week. It’ll make us one step closer to what we want to accomplish.”
Both teams are squads with strong mentality towards the running game and like to control the ball. They both follow the running back by committee game plan with a pro-style offense setup.
“(Time of possession is) the story of the game—100 percent going to tell the story,” Pichardo said. “The team that wins the time of possession will win the game.”
Bowie’s gameplan will probably stay the same as it has been throughout the past weeks. They pride themselves on the run game, led by Nathan Felix, Jacob Marrufo, Ricardo Valles and quarterback Joseph Ponce. They have five players who have rushed for over 100 yards this season.
The only thing that has hurt their team this week is the availability of players, according to Padilla.
“We’ve had an injury bug, now a stomach bug. We have to work it out this week,” he said. “We have a really banged up o-line. More or less, we’ve lost one or more linemen a game.”
On Austin’s end, Pichardo commended his offense for learning the system in just under a year. Senior Alejandro Cabral, who has totaled 591 yards and four total touchdowns, leads the Panthers on the ground.
Pichardo also thinks that due to both teams being rush-heavy offenses, the game will end early.
“Start the busses around 8:30,” he said.
Kickoff between the two will start at 7 p.m.
Brought to you by:
