Week Ten. Just say those two words up in these parts during the
football season, and everyone knows what you’re talking about. Tonight,
Memorial Stadium will play host to the annual rivalre meeting between
Wichita Falls High School and their cross-town rival, Rider High School.
This will be the 48th meeting in the series between the two schools. In last
season’s contest, the Coyotes came away with a 28-18 victory over the
Raiders.
While Rider will be making plans following tonight’s game to host a
playoff game, first-year Raider head coach Jim Garfield knows that, in
actuality, the playoffs start tonight for his team.
“Throw the records out in this one. This is one of the most storied
rivalries in the state of Texas,” Garfield said. Garfield was on the staff
of last year’s Raider team, but tonight will be his first time as the head
man on the sidelines for Rider.
On the “visiting” side, Wichita Falls head coach Jayson Lavender will
attempt to win his second straigiht game in this series. In his debut as a
head coach last season, he unleashed quarterback Dylan Sheffield, who threw
for 2 touchdowns in the win. Tonight, however, Sheffield will be a game-time
decision with a hand injury. If he can’t go, Jerrod Frank will be the man
calling the signals tonight for the Coyotes.
Lavender knows what the key to victory will be tonight: stopping
RIder’s Derron Royster.
“Royster is a very spirited running backbut I think our kids are ready
for the challenge. They’ve been working out awesome all week,” Lavender
said. “Their spread is a version of the single wing and they run the ball
very well. I’ve really been impressed with their football team.”
The Coyotes will also be without two of their top defenders tonight.
Linebacker Chris Vasquez will miss tonight’s game with a torn ACL, suffered
in last week’s loss to Denton Ryan, and all-around contributor Daulton
Davidson will miss tonight with a broken foot. He siffered that injury in
the Lake Dallas game two weeks ago.
This is one of those games where, no matter what the team’s record is,
you look at all the stats, make your spreadsheets, do some analysis, make
your comparisons, and then, throw it all into the garbage can. This one is
for city bragging rights, plain and simple. Quite frankly, that’s really
what it boils down to at the end of the day. There will be an estimated
crowd tonight at Memorial Stadium of 15,000, although that number could
increase, depending on advance ticket sales at both schools.
It’s been a festive week in the Falls. The Raiders had their Rider
Rally last night, and the Coyotes had their annual Berkeley Breakfast this
morning. The Coyotes will end today’s school day with the big pep rally. All
the signs have been posted all across the city, proclaiming allegiance for
one team or the other. Buth TV stations in town have been building the hype
all week. It’s gameday. Let’s get this thing kicked off.