Published: October 29, 2009 11:03 am      

Alvarado looking to grab second place in District 12-3A

The Alvarado Indians have a chance to grab second place in District 12-3A on Friday when Crandall comes to visit.

The Pirates (5-3, 2-1) are tied with the Indians (4-4, 2-1) in 12-3A after both teams won last week.

Crandall smashed Venus, 61-0, while Alvarado rebounded from an Oct. 16 loss to first-place Kennedale with a 34-10 road win against Ferris.

Indian head coach Jeff Dixon said it’s nice to have breathing room in the standings.

“It was a good win for us,” Dixon said. “It kind of put us in control of our playoff destiny. If we beat Crandall, then there’s no issue at all. We’d solidify a berth and go from there.

To set up that scenario, Pirate head coach Brian Barnett said Crandall is going to have to do what few teams have been able to so far this season: stop the Alvarado run game.

“We need to slow down [Broam] Hart,” Barnett said. “We need to take care of the football, also. We played well against Kaufman, but we turned it over five times. Against a good team, you can’t do that and Alvarado doesn’t make many mistakes.”

Barnett acknowledged that simply slowing down the big Indian senior in the backfield won’t be enough as Alvarado has Wayne Onderdonk and Tyler Bates ready for opportunities to make big plays.

“Against some teams, it’s easy to stack seven or eight men in the box,” Barnett said. “You can’t do that against Alvarado. They’re very precise with their passing game and their fullback is very good. He always tends to have the ball in his hands and makes yardage and big plays.

“Any of those guys can beat you at any given moment.”

For the Indians, the Pirates present a significantly different type of offense than Alvarado’s smashmouth run attack.

“They throw the football,” Dixon said of Crandall’s spread-based attack. “Their quarterback [Tucker Mallon] is the guy that’s the key. All of the receivers can catch the ball and he runs. He’s the one we’ve got to stop.”

The Indians are no stranger to facing spread offenses, Dixon said, after having played teams like Joshua in the nondistrict portion of the schedule.

“Our first three games were against spread teams,” Dixon said. “We’ve got a package defensively that’s ready for that and our secondary is one of the strengths of our team.”

Dixon said Alvarado has had success running the ball despite opposing teams keying on Hart and the rest of the backs because of the work done in the trenches by the lineman.

Or, the “hogs.”

“I fell like our hogs will control the line,” Dixon said. “We’ve got to give credit to our offensive line. We feel like we’re going to be physical and we’ve got backs that run the ball well.

“Four yards a carry is good and the big plays take care of themselves. When you’ve got seven guys in the box, if your back can get to the second level, then you’ve got a big play.”

A strong finish to the district season would bode well for the Indians in the playoffs, Dixon said.

“It would sure do a lot for our program to finish 4-1 in district,” Dixon said. “If we roll into the playoffs on a three-game winning streak, I think that will help us in the playoffs.”

Kickoff is at 7:30 p.m. Friday at Charles Head Memorial stadium.