Nineteen times, including eight games in the Class 5A state playoffs, those 13-5A teams lost to 14-5A foes.
This season, some things have changed a bit.
What was seven-team 13-5A added perennial playoff qualifier Copperas Cove and now is 12-5A; the former 14-5A shipped out Pflugerville, gained Cedar Park Vista Ridge and became 16-5A.
Other things haven’t changed much, though.
Round Rock McNeil - Belton’s opponent in its home opener Friday - overpowered College Station A&M Consolidated 26-3 last week to push its district’s head-to-head record to 20-0 since 2006 began. By the end of Friday, that mark could extend to 24-0.
Bryan will have the first shot to stop 13-5A/12-5A’s prolonged drought against 14-5A/16-5A when it plays at Leander tonight.
The Vikings got off to a good start by beating Houston Cypress Falls 28-20, but now they’ll face a Leander program that went three rounds deep in the Division II playoffs last year and began this season by beating Pflugerville, which reached the Division II state final in 2007.
If Bryan can’t prevail, the ball will be in Temple’s court when it begins its season at Cedar Park on Friday night.
All the Wildcats have to do to break their district’s dry spell is defeat a Timberwolves team that thoroughly outplayed longtime stalwart Austin Westlake on the road last week, leading 31-7 late in the game before winning 31-21.
Excuse Temple coach Bryce Monsen if it seems like a sore subject when the struggles of the Wildcats’ district against the greater Williamson County league are mentioned.
“We have not even talked about it,” Monsen said. “We’re excited to play our first game and our kids are tired of beating on each other. But we know we are going to play a very good Cedar Park team.”
Temple certainly didn’t escape the wrath of the former 14-5A last year.
After opening their season with a win over South Garland, the host Wildcats led visiting McNeil in the third quarter but ended up losing 38-28. Two weeks later at Round Rock Westwood, a fumble negated a third-quarter touchdown that would have put Temple up 17-10, then the Warriors pulled away for a 27-17 victory.
By the way, neither McNeil nor Westwood earned one of 14-5A’s four playoff berths.
Then in the first round of the Division II playoffs in Killeen, Temple scored a long TD in the final minute to push Pflugerville into overtime, and the Wildcats took a brief lead in the extra session.
However, the Panthers scored a touchdown on their first offensive play in OT to win 34-31 and complete 14-5A’s second consecutive four-game playoff sweep of 13-5A.
Monsen conceded that his district has fallen behind the old 14-5A in terms of overall competitiveness and offered some possible reasons for that.
“The tide has turned. We used to be the dominant district, and now they have become the dominant district,” he said. “The schools down there are all big schools (five of the eight have enrollments of 2,570 students or more) because a lot of people have moved into that area.
“And those school districts pay very well, so they have attracted some great coaches.”
One of those coaches is Cedar Park fourth-year boss Chris Ross, whose 2007 Timberwolves were 6-4 overall but only 3-4 in 14-5A, missing out on a playoff berth.
“Our district is, top to bottom, unbelievable,” said Ross, who has a 21-11 record at Cedar Park. “The Temple district has great teams every year, but there’s probably a couple of teams that you say, ‘We should beat them.’
“We had played very well last year and beat two teams (Round Rock and district champion Round Rock Stony Point) that went to the (second round of the Division I) playoffs. But we lost our last game to Leander and that was the difference between tying for second and finishing fifth.”
Temple didn’t duck teams from the new 16-5A in compiling its non-district schedule for this season, lining up Cedar Park and then Leander for its Wildcat Stadium opener next Friday.
Two other 12-5A teams will try to knock off 16-5A squads on Friday, with Belton hosting McNeil and Harker Heights playing at Westwood. In all, there are eight 12-5A-vs.-16-5A matchups set this season.
Even if 12-5A’s competitors can’t break through against 16-5A before district play begins, at least they have this going for them: The University Interscholastic League’s latest realignment dictates that they can’t be matched again until the third round of the playoffs.
gwille@temple-telegram.com
