Written by Ben Cox – An historic game will be taking place this week at Gordon Wood Stadium, when the San Saba Armadillos and the DeLeon Bearcats play for the 2A Quarterfinals.

 

Both teams are vying for a a shot at State with this game, which is something the ‘Dillos have never seen. The State Quarter Finals is the farthest the team has ever gotten, and the last time that happened was in 1968.

Then in 1978, after a 10 year drought, the ‘Dillos re-entered the playoff’s by defeating the DeLeon Bearcats. The ‘Dillos and Bearcats square off for the second time this season on Thursday.

San Saba Head Coach Jerod Fikac (pronounced Fee-Kahtch) says his team isn’t resting on its laurels or counting on their previous win over the Bearcats to propel them to the next round. “We are taking it one day at a time, we can’t focus on what happened in the past. Anyone playing December football has a great team and DeLeon are no different.”

In his second year in San Saba, Fikac is proud of the effort made by his team to excel, and attributes it all to the selflessness the team has made a part of their lifestyle this year. He says “We adopted “Rise as One” as a team saying, and the town has also adopted it. These boys really are putting each other first. It’s great to see and it’s great to also have the support from the town of San Saba.”

In his seventh year at the helm, DeLeon head coach David Yaeger says his team are “excited to get to play San Saba again, and play them a bit better than we did the last time.” San Saba took home a very lopsided 62 to 12 victory in week 11 over the Bearcats, but Coach Yaeger says his team is excited about the rematch.

“We learned a lot from that loss, sometimes you get even better from a loss than you do a win. I think we’ll play a bit better right now. We’ve got some kids back who were out with injuries that week and we’ve gotta correct some of the mistakes we made against them and I think we can do that.”

No stranger to playoff berths, DeLeon will be z tough team to beat after advancing to Regionals last year, and with five playoff wins in the last two years.

The game is set for Gordon Wood on Thursday evening, with kickoff at 6:00 instead of the usual 7:30 start time. The game was rescheduled from Friday due to weather concerns.