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November 5, 2009

One more goal to reach

Bulldogs looking to win district crown outright with win over Bison tonight

By Gene Schallenberg

Heading into today’s regular-season finale, the New Waverly Bulldogs have accomplished nearly everything they had in mind before the season kicked off.

Clinch a second straight playoff berth.

Check.

Win a share of a second consecutive district championship.

Check.

Claim an outright title.

Not just yet. That’s something that will be decided tonight when the Bulldogs clash with Buffalo.

The Dogs are far from satisfied and have no plans of resting on their laurels. Instead, they are focused on the Bison and look to finish district play the right way, without a single blemish.

“We just have to take it one game at a time,” senior wide receiver Kyren Watts said following Thursday’s practice. “We can’t look past Buffalo.”

“We really do need to finish strong,” senior Kody Coleman said.

Like New Waverly, the Bison have been cruising through district play.

After getting blanked by Corrigan-Camden in the district opener, Buffalo (3-1 in District 21-2A) blasted Groveton and Trinity and edged Centerville 21-14.

With plenty of confidence on both sidelines, the Bulldogs know they’ll have to do all the little things right to win their sixth straight this season.

“We really need to come out and set the tone for the game defensively,” head coach Ken Craig said. “We need to make a statement on that side of the ball. We’ve been good at times. Other times, we’ve bent a lot and done well when it gets into crunch time, but we need to have a solid four-quarter defensive game. We’ve got to line up correctly and we need to take care of our assignments.

“We also need to make that statement on the offensive side of the ball. We’ve come out and big-played everybody. We want to come out and execute on that side of the ball as well. We need to keep getting the ball into the hands of those guys that make big plays.”

Win or lose, New Waverly (4-0, 7-2) will be district champions. But with a loss to the Bison, the Bulldogs will have to share the title with Buffalo and possibly Corrigan-Camden, a team that New Waverly defeated three weeks ago on a last-second field goal.

Just the mere thought of sharing the 21-2A championship is a bitter pill to swallow and the Bulldogs want to avoid that from happening.

“We’re selfish. We’re greedy,” Coleman said with a smirk. “We don’t want to share it with anybody. We worked too hard and accomplished so much to not have it all to ourselves.”

Even with the Class 2A playoffs on the horizon, New Waverly knows that it still has a lot to gain, especially against a team that will also be going to the playoffs, and a lot to improve on.

“We always want to win,” Coleman added. “It’s just always good to go out on a positive note and build on it. We can always get better and that’s what we hope to do.”

Besides putting another district championship trophy on the shelf, the Bulldogs hope that they’ll gain some momentum to carry into the playoffs, which begin next week.

“You definitely want to go in with a win,” Craig said. “It’s tough to come back from a loss and regain focus. Sometimes that’s hard thing to overcome.

“I expect us to come out Friday and play the best that we can play. If we can play the best that we can, then we’ll be undefeated district champions by the end of the night.”

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