Teague vs. Cameron - Part Three

If you look back over the past two playoff runs for Cameron, there are a select few number of games that stood out.  Two of those games came against the Teague Lions.  

During the road to the three-peat in 2014, Cameron out-paced the Lions in a 42-31 win in the area round of the playoffs.  In 2015 it was the state quarterfinals where the Yoemen won in dramatic come from behind fashion, 28-21.  

What will happen in 2016?  We will find that out on Friday night at Temple Wildcat Stadium when the Yoemen and Lions battle it out for the third straight season.  

Like the past two years, Teague appears to be one of the top teams in region and the state. 

"Teague has played very well," said Yoemen head coach Tommy Brashear.  "They are a very good football team.  They are big and fast and they have everything that you would want as a coach.  It's going to be a very tough battle."

The Lions are coming off a 48-0 thrashing of Buna in the area round of the playoffs.  To compare, Woodville did defeat Buna (28-8) during district play.  In the bi-district round, Teague easily got by the Franklin Lions, 42-20.  

It was somewhat of a struggle early on in the season for Teague, with a tough loss to Mexia (41-26), and a tight, come from behind win over West (14-10).  However, the Lions seem to be playing very well when it counts the most. 

"It looks like they are getting better and better as the year has gone on," said Brashear. "They only had five and five returning on both sides of the ball, so at the beginning of the year they were kind of young.  They had some young, first year varsity guys."

Other season results include wins over Caldwell (27-14), Dublin (68-26), Eustace (39-21), Elkhart (27-0), Whitney (49-13), Groesbeck (41-7) and Palestine Westwood (40-14).  Teague's only other loss was to state power Malakoff, 40-36. 

Offense

A total of five starters returned for Teague this season on offense.  Quarterback play was a big question mark entering this season, but it now appears to be one of the bigger strengths of this team. 

Junior Antonio Heard, a University of Alabama at Birmingham commit, has rushed for 1,326 yards and has 17 touchdowns this season.  

"They are a run-heavy team," said Brashear.  "They run the spread offense, but they spread you out to run the ball with their good athletes.  They throw a little bit, but the biggest threat we have to stop is their quarterback.  He is not a big kid, but he is very fast, athletic and quick.  He is one of those guys that it's hard to get your hands on."

His brother, junior Tyrese Heard, is also a UAB commit that has caught 23 passes for 346 yards and eight touchdowns.  

Running back Tayvis Coleman is now in his third year as a starter.  The junior has carried the ball 117 times for 804 yards and 12 touchdowns. 

Teague is averaging 38 points per game.  

Defense

The Teague defense has been a strength of this team dating back to last season.  In 2015, the average sat at just 17.9 points per game and that has held steady at 17.1 points per game in 2016.  

"They base out of a 4-3 defense," said Brashear.  "When you play a spread team, it's kind of a 4-1 defense.  Mostly, they want to try and get pressure with their front four.  It will be one of the better defensive fronts we have faced this year."

Five starters returned from the 2015 team.  Senior linebacker Nathan Vick leads the team with 121 tackles.  Tyrese Heard will be play both ways and is the top secondary player to watch with 73 tackles and three interceptions on the season. 

Keys to victory

In games that appear to be equally matched, it's going to take a solid effort in all three phases for either team to advance on.  

"We have to be able to protect in the passing game," said Brashear.  "Defensively, we have to tackle that fast quarterback.  We must prevent the big plays as that has been hurting us a little bit in games.  "On kickoffs, we have to get better.  We might need to do some things differently there.  I'm not sure we want to kick deep to these guys.  We'll have a game plan put together, and we have to execute that."

Message to the team

Cameron has gotten the best of the Lions the past two years, but both games have been very competitive.  Teague will come into this game hungry, so it'll be important for the Yoemen to stay equally focused.  

"Our message to the kids are hey, these guys want what you've got," said Brashear.  "They feel like we've taken possible state championships away from them by beating them.  They felt like they had just as good of chance to win as we did.  Our message is they are hungrier than ever and they want to get revenge."

Game time

Kickoff from Temple Wildcat Stadium is set for 7:00 p.m. on Friday, November 25.  The winner of this game will meet the winner of the Rockdale/Malakoff contest in the state quarterfinals.  Those teams will be playing at Waco ISD on Friday, with kickoff set for 1:30 p.m.