The No. 5 Indian football team will begin district play in Fort Stockton on tonight at 7 p.m. on the Panther field.
The 6-0 Indians have allowed only 13 point high to opponents thus far.
“The strengths of our defense is we have a lot of guys that are very fast,” athletic director and head Coach Grey Poynor said. “We also play with a lot of speed. We are very tough and play with physicality.”
Senior kicker Rowin Donaldson, who will be out versus the 5-1 Panthers due to a high ankle sprain, said the team gets 11 hits in every football play.
The Indians’ success has been built from a team bond.
“We hit hard,” senior quarterback Wyatt Holmstrom said. “We get set quickly. We look for contact and enjoy the competition. We also like each other’s company and support out on the field.”
The Indians are one of only a handful of undefeated teams left in the area. That and their ranking made them the KCBD-TV Endzone Team of the Week after the Oct. 4 49-17 win over Hereford to end preseason.
“The polls do give us some confidence, but we keep our heads level,” junior defensive back Austin Olivas said. “We know we could always improve. We also know rankings don’t matter at the end of the day because you could get beaten by a team that didn’t even rank. Anything can happen.”
Poynor said there is a danger if players start thinking about the polls.
“We tell our players those polls don’t mean anything right now,” Poynor said. “We just continue to get better. It is an honor to be ranked that high, but the only thing that matters is what we do on the field on Friday night.”
Olivas said the team as a whole makes the Indian offense hard for defenses to cover.
“It’s our offense’s spread, and we have a lot of good receivers, quarterbacks and linemen,” Olivas said. “Logan McCormick, Stephen Davis, Jordan Garcia and Wyatt Holmstrom are our main and top players. Caton Cramer is a good running back. Our linebackers give a lot of time to throw the ball. Our players aren’t afraid to tackle in order to get a touchdown.”
Poynor said there are three reasons to the offense is hard to cover.
“First, we play very fast,” Poynor said. “We don’t give the defense time to think before we snap the ball and run another play. Secondly, we use a lot of different shifts and formations, and we speed the ball around to a lot of different receivers and backs. Lastly, we have really good players who are competitive and play hard.”
