After a few rough seasons, Bandera football seems to have turned their program around.
The upstart Bulldogs visit Bobcat Stadium for Comfort’s homecoming game this Friday.
Kickoff is set for 7 p.m. Bandera is coming off a 10-2 season in 2023 and the Bulldogs went 8-3 the year before.
This season, Bandera is 4-1 and Comfort coach Jay Rieken gives a lot of credit to Bulldogs coach Joel Fontenot- Amedee for helping to turn the program around.
“I know Joel and he’s doing really well; they’ve put together a good program,” Rieken said. “The coaches are doing a good job and the players have bought in.”
As recently as 2020, Comfort beat up the Bulldogs, 63-6, but since then, Bandera has flipped the switch.
The Bulldogs defeated Comfort the following year in 2021 and haven’t looked back since.
Since 2022, Bandera is 22-6 counting games played this year for a 78 percent win percentage.
“They’re rolling pretty good right now. They throw and catch really well. Their quarterback is good and their receivers are good,” Rieken said. “They don’t do a whole lot of stuff but what they do, they do it well.”
Comfort is 2-2 and Friday’s game will close out their non-district schedule. They’ll get next weekend off before opening district play at home on Oct. 18, against Rogers.
Rieken said he just wants to get through Friday’s game against the Bulldogs without any more injuries. The Comfort varsity is down to 22 players that suited up for last Friday’s game in Llano.
Comfort played with Llano for the first half, but the Yellowjackets pulled away in the second half. There had been six lead changes before Llano clinched the win with a couple of long runs.
Comfort was trailing at halftime last week, 21-18, and had a touchdown at the buzzer called back that would have put them up at the break.
Fatigue started to set in for the Bobcats in the second half. The Bobcats only managed five points with a field goal and a safety and took 23-21 lead but that would be their final lead of the contest.
Llano’s Trey Mote ripped off long runs of 40 and 47 yards to put the game away in the second half, one in each quarter. Mote also had a TD run earlier in the game for three total.
“Llano wore us down, we asked our guys to be tough and physical and they were,” Rieken said. “We went over and picked a fight and Llano responded and it got physical.”
Llano totaled 354 yards from scrimmage, with 289 on the ground, and 87 of those yards coming on those two long TD runs by Mote. They added 40 passing yards.
Comfort tallied 278 total yards, with 238 on the ground.
Topper Sterling paced Comfort’s ground game with 92 yards on 24 totes and a TD. Hunter Ledlow and Gabriel Gonzales added rushing scores and Gio Lopez ran for 70 yards on just 7 carries.
Omar Rivera kicked a 26-yard field goal and also came up with an interception while on defense.
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