Hounds host Harlandale as they resume district play

Either Boerne High or Harlandale will get its first district win this Friday when the Indians come to Boerne to face the Greyhounds at BISD Stadium.

Kickoff is set for 7 p.m. Friday.

BHS is coming off a bye week and is 0-1 in district (2-3 overall) after a 35-28 setback to Alamo Heights on Sept. 27.

The Indians are 0-2 in district (2-4 overall) with a 46-11 loss to Kerrville Tivy and a 55-9 defeat by Alamo Heights last week.

Boerne coach Che Hendrix said he’s not calling it a must-win situation and is just focused on playing the Indians.

“Our approach is it doesn’t matter what the record is, all we care about is this week,” he said. “Our sole goal is being 1-0 this week, that’s what we’re focused on.”

Boerne has a recent history with Harlandale and faced the Indians in non-district during the 2018 and 2019 football seasons and both games were affected by the weather.

The Greyhounds won the ’18 contest in a downpour, 34-7, at BISD Stadium and the ’19, game was called at halftime because of lightning strikes above Harlandale Memorial Stadium.

The Indians have a new coach in Justin Lozano, who is in his first season at the school and Hendrix said they’re airing it out a little more under Lozano.

“They’re always big up front and it’s always a physical game,” he said. “They do a good job running the ball and they’re throwing it more than they have in the past with this new coach.”

The Greyhounds played two weeks ago against Alamo Heights and even though they lost, 35-28, Boerne’s defense held fivestar recruit Michael Terry III to 16 rushing yards.

“That was a heck of game and we held Terry to 16 yards, which is incredible,” Hendrix said. “We did a great job of tackling in the box. When we played East Central, we didn’t set the edge very good and their quarterback got loose but playing them helped us. “(Against Heights) we were able to keep (Terry) in the box. When he lined up as a receiver, we threw different things at him, sometimes we double-teamed him.”

While they slowed Terry down, Hendrix admits other Mules players got loose on them, particularly DK Garza, who tallied 170 rushing yards on 15 carries and two TDs, including an 80-yard gallop into the end zone.

“The other guy is the one that ended up hurting us,” Hendrix said. “They hit big plays and had three plays that accounted for 21 points. If you watch the rest of the film, we outplayed them on 98 percent of the snaps.”

That’s kind of how it’s gone for Boerne this year in their three losses. A few plays that went against them at Pieper resulted in a 38-36 loss and a few negative plays resulted in a 52-49 setback to East Central.

Because their three losses have come down to just a few plays, Hendrix feels like they’re not that far away from putting it all together.

“We’re playing good football, but we’ve got to get over the hump. We’re a really good team but we have a chance to be a great team and we’re trying to get from good to great,” he said. “We’re right there and once we figure it out, I think we’re going to get where we want to be.”